Page 75 of Bittersweet Endings
For a moment, there was a flicker of something in his eyes—guilt, maybe. But it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. He leaned in, his face inches from mine, and I could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You always needed a reason to feel something… so I gave you one. I carved the truth into you.”
“What do you mean? Why?” I almost sobbed.
“Because it was the only way to make youreal. To wake you up. All your life you kept giving and giving to people who never deserved you. You gave everything you had, no matter thedamage it did to you. I watched them ignore the miracle right in front of them. So I took what was promised.”
“P-promised?” It wasn’t a weak studder; it was confusion.
His breath brushed my ear. “I did everything right. I waited. I obeyed. I bled. And he said there’d be something at the end of it. Someone. You. You always want to make everyone else happy. I couldn’t let that go to waste. I couldn’tsharethat.”
I pointed to my scars. “None of that has anything to do with these.”
He pressed a hand flat against my stomach, the scarred lines suddenly doused with gasoline and ignited into flames. “This is proof. That someone finallysawyou. That someone finally gave a damn. I wanted to show them that they couldn’t keep you safe. But I could. And I wanted you to remember, every day, that someone cared enough to slice you apart just to get inside you. To remind you I was coming back.” His lips twitched into a smile. Crooked. Unnatural.
“You don’t do that to someone you care about.”
The asshole actually rolled his eyes. “People do far worse things to those they love.”
I gulped at the four-letter word.
“But you betrayed me, Octavia.”
Before I could reply, his hand shot out, grabbing my arm with a force that sent a jolt of pain through my body. He yanked me towards him, his breath hot against my skin. The kiss wasdegrading.Rough and bruising. His mouth forced against mine. This wasn’t love. Wasn’t passion. It was ownership. Control.
For a moment, I froze. My mind blank, lost to the suddenness of it all. I couldn’t think.Breathe.All I felt was the weight of his hands, the suffocating pressure, the humiliation. The agony I’d hidden for so long to protect others.
Gunfire erupted outside, the sound deafening, the chaos tooclose. His men scrambled, running for cover, but Peiro didn’t flinch even as the sound broke through the terror. The cold metal of his gun pressed against my ribs as he turned us towards the door. And then…
Carmine. His figure loomed in the doorway, his eyes flashing with a cold fury. But now, the sight of him did nothing to calm me. It only fed the storm building inside.
“She cametome,” Peiro sneered, his words slicing through the tension like a knife. “Yet like a diseased dog, you chased her anyway.”
“Octavia.” Carmine spoke barely above a whisper.
I didn’t even spare him a glance. The only thing I could focus on was Peiro’s cold, relentless grip on me. His gun pressing into my ribs and hidden by the table.
Before either of us could make a move, the door burst open and men rushed in from behind Carmine. I screamed, the sound raw and desperate, as I tried to push away from Peiro, and he laughed as he watched Carmine struggle against the chaos. “You’ll never have her.”
More of Peiro’s men stormed in from the rear entrance, their eyes wild and their weapons drawn. They moved fast and barricaded the room, so that only Carmine’s brothers remained inside. The numbers weren’t in their favor. The Ragetti brothers were forced to their knees in front of us.
Peiro turned my face to his, his eyes gleaming with something cold and possessive. “Tell me, Octavia, what should I do with them?”
My chest tightened. My throat felt raw. I couldn’t breathe. I’d never felt so trapped. So lost. I started crying, the tears coming fast. “I’m so tired,” I whispered. “Peiro… do you promise... will you set me free? Will you take me away from this?”
His eyes softened, just for a moment. Before his lips curledinto a smile, a smile that felt like the last shred of my sanity while everything else was cold and fake. “I love you, Octavia. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy.” He pressed a hand to my stomach, and I flinched.
“ThenIneed to be the one to do this.” I tried stepping away, but Peiro held on to me. “To end this so we can move on.”
Why was it that men always thought they had the upper hand?
I turned to Carmine, enjoying the myriad of emotions passing over his face. I shrugged free of Peiro but remained close. “I was never yours to steal.”
Carmine kept his mouth shut, but his eyes blazed with rage.
“None of you should’ve come for me,” I said to his brothers. Then I stepped backwards, Peiro’s arms wrapping around me again.
Carmine struggled against the man holding him to his knees.
“Told you she was mine.” Peiro mocked as I turned into his embrace, so that we were chest to chest.
