“You know you won’t be able to hide this forever, right?”
When I found out about Jimena’s pregnancy, I beat the shit out of Florian and probably would have broken some bones if Octavius didn’t pull me away.
Our little princess grew up in front of our eyes, and he fucking touched her.
Worse.
He fucking slept with her!
Once I calmed down, I reined in my instincts, because Florian didn’t force shit on her, and she has been crushing on him for forever. And after speaking to her, I promised to keep my mouth shut—although I despised lying to my best friend.
Loyalty to Jimena comes first though; I’m her older brother as well, and Santiago’s rage in her fragile state would have hurt her too much. Not to mention, I didn’t want to subject her to such stress in her first trimester.
I waited and waited for Florian to man up, but the fucker just does nothing while they’re running out of time.
“The minute I claim the child as my own, he will be a firstborn Price heir.” His Adam’s apple bobbles when he swallows as dread fills me, reminding me about a psycho who has been hunting the Price family now for almost four decades. “Until I catch him, I will not claim my child.” His tone leaves no room for argument, and I don’t know what to say either, because deep down, I understand.
Firstborn children always die in the Price family. Florian lost his twin at the age of three. The child was brutally raped and then chopped to pieces, delivered to the Price family’s doorstep with a note saying Until the next heir.
That’s the reason Uncle Jacob didn’t give any family fortune to his son with Aunt Calliope. While he has a billion-dollar trust fund, he won’t ever be next in line to the Price throne or allowed to be part of the family business.
Otherwise, it would endanger Florian since he is an heir now.
Needless to say, the kid never took it well, and that’s why he raises hell in the boarding school he currently studies in. Last I heard, he and his four best friends rule it while deeming themselves kings.
Florian even had to fly up there when the principal called with the report that his brother was bullying a girl so much she was afraid to show her nose in school.
“You’re hurting Jimena. And you know better than me what Cortezes do when they are hurt. They retaliate.”
That’s why it will be a miracle if Santiago doesn’t destroy us all once he finds out.
Florian’s hand clenches and relaxes, while agony flashes on his face, but determination and absolute resolve covers it. He might have been a manwhore in the past, but he never as much as looked at anyone since she came back from boarding school a few years back. That was his only saving grace, stopping me from killing him.
“I think—”
“Don’t.” His harshly spoken word hangs between us, letting me know to not delve deeper, as Florian’s scars were always off limits.
Even Octavius knows his boundaries when it comes to his best friend.
I nod at him, pressing the butt of my cigarette into the ashtray, and he clears his throat. “There is a reason I came.” I look at him, waiting for him to elaborate, and when he does, the world around me stills as fury awakens. “The Carringtons are here.”
One single family name.
And yet it does nothing but send rage into my every pore, soaking it with so much darkness I forget how to breathe.
Although one thought remains.
Penelope.
I have to get to her before any of them can.
Otherwise, they will hurt the one thing that matters to me in this world, and I cannot allow it.
They ripped apart my soul.
They don’t get to touch her.
Chapter Fourteen