"Love?" Mother scoffs. "He used you, got close to you so his family could destroy ours. And look what it got him, exactly what traitors deserve."
The room tilts sideways as I try to make sense of it all. Every secret meeting, every whispered promise… was it all part of some grand scheme?
“It’s your fault, you know,” Ronan jeers.
“Me?” I glance between my parents, terrified that this isn’t about power but reputation instead.
Father shrugs. “If you weren’t so insistent on keeping your little secret, maybe…”
My stomach churns, and I cover it with my hand as if it will keep me from being sick.
“We should marry you off, but I’ve got too much on my plate right now to find a suitable partner who’d accept tainted goods.” Father looks at me like I’m nothing. I suppose he would. He knows the one value I had for him is gone. “Instead, we’re sending you to Europe.”
To be honest, if Phoenix is really dead, I don’t want to be here. I want to grieve and figure out my life away from my parents. I have no illusion that they’re setting me free, but time away is exactly what I need.
“You leave tomorrow. We need you gone before anyone discovers your betrayal.” Mother looks at me with the same disdain as my father and brother do.
I say nothing. I turn and stumble from Father's study, my legs barely holding me up. My stomach heaves. I make a beeline for the first bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I collapse to my knees on the cold tile, emptying what little breakfast I managed to eat into the toilet.
It can't be true. My father wouldn’t… would he? Did he massacre an entire family?
Another wave of nausea hits. Tears stream down my face as I retch, the physical pain nothing compared to the emotional torment tearing me apart.
I press my forehead against the cool toilet seat, not caring about propriety anymore. What does it matter now? Everything I believed in, everything I've held onto these past months, it’s gone. And maybe it was all built on lies.
"I hate you," I whisper, but I don't know who I'm talking to anymore. Phoenix for maybe betraying me? My parents for their calculated cruelty? Or myself for being so blind?
My fingers curl against the tile floor, seeking purchase in a world that's lost all stability. I want to scream, to breaksomething, to make someone feel as shattered as I do right now. But all I can do is sit here as everything I thought I knew crumbles around me.
There’s so much more than meets the eye.
Phoenix’s words from this summer echo in my memory. I don’t know if he was using me, but the words find a foothold, give me strength.
I pick myself up off the floor. I splash water on my face and study my reflection in the mirror. I don't recognize myself anymore. The innocent woman who believed Phoenix and in true love is gone. It’s me against the world, and I plan to survive.
1
KEIRA
Chaos erupts through the house. Everyone from my mother down to the lowest member of staff is panicked. For a moment, I wonder where my father is, but then it doesn’t matter. The house is under attack, and just like I’ve had to do over the last ten years, I need to protect myself.
I rush from my bedroom where I’d been working on my latest book, my secret career I’m using to save money to finally escape my family and this Mob world. Funny how it’s Mafia romance that’s funding my plan. If women really knew what it was like, they’d probably think twice about wanting to live in this world. For example, would they like living in a home rebuilt over the ashes of what their father burned to the ground, killing so many people? It’s creepy, right?
But that’s where I’ve lived since returning from my one-year exile in Europe. My parents even gave me the room that would have been Phoenix’s had his house not burned and had he lived. Except, as it turned out, he did live. He lived and spent the last ten years hiding and planning. He didn’t come back for me, which tells me my parents were probably right. He didn’t love me. He used me.
Phoenix and his brothers’ return has been filled with violence. They killed Ronan. And I suspect they’re why my house is currently filled with gunfire and screaming. They’ve come to take back what my father took from them.
I run up the back stairs to the third floor where Nanny Fiona is busy putting Brigit, my parents’ nine-year-old goddaughter, to bed. Brigit is the center of my world, the only reason I haven’t tried escaping sooner.
Nanny looks at me wide-eyed, holding a bat and pushing Brigit behind her as I enter. “Oh… it’s you.”
“You need to take Brigit and hide in the attic.” I grab clothes and Brigit's favorite stuffed animal.
“What’s happening, Keira?” Brigit’s voice quavers. It breaks my heart and makes me hate my parents and Phoenix even more, which is a lot considering I’ve had ten years to stew on it.
“I don’t know exactly, but it’s really important that you hide. No one can know you’re here.” Especially not Phoenix. “Take the back stairs. Go into the secret room. When I can, I’ll come up and let you know what’s going on.”
“Come on, sweetie,” Nanny says, ushering Brigit out the door.
