CHAPTER 32
JULIA

I looked over at my son and saw him shivering in his chair. My poor baby was cold. Petrified. And I couldn't reach out to him. Stefano had us tied up. Strapped to uncomfortable metal seats in some office of an abandoned, dilapidated old warehouse. They had cornered us as I had careened down an alleyway. They blocked us in and two men had cut off our seat belts and tossed us into the back. I held Matteo, his sobs rattling his whole little body as we rolled around in the back. I tried to keep him from getting hurt. I tried to tell him that things were going to be okay.

But I didn’t know if they were going to be okay.

Romeo had been right about everything. My uncle had killed my father and pinned it on the Martine family. Silent tears fell from my eyes as my mind stood at a standstill. My poor father. Holy hell, I’d let that disgusting man around my son. I’d let him babysit. Talk with Matteo. Fix him food and tuck him in at night.

“Perfect. That’s good. I’m sending the text in two hours. Be ready,” Stefano said.

I watched as he walked back into the room and sat in a chair in the corner.

“I’m so disappointed in you, Julia.”

“Shove it,” I said.

“All you had to do was what I’d asked of you. All you needed to do was get close to Romeo. Close enough so I could’ve put a bullet in those Martine boys’ heads without all of this extra heartache.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Does Matteo know?”

My eyes whipped over to my son as he stared at his uncle. A man he’d trusted. A man who now petrified him.

“Don’t,” I said.

“Oh. He doesn’t know,” Stefano said. “Then this first part will be fun.”

“Know what?” Matteo asked with a sniffle.

“You know Romeo? Mommy’s friend?”

“Stefano. Stop it,” I said.

“The one who got hurt that you two went to go see?” he asked.

“Stefano! Cut it out!” I exclaimed.

Matteo nodded his head as his eyes grew wide.

“He’s your father, Matteo. A disgusting Martine. Do you know what that makes you?” Stefano asked.

“Wh-wh—what?” Matteo asked.

“Garbage.”

“I’m going to rip your throat out,” I said.

“Mommy?” my son asked.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything’s okay.”

“Is it true?”

I panned my gaze over to my son as Stefano laughed in the corner.

“You’ll never get away with this, you piece of shit,” I said as I turned my gaze back to my uncle.

“I admire your spirit,” he said with a chuckle. “Too bad it’s come too little too late.”

Then he was out of his chair and across the room in a flash.

His hand cracked against my cheek, tossing my head off to the side. I heard my son yelling. Screaming. Shrieking for Stefano to stop. He slapped me again, whipping my head in the opposite direction as blood trickled from my mouth. He came down onto me again, my head bouncing back and forth.

“You stupid little bitch. All you had to do was listen. And now, you’ll suffer the same fucking fate he did!”

“Stop it! Uncle!”

Matteo’s voice stopped my uncle in his tracks as my head pounded and screamed out in pain.

“Stop hitting Mommy!”

“You really shouldn’t use such vulgarity in front of your son like that,” Stefano said. “The things children pick up on from their parents is astounding.”

“You don’t give a damn about my son,” I said. “You never have.”

I watched Stefano raise his hand up to smack me again before my son’s voice pierced the air.

“Please, Uncle Stefano. Don’t hit her.”

My eyes widened as Stefano’s face panned over my son.

“Don’t you touch my son. Don’t you do it. Uncle. Uncle! Stop!”

I watched the man slowly walk over to my son. Hovering over him as he trembled in his seat. Matteo crouched away from him, bracing for an impact that would send me into a killing frenzy if he laid a fucking hand on my little boy.

“I’ll kill you,” I said with a growl. “I’ll slaughter you if you touch him.”

Then Stefano’s eyes panned back to mine as a smile crossed his lips.

“I guess we aren’t so different after all,” he said. “But don’t worry. I enjoy kids. I wouldn't have hurt my nephew.”

“No. You just killed his grandfather,” I said.

“Your father and I had a plan, and he veered off course. It’s not my fault he broke a promise. The head of the household isn’t exempt from the punishments of the family.”

“You killed your own brother. Your own flesh and blood,” I said breathlessly.

“I did,” Stefano said. “And I would do it again if it got me what I wanted.”

Tears fell down my cheeks as he backed away from my son. My heart shattered and fell to the floor. My father. My daddy. The first true love of my life. Slaughtered at the hands of his psychopathic brother. Romeo was right about everything, and I hadn’t listened. Matteo and I were in trouble because I refused to listen to the one man I knew I could trust through all of this.

If we made it out alive, I vowed to do better by my son. To do better by Romeo. To fix this family and make sure everyone was taken care of and safe.

“How can you sleep at night?” I asked. “How can you close your eyes soundly knowing all the people you’ve betrayed and killed? How can you possibly do it? How can you frame Romeo like you’re doing?”

I lifted my head to look at my uncle and saw him grinning at me.

“With the fan on and the lights out,” he said.

I felt his hand grip my hair and Matteo began to scream. My uncle held my head back, my neck straining, forcing me to look into his eyes that were staring directly into mine. Wide. Wild. Filled with anger as his teeth bared to me. I could feel strands of hair being ripped from my skull as he tipped my chair back, teetering my body on two rickety metal legs as my son cried out in the background.

“We both know Romeo killed those men on the docks. I’m not framing him for anything, merely exposing the murderous man he is. He talks about being better than us and wanting to clean up the family’s act, but he’s a killer. Just like his father. Just like yours. Just like me. I’ve been looking for an opportunity for almost a decade to take out those boys. Not because I hate him, no. His tactics are one to be envied at times. That diplomatic stance and that trusting stare. But his multi-million-dollar business empire calls to me. He doesn’t run it the way it should be run. I can do that. Bring this city back to the glamor it once held. You gave me the perfect chance the moment I snatched you from that car of yours. And I’ll be looking forward to killing him in front of you and his son.”

Then he released my hair and set the chair back down.

My head fell forward, and I began to cry along with my son. Stefano’s footfalls faded away, and he slammed a door as he left us alone in the office. Tears streamed down my face and fell into my lap. I had no one and nothing to rely on. I didn’t have my phone. I didn’t have my car. I didn’t have my things. I didn’t even have the use of my hands. All I could do was sit there and pray to a god I wasn’t sure existed that my son and I would make it out of this alive. That Romeo would make it out of this alive.

And if I had to bargain—if I had to go—then I prayed my son would be spared.

Spared the brutal ending I had a feeling was coming my way.