Page 93 of Brutal Crown

“You shouldn’t be here.”

I stretch my hand forward, handing the box over to her. She looks at me but doesn’t move to collect it.

“You’re wrong if you think your father didn’t fight for you. If you think he was just a traitor whose carelessness led to his death. If you think he abandoned you to suffer…”

I kneel before her and place the box on top of the book she’s pretending to read.

She stares at it like it might bite her, but there’s a different emotion in her eyes now.

“I tried to save you even before you realized you needed saving.”

She finally looks at me, and the hurt in her eyes cuts deeper than any knife. “What are you talking about?”

“Your father tried to get you out of here. He didn’t abandon you for all those years he was away. He was trying to escape.”

I see her clench her jaws firmly. I see the tears forming in her eyes.

“How do you know this?”

“Because I was helping him,” I reveal. “When Adriano found out about the Society’s secret, he knew he couldn’t just reveal it and be a free man. He knew they would try to kill him… and you. So before he revealed what he knew, he spent years plotting an escape plan. And I helped him because I wanted to escape too.”

A tear runs down her cheek.

“I hated what I was becoming. I hated how much control La Mano Nera had over innocent people who were born into this world. The atrocities they committed and continue to commit. Maybe we were stupid enough to think we could change the world by exposing them,” I chuckle harshly.

“But you were there when my father was killed,” she accuses.

“I didn’t know my father had discovered Adriano’s betrayal. I thought we were still just looking for him for some petty theft. Dante never shared with me. By the time I came to the house, he was already dead. The guilt has eaten me up ever since, knowing he died because I didn’t do enough to protect him. It’s why Itook you in… why I turned you into a servant. I wasn’t trying to punish you for your father’s betrayal. I was trying to keep you alive…”

She shakes her head as more tears pour out of her eyes.

“Why are you telling me this now? What do you want?”

“I don’t want?—”

“You think it makes you a good person? Because you chose to spare me? I’ve been treated like an object, like a pawn in a fucking chess game. I’ve been kicked around like a soccer ball between you and your brother…”

“I know I’m not a good person, but you deserve to know the truth. You deserve to know that your father died trying to give you your freedom.”

I push the box toward her.

“Inside is your way out of here. Forged identities. Money. A network your father trusted.”

She hesitates, looking at the box like she still doesn’t believe me.

“You might think staying with Marco is safer. But if you remain here, with him, with me, with the clutches of La Mano Nera… you’ll never be free. This,” I tap the lid, “is your father’s final gift. And my only redemption.”

She doesn’t move.

“I’m not asking you to trust me,” I add. “I’m telling you when the time comes… run, and don’t look back.”

Her lips part, like she wants to say something, but nothing comes out.

I rise to my feet.

“One more thing,” I say. “Whatever you choose… If you choose to stay or leave, I will protect our child, even if it costs me everything.”

I leave her there, and for the first time in years, I don’t feel like I’m carrying a huge secret.