Anastasia by A. Marie
Valentino
When my brother told me about his suspicions of Orabella possibly being pregnant, I almost lost it. There was no way he wanted to take part in the plan we had been constructing our entire lives. Even when I told him that Dmitri was coming in a week with plans to bring down our entire organization to get his daughter, Vincenzo didn’t care.
It didn’t make sense to me how he could be so careless over that girl. I wished I actually wanted to respect my brother’s request for us to drop the mission, but I couldn’t. He didn’t have to go through the nightmares of that day―I did. Luckily for him, he couldn’t remember the way our mother’s eyes stared at me as she begged for someone to help her. He wasn’t able to understand that our whole family looked to me in order to save them, and I didn’t. Vincenzo was so fucking lucky that he didn’t have to go downstairs and clean up all the splatters of blood left in the house. He didn’t have to live through that shit, but I did.
To think that he wanted to save the girl who was raised by the man who did this to me drove me insane. He could get any girl in the world pregnant to carry-on our name, but he chose that stupid whore who deserved every bit of wrath because of her father.
It was the only reason why I called her down to my office, where I explained to her that her whole life was a lie. I wanted to smile at the tears that fell from her eyes when she realized her father wasn’t as innocent as she thought he was.
It was the only reason why I convinced her to come with me to pay him a visit. Hate fluttered around in her eyes at the thought of him, but she agreed. Just like I wanted her to, she agreed now knowing that my plans weren’t just for her to go talk to him. I wanted her to kill him. That was what he deserved. He deserved to have the person he loved most in the world be the same person who struck him with a bullet. She was so entranced with the love she grew with my brother, that my bad intentions evaporated from her eyes.
She got in the car with me, and we drove off to Dmitri’s place. My men had helped me track it down. I could tell she was angry.
“I just want you to know that I am sorry he did that to you. There is no one in the world who deserves what you and Vincenzo had to go through,” Orabella let out. “I’ll talk to him and tell him to back off about trying to get me back because I want to stay. I want to stay with Vincenzo and never speak to my father again. I promise you that.”
I only glared at her in response. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at Dmitri’s safehouse, which remained less guarded than normal.
Orabella let out a loud sigh before looking at me. “I really am sorry, okay? I hope this proves where my loyalty lies.”
“Go talk to him, and if they ask where you came from, say you escaped from Vincenzo. I’ll be waiting right here,” I lied. There was no way I was going to wait. As soon as she went in there, I would be joining her shortly after, to force her to partake in the death of her father.
Orabella glanced at me nervously before getting out of the car and heading straight to the door. I noticed one of the guards had opened the entrance, and he immediately recognized Orabella. Thanks to the bush that helped hide my car, when he looked around for anyone, he found nothing.
Soon, the man let her in.
I immediately called my soldier, Killian, and informed him that she was in the building, so it was time to send men in to take down all of Dmitri’s guards. We couldn’t handle anything going wrong.
After a few moments of waiting for Killian’s response, I moved in. I entered the home with my gun in hand, prepared for anything to come at me. My gaze looked sharply for anyone, but I was glad to not detect a single figure.
“You lied to me! My entire life all you have done is lie! How could you?” I could hear Orabella’s shouts coming from Dimitri’s living room.
As I turned a corner to track the source of her voice, I could see her yelling at Dmitri, the man I truly despised. His short gray hair, paling skin, and wrinkles making their appearance.
It didn’t take long for him to notice me. When he did, he looked over at his daughter in shock. I was glad to see how much sadness reaped from his face.
“You set me up?” he asked her.
I held my gun with a smirk on my face. It had been so long that I wanted to see him with the barrel of a gun pointed directly at him. It was karma. I remember when I had been in his same position twenty years ago—scared and hurt.
“She did.” I laughed. “Orabella, come here, doll.”
She hesitated, but with one look at the gun in my hand, she came over to where I stood.
“You told me you were going to prove to me where your loyalty lies, so do it. Prove it to me,” I growled.
Her eyes widened when I handed her a different gun. It was small, but it could cause just as much damage as any gun could.
“What? No! This isn’t part of the plan!” Orabella shouted. Her eyes were wide as she held the gun. Despite it being small, it looked big in her tiny hands.
Suddenly, her dad made a move at her, leaving her to aim the gun at him. Her breathing was heavy as she stared at her father. There was a quiver as she held the gun. Perspiration coated her forehead and her chest was rising and falling dramatically.
“Stay back, Dad!” she yelled out. “Is it true what he told me? Did you actually kill his family in front of him?”
“Orabella, don’t do this,” he pleaded.
“Answer the question!”
I smirked at the disappointment that lurked in his eyes as he looked between his daughter and me. His heart was breaking, and I knew it. That’s right, Dimitri, you are finally getting a taste of what I felt all those years ago.
Dmitri wasn’t going to make it out alive, and I wanted to make sure that it would hurt him in the worst possible way.
“It’s true. Roberto and his wife were planning on destroying our alliance before a big feud and I felt like I couldn’t depend on their loyalty any longer. It was stupid, but I have only wanted to protect you from this life. I know I made mistakes, and it may change your view of me, but the love I have for you has always been real,” he let out desperately, completely changing the subject.
She was staring at him with a lone tear falling from her eyes. I could see that her thoughts were sprinting through her mind. I couldn’t believe that the foolish girl actually listened to him. He was a manipulative liar, and it ran deep in his blood.
“I can’t,” she whispered. I watched as she began to lower her gun, so I decided to take it upon myself to shoot him over and over again. I wanted as many bullets to penetrate his body to equal the amount he used to murder everyone I loved.
“No!” Orabella shouted as she began to run over to her father’s dead body. Just as I was about to roll my eyes, a figure appeared in the corner of my vision. The same guard who opened the door for Orabella had his gun cocked and ready for her.
Orabella was so worried about her father that she didn’t see the bullet piercing through the air. As quickly as I could, I took off in the direction of her body, hoping to block the bullet from penetrating her. By the time I reached her, it was already too late.
She fell to the ground with a gasp. Before checking to see if she was okay, I immediately aimed my gun in his direction shot him right between the eyes. When I was sure he was dead, I dropped down to falling to the girl, trying my best to aid her.
She had been shot in her chest, but there was no exit wound, meaning the bullet was still lodged in her body.
“Fuck! Hey, stay with me, okay?” I asked her, my chest rising n falling. She groaned as her face grimaced in pain. I reached for the phone inside my pocket before calling a doctor friend of mine who agreed to rush her to the hospital.
“Tell…Vince…I’m…so…sorry,” she cried. Fuck! Vincenzo was going to hate me. I knew he had feelings for this girl, but I let greed get in the way. Just like that, I may have just lost my brother. The realization ate away at my cold heart.
“Keep talking. Tell me about Vincenzo,” I urged her, praying that she wouldn’t die.
Her eyes were starting to blink more slowly until she stopped blinking at all. I made sure to press down on her chest to control the bleeding, but blood still oozed out of her.
“He is so pretty. He is so kind and smart. I think I love him, and even though he took me from my home, I was grateful to be free of that hell. He was my savior, and I am so glad to have met…him,” she muttered, her voice growing weaker with each word. Her every word made my heart drop even more. She said she loves him. The dying girl in my arms loved my little brother, and I was sure he loved her too.
“Keep talking. Come on, Orabella, don’t stop,” I said desperately. When she didn’t respond I shook her body, trying to get any word from her mouth only for her head to lifelessly roll to the side.
“Fuck!”