Roman lets out a heavy sigh, the story taking a greater toll on him than I expected. “That night, just before we were due to leave, my father showed up and brought us right into this very room.” He pauses, his gaze dropping to the table to where his hands ball into tight fists. “She was so fucking scared. She hated him, just like you do, but she didn’t have the guts to stand up to him. She took his abuse as though she deserved it.”
“What happened?” I murmur, my words getting caught over the lump in my throat as tears fill my eyes, his raw pain more than I can handle.
“He didn’t approve of her as a wife, didn’t think she was strong enough to be worthy of the DeAngelis name … and the baby,” he says, his voice breaking. “I never wanted a kid, never thought a baby would be in my future. My brothers and I made a pact as kids. The DeAngelis name was going to end with us, but this baby had other plans. He surprised the living shit out of me and opened my eyes. I went from never wanting a baby to living and breathing only for that unborn child. I was going to tear down my father just so that kid could have the childhood I was never given. I couldn’t let what happened to me and my brothers be his future.
“My father showing up that night was the worst fucking thing that could ever happen to us. He didn’t know about Felicity’s pregnancy and the plan was that he never would,” he says, his dark eyes briefly flashing back to mine before falling to his clenched fists again. “We were going to hide that baby until the day my father’s heart stopped beating, but when he showed up and saw that tiny round bump, he couldn’t take it.”
Roman pauses, the memories too great, which is when I notice Levi and Marcus have fallen silent. I glance back at them and see them lost in their own heads, quietly listening to Roman’s recap of the past as the haunting memories tear through them like poison in their veins.
A tear falls down my face and I suck in a gasp as I feel Roman’s fingers against my cheek. “Don’t cry, Shayne. Enough tears have already been spilled.”
I swallow hard and pull back, wiping my hands over my face and drying my eyes. “He killed her right there in front of you, didn’t he?”
Roman nods. “He gave me a choice. I could either save her life and my child’s or I could save my own, and you better fucking believe that I handed myself over quicker than you could have imagined. Nothing was going to take my child’s life and I knew my brothers would have followed through. They would have raised my son just as I would have. So my father ordered us into shock collars, then stepped in behind me and drew the sharpest dagger he had.”
Roman stops, his fingers gently brushing over the angry, red scar that runs from the top of his brow, over his eyelid, and down to the top of his cheekbone. “I was ready to die, but my father didn’t appreciate just how quickly I was willing to throw my life away for theirs. I was his soldier,” he says, mimicking his father’s tone. “He put too much time and effort into me, and all I’d done was prove to him just how weak I’d become. To love, is to be weak. He wouldn’t waste my skill and his dedication on something like that, something so trivial. So, as a punishment, I got this scar, and she got a bullet right through the chest.”
A loud gasp tears out of me and I gape at him in horror, my eyes wide as my chest aches, constricting as the pain tears through me. “No,” I breathe, the tears spilling down my face. Without thinking, I throw myself at Roman, my arms going wide before coming down around him. My ass falls into his lap as my face nuzzles into the crook of his neck. “I’m so sorry,” I murmur, my tears staining his shirt. “I had no idea it was that bad. I never should have brought it up.”
A soft, “I warned you,” comes from across the room, and if I wasn’t so busy holding Roman like he was my only salvation, I would flip Marcus off.
Roman stiffens beneath me and after a short pause, he relaxes and his arms curl around my body, holding me tight to his chest. “It’s fine,” Roman mutters. “You need to know because whether you like it or not, you could be faced with the same situation. You need to know what being here really means. Being close to us means you’re right in the line of fire. Our father would do anything to control us, to hold something over our heads and force our loyalty, and when it comes down to it, because it will, he will go for you. It’s a fact. There are no ifs about it. You need to be prepared.”