I heard my father rise from his chair and round the desk, nodding to the guard that stood at the entrance of the door.
“Leave us. My children aren’t going to hurt me.”
The guard did as he was instructed, and father shut the door. I wanted to go to Nico, to offer him some degree of comfort, but I knew that was not an option.
The devil was in the room, and he demanded my full attention.
“Your brother did not see things clearly,” father said, shaking his head. “Though once I’m finished with him, he won’t see at all.”
“Leave him alone,” I gritted through my teeth. “He’s suffered enough. Take me in his place.”
I knew that I was taking a risk in doing so, but I didn’t expect my father to want to kill me just yet. He wanted Lucas, and likely Lucas would find his way to me once he dealt with Adrian.
Anything to take the spotlight off Nico.
“Were it so easy.” Father’s voice remained calm and even. “The two of you have always been so…” he paused to search for the right word. “Ungrateful.”
“You brought that on yourself,” I bit out, focusing all my anger at him. “We wouldn’t have been like that if you ever gave a shit about us!”
The slap came out of nowhere and I stumbled back, barely able to keep myself upright at the force behind it. I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Ungrateful bitch!” he sneered. “After all the things I’ve done for you!”
“You’ve done nothing for me!” I yelled back. “You have terrorized me and Nico, you used us for your own purposes, and now look at you! You’re going to kill your only son, and you still intend to sell me like a prized mare.”
“A prized mare?” He scoffed. “You’re a whore, daughter. You’ve spread your legs for anyone willing to offer you an ounce of attention. Don’t think I haven’t heard about how you acquired your army.”
“Is that really what you’ve heard?” I stared at him in disbelief. “Are you really so fucking full of it that you believe that?”
His gaze narrowed. “I gave you and your brother the fucking world! All you had to do was live up to my expectations!” He stared at Nico. “To have some fucking balls!” His fury turned back to me. “To do what was told!” His eyes slid to the baby bump, and I swallowed. “Instead, you turned your back on me and this family.”
I forced myself not to react, knowing that was what he wanted me to do. He wanted a reason to lash out at me, but I wasn’t going to give it to him.
Not yet.
“Where’s your brother’s bitch and the children?” Father asked.
I snapped my gaze to Nico, horror rising in my throat. Was that why Nico was being tortured? I thought that my father had the entire family. “I don’t know.”
He grabbed my arm, forcing my gaze to his. “Do you want to lose your eye too, daughter?”
I stared back at him. “I swear to you, I don’t know where they are.”
He didn’t meet my gaze. Instead, his eyes lowered until they settled on my belly. “You know,” he stated. “I know exactly how to take a baby out of the womb. I’ve had practice.”
Oh God. I thought back to Lucas’s story about Cosimo’s first wife and baby, and my knees buckled.
Father shoved me backward into my seat. “I don’t fucking care about the bastard in your belly, daughter. And if taking it from you gets you to talk, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.” His sneer grew. “That’s the only way you and your brother have ever learned. By force.”
“Leave her alone,” Nico rasped. “You want me, remember?”
Father didn’t even spare my brother a glance, his eyes bore into mine. “You’ve served your purpose, son. Don’t interrupt.”
“I will kill you,” I said shakily, reaching under my tunic for one of the guns.
Despite his age, my father was fast, and before I could pull it up to his face, he had my wrist twisted painfully. The pain that radiated through my wrist felt like my bones were breaking. I cried out as the gun fell harmlessly to the floor.
“Do you really think you can kill me?” he asked, squeezing until the pain was nearly unbearable. “You are nothing! Weak like your mother was. I should have sold you off years ago.” He patted my waistband until he found the other gun, sending it sliding across the floor as well. “But at least you had the balls to come armed. If only you were my son, and Nico the daughter. Maybe things would’ve turned out different.”