“Fuck you, Bethany. I hope you burn in your selfishness. Do me a favor. Go somewhere and die, we’d all be better off.”
“Daddy?”
I look down at Bella and the sad, anxious look on her face breaks my heart. I try to reel my temper in. I shouldn’t have said that.
“Oh God,” Bethany slurs before a shrilling scream comes through the line.
“Bethany, Bethany,” I yell into the phone.
I’m met by the sound of glass shattering and more screaming. My heart races. I have this burning sensation in my gut. I know something bad just happened. The look in Bella’s eyes is one I don’t think I will ever forget.
Chapter 11
Work Wife
Dante
Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what you have. To celebrate those you love. However, as my feet pound against this treadmill belt, I can only focus on my losses.
Do me a favor. Go somewhere and die, we’d all be better off.
Those will forever be the last words my daughter heard me say to her mother. Not, I love you. Not, I’m sorry we lost our way, let’s fix this. Not, you took my breath away the first time we met.
I think I’ve hurt the one person I tried to protect in all of this. I gasp and push myself harder, trying to outrun my demons.
I should be happy. My family’s secrets are safe. At least they are once we find this guy Bethany was fucking. We need to silence him. I can’t have this hanging over our heads.
I focus my gaze on the mirror as my brothers and Jace appear in my gym. Pulling the earbuds from my ears first, I then hit the brake on the treadmill. I roll my neck as I come to a stop.
“Man, I’m so sorry,” Dario says as he pulls me into a hug.
“Thanks. I’m okay.”
“What happened?” Gio asks. “What are the police saying?”
“She was run off the road. A pickup slammed into the side of her truck and ran her into a ditch.”
Gio pulls a hand down his face. “Wow, I hate to say it, but karma is a bitch. Do they have any leads?”
“No, but I need this to stay out of the media. Bethany’s blood-alcohol level was twice the legal level for her to have been operating a vehicle. That’s why I called you, Gio. See to it this stays away from the news.”
“I’m on it. Tell me about this other driver. What do we know? Were they drunk too?”
“We would have to know who they were to know that. They were gone by the time the emergency responders arrived. The vehicle had no plates, and the VIN was removed. Unless they can lift some prints, there’s no way to know who did this.”
Gio nods. I wish I had something to give him to help find the person who did this. Maybe getting revenge for Bethany would lift some of this guilt I have.
I continue as I think of everything that happened that night. “They wanted to question Lizzy about my alibi until my phone records and Oliver cleared me. So you guys might want to make sure you’re ready to be questioned. You know, since they’ll be grasping at straws. The accident was around eleven, up in the hills, near her dad’s.”
“I was home with Carleen all night. We ordered Chinese around just before eleven, eleven thirty. Carleen got sick two minutes into eating, and I went next door to get Doctor Brown,” Dario says.
I lift a brow. “She’s staying with you, right?”
“Yeah, something happened with the contractor for her place, and she had to move out for a while. She’s been with me for about a month now.”
“How about you two?” I look to Gio and Jace.
“I had a doll party last night,” Gio says.
“So, I guess that covers you both.”
“No, I wasn’t there,” Jace says. “Well, not the entire time. I went out to eat with a friend. We joined Gio later. However, we were ticketed for public lewdness. We weren’t anywhere near the site of the accident.”
Gio looks at Jace and his jaw tenses. I don’t have time to figure them out. I have all I need to know. My brothers had nothing to do with this.
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Gio says after a beat.
“Actually, there is. There’s another reason I called. Bethany was on a drunken rant before the collision. She said something about some guy she was fucking. She said she told him all about us. He was going to help her take us down or something. I need to know who he is and make sure whatever she told him is never breathed to a soul,” I say tightly.
“I’ll handle that,” Gio says. “You need to focus on burying your wife and taking care of Bella.”
I stumble a few steps and flop down on the weight bench. I blow out the breath I didn’t notice I was holding. Bella, I haven’t told her, her mommy isn’t coming home ever again.