My father, Greyson Gilligan, appeared on the doorstep. He must have seen the blood as his eyes widened.
“Ivy? What the fuck has happened?”
I didn’t want to tell him this news while we were standing outside, but I couldn’t stop it bursting from my mouth. “Bruno’s dead.”
His face paled. “What?”
I covered my face with my hands, not caring about the dried blood on my skin, and started to cry again.
He put his hand on my shoulder, ushering me indoors, and shut the door behind us. He guided me into the kitchen and forced me to take a seat. I hitched a breath and sniffed and pulled myself together enough to speak.
“He went to warn Jayden Wynter off me, and things went wrong. Jay killed him.”
That he didn’t question the reason why Bruno had gone to warn off Jayden told me he already knew Bruno had gone there, and so was aware of the relationship.
His hands balled into fists. A muscle tightened in his jaw. But the lack of emotion he showed at the news was unnerving.
“Then the Wynter boy will have to pay.”
I knew exactly what that meant. “Please, you can’t kill him.”
My father glared at me. “You’re begging for the life of a man who murdered your brother in cold blood.”
“I’m begging for the life of another human being. I don’t want to lose anyone else. I can’t bear the thought. How many people have to die before we say enough is enough? Are we just going to kill and kill and kill until no one is left? What do you think is going to happen if you take your revenge on Jayden Wynter? You know about the alliance between the Wynters and the Cornells. Tam Cornell isn’t going to sit back and let you kill Jayden. Tam is married to Jay’s sister. They’ll want payback.”
“So you want us to do nothing?”
“No, I want you to grieve, like a normal person. I want you to help us heal. Or else where will it end? Will you be happy when one of them kills me next?”
“Of course not.”
I babbled on, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Because that’s what’s going to happen. Maybe not tomorrow or even a month from now, but someday soon I’ll be the one lying on the mortuary slab, and will you be happy about your revenge then?”
“Don’t say that, Ivy.”
I threw up both hands. “Why not? It’s the truth, isn’t it? Money and power is more important to you than family. It always has been, it always will be. Even losing your son isn’t enough to change that.”
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re right, I don’t. I’ll never put money before the people I love, and now I’ve lost two of them.”
“You loved that Wynter boy?” He curled his lip in disgust.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel. I had loved him—with every inch of my being—but how could I hold onto that love now? I couldn’t just turn that love off like a switch. It didn’t work that way. I’d never felt so conflicted in my life. I was being torn in two—my head telling me to hate him for what he’d done, while my heart desperately wanted to go to him for comfort.
“I’m ashamed of you, Ivy. You need to know where your loyalties lie.”
I shook my head. “Well, I’m ashamed of you, too. If you’d just accepted that Jayden and I were together, none of this would have happened. I know Bruno only went there to warn him off. Knowing Bruno, he wouldn’t have just accepted it when Jay refused to stop seeing me either.”
His jaw hardened, and his gaze slipped down to the floor. “We don’t know the reason Bruno was there.”
He was lying, I knew it. But what could I do? My family were suffering, and Jayden was the cause. I’d lost my brother at his hand, and that was something that could never be undone or made right again, though my chest ached and my eyes burned with tears at the thought.
“The only reason Bruno was anywhere near Jayden was because of me. Don’t you think people are going to realise that? I’ll be the one at fault.”
“That’s bullshit, Ivy, and you know it.”
“Do I? Will they? Are you happy to take that risk? Because if you’re content to gamble with my life, then go ahead, kill Jayden Wynter, but don’t think for a second that the Cornells won’t see me as fair payment. They have that alliance for a reason. Jayden’s sister, Hallie, is married to Tam Cornell—they have a family together now—and she won’t just sit back and let you kill her brother. She’ll get the Cornells to avenge him.”