Chapter 155
“You’re the only reason that bastard is breathing right now, Nikolai.”
“He is my friend please don’t kill him, I stood my ground, trembling but resolute.
Alessandro’s eyes flicked to me, a storm barely held at bay behind his calm expression. “Pray he stays useful. Because if he doesn’t… He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
“Please Nikolai… say something, tell him to forgive me, Jack’s voice cracked through the silence. He was still being held by two of Alessandro’s men, arms pinned behind his back and eyes wide with desperation.
I opened my mouth to say something but closed it. I knew it that pleading to him won’t make him change his mind.
Everyone thinks that I have some kind of power over Alessandro just because he chose me over the women but in reality, it was the opposite. I wished I had him the way everyone thought I had. I wished he listened to me but it was him who had all the power.
They all had no idea how helpless I felt most of the time.
“He is not a threat please….“, I started but he ignored me and turned to his men, “I need the answers right now, break his bones, pull out his nails, pull out his fucking teeth, skin him alive for all I care, I need to know everything before this day ends.”
“No!” I stepped forward, heart in my throat. “Alessandro please…” I tried to speak but the guards had already started dragging Jack toward the hallway. He thrashed against them, yelling in panic, until suddenly he shouted-
“WAIT!”
Everything froze. The hallway echoed with the sound of his ragged breath.
“Wait
…
just… just let me tell him. Let Nikolai hear it first before you do anything to me. He deserves to know.”
Alessandro narrowed his eyes, unmoved. “There’s nothing you could say that’ll stop what’s coming.”
But Jack didn’t care. His eyes locked on me, wild and glistening with terror and guilt.
“He needs to know the truth,” he said, louder now. “The real reason you don’t want me talking. The real reason why the unknown number has been calling him“,
“Shut your damn mouth,” Alessandro snapped, stepping forward now, a dangerous gleam rising in his eyes. “Say one more word, and I swear…”
“You killed his parents, Alessandro!”
The room exploded into silence. I felt like the floor dropped beneath me, like the ground had been yanked out from under my feet, and I was falling through some unseen void that had always been there… just waiting for this moment.
Jack’s voice trembled with fury, and something far more dangerous truth.
“He needs to know it,” he went on, his chest heaving. “He needs to know that all along you’ve been pretending… pretend pretending to protect him because you thought he would never find out.”
My ears were ringing. My heart, a fist trying to punch its way out of my ribs.
care about him,
Jack turned to me then, eyes burning. “It was all a lie, Nikolai. Every moment. Every promise, your modeling contract was a lie too. He didn’t save you. He destroyed what you had.”
“Shut your damn mouth,” Alessandro growled, his voice lethal, but I saw it, the way his jaw clenched too tightly, the flicker in his eyes. He
1/3
Chapter 155
wasn’t just angry.
He was cornered.
And that scared me more than anything. Because Alessandro never looked cornered.
“Nikolai believe me, he killed them. He watched them die. He ordered it. Because your parents were in the way. Because he wanted you for himself.” Jack spat, struggling against the guards.
I’couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even breathe.
And Alessandro… he didn’t deny it.
He just stared at me, face unreadable. I felt my soul fracture.
“Is it true?” I asked, my voice hoarse, barely a whisper. “Tell me Jack’s lying. Tell me he’s lying, Alessandro.”
But he didn’t.
“Take him to the basement“,
“No… no, wait! Nikolai! Please!” Jack thrashed against the guards as they jerked him back into motion. “You know me, man! You know I wouldn’t lie about this!”
“Shut him up,” Alessandro said without flinching.
One of the guards slammed a fist into Jack’s gut, stealing the breath from his lungs. He doubled over, gasping, as they dragged him out of the room like a broken thing.
And then it was just us. Silence clamped down around me like iron.
The door clicked shut behind them then Jack’s voice, his screams, faded down the hallway.
Alessandro was seriously heartless, he completely didn’t give a damn about it. He turned without a word and started walking down the hallway, his footsteps heavy, unhurried, like none of what just happened mattered. Like Jack hadn’t just spoken his dark secret.
He headed toward the bedroom, calm as ever, his hands tucked into the pockets of his coat.
I stood there for a heartbeat, still reeling, my mind refusing to accept the silence as confirmation. But my legs moved on their own, dragging
me after him.
“Alessandro,” I called, my voice low, strained. “Wait.”
He didn’t stop.
I quickened my pace, following him past the hall, past the shadows stretching long in the waning afternoon light. Ti. creaked open under his hand, and he stepped inside like it was just any other day.
I pushed in after him. My chest was tight, heart thudding like it was trying to claw its way out of me.
“Did you?” I said, my voice barely more than a breath. “Did you kill them?*
or to the bedroom
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he walked over to the dresser, shrugging off his coat with mechanical calm. He folded it over the back of the chair like we weren’t talking about murder. Like we weren’t talking about my parents.
2/3
Chapter 155
I took a step closet, my fiers dunched in my elder€.
*Did you will them, Alessandra? 1 demanded, touder kónu games. 1 need to hear you say h
Chapter Comments
