Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
We got the others to cover for us by going on with practice while the twins showed me how stealthy they were. We walked down to the garden without haste and then made a little side trip to the wall along the back of the property and out the back gate. It was barely five in the evening but already dark enough for streetlights to come on.
We jogged the twenty minutes or so to my house, which is all it took, and I couldn’t believe we were doing this. It was so out of character for me, but the twins were pumped. It was only when we reached the driveway, and I noticed that my dad’s car wasn’t there that I breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t matter if Becky was here; in fact, I hope she is, but I was here for Victoria this time.
Although the words she’d spouted couldn’t have come from her since she was little more than a child herself when mom passed, she’d said them and posted them for all the world to see. The fact that she’d say those things about a woman who’d fought for and lost her life, a woman who’d been nothing but kind to her and her snake of a mother is the reason I can’t sleep until I look her in the face and tell her what I think of her.
Her years of torment were nothing compared to what her words about my mother made me feel. Mom is not here to defend herself, so I have to be the one since I no longer trust Felix to do it. “You two can wait out here; I won’t be long.”
“No freaking way are you nuts? Gabe might forgive us for bringing you here, but he’d have my ass if I let you walk in there alone.” Anna denied me.
“Suit yourself.” I rang the doorbell and waited for it to be answered. It was Victoria herself who answered.
“You, what do you want?” She looked past me to the twins before trying to slam the door in my face. I pushed it open and followed her down the hallway, where she headed for the parlor room, claiming she had nothing to say to me.
“What do you want?”
“You forget I live here. This was my home long before it was yours. Why did you say those things about my mother?”
“What? Did I lie? She couldn’t take care of her own kid, so my mother did, and what thanks did she get? She got you turning the Russos against her with your lies. You think you can say shit about my mother, and I can’t say anything about yours? Dream on. Your mother was a weak bitch….”
I’m not sure what my intentions were when I made up my mind to come here. I couldn’t see past the anger to think clearly enough. But her dismissive attitude after the ugly things she’d said pissed me off beyond measure. My hand connected with her face, and that’s the last thing I remember because I didn’t stop there. Years of pent-up rage found their way to my fists, and I just let it fly.
I’ve never been so close to committing murder as I was then. I released all the anger I felt on her, evading each blow she threw at me. The twins didn’t interfere, in fact, they didn’t make a sound after the first slap, but I had no doubt they’d have stepped in if Victoria had overpowered me.
GABRIEL
“What the fuck? Gianna?” It can’t be. I ran from the room and headed down to the studio with my heart in my lungs. I saw all I needed to when I opened the door and saw just my sisters’ three friends in there. I took the stairs three at a time in my haste to get outside to the car that waited at the bottom of the steps.
I’d been going over the day’s recordings as I have been doing ever since the day I planted the device in the Fontane home. I’ve been making a little present to give to Felix at the most opportune time. So, imagine my surprise when I heard her voice come over the speaker.
I don’t know how I got to the house or in the door that had been left unlocked. “Oh shit!” The twins, as usual, spoke together, but I ignored them. I’ll deal with them later. “Gianna, come here.” She looked at me from where she knelt over Victoria on the floor. That one flew up as soon as Gianna released her, screaming bloody murder.
“If you touch her, I’ll finish what she started, swear to fuck. Let me see, did she hit you?” I looked Gianna over, but there wasn’t so much as a scratch on her. I pushed her behind me when Victoria kept screeching just in case she lost her damn mind and came at her again.