DOMINIC
Ilay Bianca in my bed and gazed down at her. She’d fallen asleep during the walk back to the house. Her diamond ring glinted in the soft glow from the lamp on the bedside table. Her breasts were nearly popping out of her dress.
Levin had done a damn good job picking it out.
I sank down onto the edge of the mattress and raked my fingers gently through her hair. I will do everything in my power to be a better man for you, mia regina.
I had to get my shit in check. I couldn’t snap at her the way I tended to with everyone else.
Tonight was my wedding night. I should be making love to my wife, but my wife hated my guts. I sighed and stood. Gently, I covered her with a blanket. I needed to put a baby inside her. She wasn’t going to let me between her legs anytime soon though.
She’d missed a few days of her birth control pills. I didn’t know shit about how they worked, but I figured missed doses were a good start. I’d just have to be a prick and keep them away from her from now on. Or get some placebos and hope she never found out. I’d always been a villain. Nothing had changed, except now I was a villain in love with a queen and willing to do anything to keep her breathing and mine.
I scrubbed my hand over my face, hating I had to do it like this. It wasn’t like I didn’t think I’d ever have kids. I just figured I’d do it later in life. And to have kids with Bianca? Fuck, I’d be so lucky.
I glanced over at her. She was still on her back, her lips parted as she slept. Sighing, I shifted back to her side and placed a kiss on her forehead.
“I’ll be back,” I murmured before easing away and turning out the light. I left the room, locking the door behind me so she couldn’t leave. Then I went downstairs to the basement.
When I got there, I unlocked the secret room hidden behind the bookcase. Purposefully, I strode down the steps, leading to another level of the basement, an area even deeper. Fallon sat inside the large cage with his back to the cement wall. He looked up at me as I entered, his face swollen and bruised.
“Come to put me out of my misery?” he asked with a grunt, his voice a soft rasp.
“Maybe.” I dragged over a chair and sat facing him.
He scoffed and looked away. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and his ankles were tied. He wasn’t getting away.
“Then fucking do it already. You already killed Bianca. Let me join her.”
“Don't be so dramatic,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
He swallowed and watched me carefully, his brows crinkling. “What are you waiting for?”
“Levin, mostly. And you. Can’t kill you just yet if you have information about Stefan.”
“My father is going to come looking for me. They’ll get the call I’m missing. Hail won’t fuck around when he can’t find me. He’ll go straight to his father.”
“I don’t care much about that,” I said with a shrug. “It’s not like they have proof I have you.”
“You’re missing too, asshole.”
“Am I?” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees as I surveyed him. “I’m known for disappearing from campus for days at a time. No one bats a lash. So are my guys. Plus, it’s only Monday. Classes just started back up. We took a long weekend. That’s all. No one will question us. And if they do, it’ll be their funeral.”
“You’re a fucking prick.” He shook his head at me. “What did you do with Bianca’s body? Huh? I fucking hope you had the decency to give her a proper burial and not just shove her in a bag and dump her somewhere.” His voice cracked, and a tear trickled down his swollen cheek.
“She’s been taken care of properly,” I said softly.
He let out a soft sob. I let him cry for a moment, something tearing at my chest.
Finally, I asked the question I didn’t know if I even wanted the answer to. “Did you love her? Really love her? Not just to fuck around with.”
He peered up at me. “I planned on dying with her if it came down to it. I intended to fight as hard as I could to save her. So yeah, I loved her. I’d have given up anything for her.”
It was the answer I'd dreaded. My chest burned with the knowledge.
“But it doesn’t matter now. She’s dead.” He sniffled. “You know, she just wanted to find her dad. She missed him. I didn’t have much information to help her. It’s one of my biggest regrets that I never found him for her. I feel like I failed her in so many ways. The agony of it won’t stop. I just want you to kill me.”
“Love is torture,” I said, getting to my feet and walking away. “Let it destroy you. It’s what you deserve for what you'd planned to do to her.”
“I didn’t want that, De Santis,” he called out to me. “I didn’t want any of that, and you know it! You fucking know it! You never loved her. Not the way I did. She was a mere pawn to you. Something to use and destroy. You ruin everything you touch. You’re just like your father!”
I froze at the doorway but didn’t turn back to him as he wept softly.
“I fucking loved her,” he choked out. “You don’t get to take that from me. Or her. It doesn’t matter what you say or do. It will always be a fucking truth you’ll have to live with. She chose me. She fucking chose me.”
“There is no choosing,” I said. “Not for her. Not anymore.”
“Piece of shit! Fucking asshole! You'd better hope I never get out of here alive because I will kill you for hurting her! I'll gut you for taking her from me. I swear it. I fucking swear it,” he wailed.
I closed and locked the door behind me. Hurting, I leaned against the wall in the stairwell.
As much as I wanted to be a good man, I knew I wasn’t.
I'm a monster, the villain.
And in my story, the villain always wins.
Fallon Vasiliev wouldn’t change that.