“My mistake.” His voice is so hard, the shift so unexpected, that it chills me. He gives Lucien his full attention. “My mistake was that I let her go. I left her alone and unprotected in a house with the likes of you. Of your father. And you killed her.”

Lucien swallows hard and shakes his head. “That wasn’t me. That was Dad.”

“Yeah?” Dmitri asks, grabbing him by the hair on the back of his head and tugging his head backward. “Explain.”

“He had the mechanic rig the brakes. Arranged for a car chase. He couldn’t stand looking at her after he found out the truth.”

“And how did he find it out? The photos should have been destroyed. It’s why she did it. Why she slept with you.”

“What?” I hear myself ask. My brain rattles inside my head, and it feels like the world drops out from under my feet. “What did you do?” I ask in a voice I don’t recognize. “What did you do?” I scream. Finding a strength I didn’t know I had, I break away from the man who has me. I hurl myself at Lucien, wrapping my legs around him and digging my nails into his skin as he stumbles backward. He and I go down as one, my scream deafening.

A door slams open somewhere behind me. I hear the commotion of weapons being drawn. And I feel hands on me trying to pry me off as a rage I’ve never felt before gives me the strength to plunge my fingers into Lucien’s eye sockets. He screams and screams like he made me scream. And I know I’m not going to stop. I’m going to kill him with my bare hands. I’m going to dig out his eyes and then his heart and crush it with my bare hands and make him pay for what he did. For everything he did.

29

VITTORIA

“What did you do to her? What did you do to my mother?”

Did he rape my mother? Impregnate her? Did he blackmail her into sleeping with him? Threaten to expose her affair to Dad who I know would take me away from her. Would have taken Emma away if only to hurt her.

Emma.

Oh God, Emma. She’s Lucien’s?

Arms close around me, gentler than I’d expect. Lucien lies whimpering, and I slap wet hands against his chest as the energy drains from me.

“What did you do?” I ask again, this time my voice quieter.

“Dandelion.”

“What did you do to her? To me?”