Anais motioned to a napkin on the table near her bed and I handed it to her. She wanted to write something. I watched as her hand shakily scribbled letters on the napkin for me to read.
“I love you, Alexander.” She’d written in black ink that tore the thin paper. I looked at it and chuckled.
“Yeah, thanks a lot Anais.” I settled down in the chair next to her and blew out a rush of air.
Even though I missed Camilla, I was elated to be out of Miami and back in Montana. I didn’t know what the fuck Manny and his henchmen had planned for me. I just wanted to be as far away from them all as possible. I needed to think.
“Look, I’m gonna go now. I’ll check on you later.” I told her as I stood. She tapped incessantly on the table with her pen until I turned to look at her. Her eyes begged me to stay. She started writing quickly, when she stopped she pushed the napkin to me.
“Please don’t go.”
“Anais, I need to be alone after all of this.” I crumpled the napkin, tossed it in the trash and walked out. I could hear sniffles as I hit the door. I didn’t fucking care.
Knowing I’d lost my family to Emmanuel, in every sense of the term, made me cold. I didn’t care about anything but her. I couldn’t get Alex back. She was gone forever but Camilla? She’d just made the wrong choice.
I answered my buzzing phone once I saw the number flash across the screen. “Hey, everything okay?” I frowned.
“Um, no.” She said nervously. “You’re not going to like this but Camilla’s married now.” It was like someone physically stabbed me in the fucking chest. I braced myself against the wall just so I didn’t stumble from the impact.
“What?” I bit out angrily.
“She’s married,” she said simply.
“How the fuck am I supposed to get her back now?” I groaned.
“It’s okay. Look, just hang up and I’ll send you something.” I ended the call hurriedly and waited for whatever she was going to send me. When my phone finally buzzed I opened up a short video clip of Camilla and Xavier kissing. It was pretty fucking intense too. I hated watching how into him she was though.
I called her back immediately. “Thanks, Christina. I’ll use this to my advantage.”
“I mean if her tonguing Xavier down in her wedding dress on her wedding day doesn’t break Daddy’s heart I don’t know what will.” I ended the call with a half smile on my face.
I drove twenty minutes to my father’s house and knocked until Justine opened the door for me.
“Hi, Alexander.”
“Hey, Justine. Where’s Dad?”
“He’s in the living room.” When she returned, he was by her side, swallowing the narrow space of the hall with his frame.
“Dad, I need to talk to you.” He smiled at me and waved Justine away. We moved into the den and he slid the doors closed.
“What is it, son?” He sat on the couch and this time I sat beside him.
“You were right, Dad.” The words were clunky and heavy when they fell from my mouth. “Mason wasn’t mine and Camilla married Manny.” I stared ahead of me feeling numb and weighed down. Dad put his hand on my shoulder and sighed.
“I told you, didn’t I boy? Your brother is the goddamn devil now.”
“I want her back though. I know you said she was vile and all that stupid shit but I love her. I want to get her back.” I explained to him how Christina wanted to break Camilla and Manny up as well and about the video she’d sent me incriminating Camilla on her wedding day.
He nodded slowly as he listened and stroked his chin.
“That video will help,” he said slyly. “But I can help even more.” My eyebrows flew up on my forehead at his declaration. “You’re not going to like everything I do Alexander but Emmanuel needs to be knocked off his high horse. That means shaking his little harlot too.”
“Dad…” I growled protectively.
“What? She left you for Emmanuel and you still want her?”
“She left me because I fucked up!”
“Okay son, okay. We’ll figure this out. We can’t figure shit out from up here in Montana though. So, like I said I’m coming to Miami. Emmanuel is about to meet his demise.”
I agreed in spite of the sinking feeling I had in my stomach. I imagined this is what people felt like when they made a deal with the devil. I could hear fire crackling and I swear it got hotter and I could feel flames licking at my skin.
Sometimes though, you need a little help from the devil to get what you want. I wanted my goddamn family back and I was determined to have just that.
No matter what the cost.
The end.
Look out for Twisted Chaos the fifth book in the Twisted series, out December 2017.
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