The Bringer Of Death

Chapter 17

Massimo POV

I look over the table at Serena as the room clears out.

Her eyes were glued to the table in front of her with no expression on her face.

I could tell it came naturally for her to switch off her emotions, just like the strongest in the mafia.

One moment she would have a warm look in her eyes then the next her face would be blank with no means of telling if she was feeling at all.

I noticed it a week ago when we were still happy living our fake lives. The faint cloudy look in her gaze when she tried to hide her true feelings from everyone.

Spencer closed the door after the last person left and made his way over to us.

We stayed silent for a moment as Serena seemed to work something out in her mind.

"Tomas is an ally," Her voice finally says, filling the room with the soft sound of her beautiful voice. Her eyes slowly move up to us as we stand across from her in the chair.

"Your fiancé you mean?" I ask with more harshness in my voice than I meant to. Her eyes go hard with deep anger.

"Your brother," She spits back. "Neither of us had a choice in being arranged to marry."

"How do you know he won't betray us?" Spencer interrupts and her eyes move from me over to him.

"Because he was the one who helped me escape his father," She says and her eyes go soft for a moment before they harden once again. "He hates him just as much as everyone in this room."

"The bastard son should hate his father for the misery he has caused the world," I spat with harshness.

Serena's eyes look up at me with sadness.

"Do you know how he came to be?" She asks with curiosity. When I stayed quiet she continued.

"Ricardo met your mother at a meeting between the mafias a year after you were born. He thought it was love at first sight and your mother must have been taken by him as well. They had an affair while everyone else was busy with polite talk. Afterward, life went back to normal.

"Until your mother found out she was pregnant with Ricardo's child. The moment your mother gave birth to the child, your father sent his men to deliver it to Ricardo's doorstep. That was when the two mafias broke the truce. Ricardo claimed to love your mother while your father claimed he forced his wife into having his child."

Her eyes look at me and I tense at the mention of my mother.

I could feel Spencer looking at me but ignored his stare. He knew I had a half-brother out there but never knew who he was or what happened to him.

"How do you know this?" I ask and she gives me a soft smile.

"There's no need to whisper around someone you see as expendable," She says and I feel my heart clench painfully.

"Ricardo saw Tomas as the perfect son when we were younger. A mixture of Italian and Spanish blood made him the perfect way to connect the mafias once he took over the Italians. Ricardo planned to make him the strongest, fastest, and most brutal warrior to prove to your mother that they should imbed the two mafias."

I was silent as I stared down at her. She had a soft expression on her face.

"I was trained alongside Tomas. His father forced us to train until we collapsed. We would fight against each other, whoever lost would be starved for a week. So we fought as if our lives depended on it." She stopped and looked down at the table with her hands tightly together.