Deception. Betrayal. Mistrust.
It seems the closer Rayne gets to the truth, the more she finds herself wanting to run away from it. It's complex and terrifying-more than she ever fathomed.
New family members, good and bad, pop out at her like a br...
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𝗠atteo grunted and stretched across his beach towel, basking underneath the Earth's natural heater. Warm sand and lively chatter from strangers flooded his senses as he kept his eyes shut and angled his face toward the sun, working on his tan.
It had been two years since he put his old life behind him and began to travel the world with his brother and daughter. Tomorrow they were to finish their tour of the Caribbean, visiting Cayo Levantado of the eastern region of the Dominican Republic.
Matteo frowned as a sudden darkness overtook his vision and hindered the sun.
He peeked an eye open, spotting his older brother standing above him with two drinks in his hand. Ruby, four years old now, sped past the pair of them and ran toward the ocean.
"Get your dick out of my face," Matteo groaned.
"You're disgusting," Lorenzo drew his head back.
Matteo sat up on his beach towel, watching his daughter splash in the ocean from afar while Lorenzo took a seat next to him, not bothering to lay something down. He learned over the course of his time with his brother that he didn't care for particulars and that he hated the ocean. Lorenzo had no need for a beach towel because he wasn't going to get wet.
Lorenzo handed him a pina-colada and leaned back on his wrist, beginning to sip on his mixed drink. It was odd—to think that the man next to him once spent his time abusing him, and now he was in a place he hated, sucking on a drink from a fucking coconut.
His brother had reclaimed his birth name a few months after he'd received treatment for his right eye, which he was now blind in, and bore an intense, opaque clearness. Once they had made sure they were physically well enough to travel together, he and Lorenzo began to see a therapist, and Matteo eventually forced him to undergo many psychological tests to better understand his disease.
If he was going to be around Ruby, he was going to control Andreas.
But even Andreas had changed.
"What are you thinking about?" Lorenzo asked.
Matteo glanced at him, not realizing he'd been showing his emotions on his face. He curled up on his towel and kept his eyes glued to his daughter, not wanting to show more of what he felt through his eyes to his tougher older brother, who always seemed to have his head screwed on correctly.
"Life," he admitted.
"Which parts?"
"All of it."
Lorenzo put his coconut on the ground and turned toward him. Matteo kept his attention on Ruby—on her bright, auburn hair as it glowed in the daylight and her daring jade eyes that reminded him of what he had lost more and more each time she grew.
"You want to go home," Lorenzo stated rather than asked.
"No, I don't," Matteo shook his head.
"I've spent five years by your side," his brother mused, "I know when you're lying."
