i-Spy | A Stalker Romance

Chapter 28: Shattering Illusions

(Trigger Warning: This chapter contains intense themes of violence, torture, and betrayal. It explores the emotional trauma and suffering inflicted by these experiences, including detailed descriptions of the characters' painful pasts and their struggle with the aftermath. Reader discretion is advised)

Stella's P.O.V. 

The room seemed to close in around me as I stared at Luca, my mind struggling to comprehend the betrayal. The familiar face, the one I had trusted, now stood before me in Kairo's lair, shattering any illusion of safety or trust I had left. Luca's expression was unreadable, his eyes locked onto mine, revealing nothing of the man I thought I knew.

"Let me formally introduce myself again," Luca said, dropping onto the couch as if he had not just shaken my whole world. His casual demeanor was a stark contrast to the storm raging inside me.

"The name's Luca. Luca Vendetta," he continued, the name rolling off his tongue with a hint of pride.

The ground seemed to shift beneath me, and bile rose in my throat. 

"You... You're brothers." The realization hit me like a freight train. The pieces fell into place with a sickening clarity. This was why he could go by undetected, why Luca never pressed too hard for answers. Why he was so concerned that day when Kairo revealed his identity to me.
They were brothers, working together, toying with me. Playing with me. My body trembled, and I felt suffocated by the weight of their deceit.

I shook, a cold sweat breaking out on my skin. The dark walls closed further around me making the space feel so small and cramped, and I was trapped in a nightmare I couldn't wake from.

Luca's grin widened, the expression twisting into something darker. "Yes, we are brothers. And this game has been in play long before you came into the picture."

"But you're my mother's—" I choked on the words, struggling to breathe.

"—Your mother's agent, yes," Luca interrupted smoothly, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "And it took me an awful lot of time to gain that trust. But it was necessary. We needed to be close to the Order, to understand its workings, its weaknesses."

The depth of their betrayal was staggering. Their scheme was so deeply rooted in my world that I no longer knew who to trust or where my family stood in this twisted web of lies and deception.

"W-why?" My voice came out in a broken whisper, sounding foreign and distant, like that of a bird caught in a cage.

Kairo's demeanor shifted, the playful smirk replaced by a hardened, dangerous edge. His voice was low and cold, each word dripping with a barely contained fury.

"Because, our family was brutally murdered by the Order of the Umbra. They saw us as a threat. We were getting stronger, gaining influence, and that didn't sit right with their fucking business. I was five, Luca was a fucking four-year-old baby when they killed our parents right in front of our eyes!" 

His voice trembled slightly, and I could see the pain etched into his features. It was a side of Kairo I hadn't seen before—a vulnerability that made my heart ache. He continued, the words heavy with sorrow and rage. "They didn't just kill our parents; they annihilated our entire family. It was a massacre, designed to send a message to anyone who dared to challenge them. They wanted to break us, to crush any hope of resistance."

I couldn't banish the horrific images that surged into my mind. Two little kids, their faces etched with terror, orphaned and abandoned in the wreckage of their shattered world. The brutal scenes played out in my imagination—helpless children, stripped of their future, left to navigate a world of darkness and despair.