INFIDELITY | Book I

22. Dominance.

Chapter 22:

"Be careful." They helped my brother out of the car before Alice came rushing out of the house- with no shoes to cover her feet. We had pulled into my house just under two hours but everyone was exhausted and I didn't blame them, so was I.

"Ethan!" She tried to examine him but he hung his head low, barely conscious to form any words. "Oh my.." We had witnessed worse but for it to be a loved one, the pain is all too different. "I'll show you to the infirmary." She guided the men into the house.

I stayed behind just needing time to breathe before I returned to the house that changed me in more ways than one. It was overwhelming, and I had to be a Ludavico at the same time. I couldn't be the girl that cried for help when I had this job, it didn't mix. It was the simple fact that it couldn't.

I looked at my hands that held my brothers dried up blood on them. I quickly closed them before I went to the back of the truck to rest my head back, looking aimlessly into the night. It was around ten o'clock or so, but if I could drive away from this place.. and not look back. I would take it.

But my family needed me, that's all I knew. I already accepted it. I would never be free.

I wasn't slightly moved by the man I had grown accustomed to- which was bad all on its own- seeing him approach my side. "I'm fine." I was distant, I knew I was. A weak forced laugh escaped me before my eyes closed. A slight breeze waves through and I crossed my arms to shield myself. "You don't have to lie to me." He leaned next to me, he kept a respectful distance but we were only inches apart. "You lost your brother and his condition... you're not fine Olivia."

"What do you want me to do? Open up? Share a secret and you share yours?" I shook my head angrily before I blinked back tears. "I could have lost him and if you-"

"It still wouldn't have changed anything even if I did." He was right, it didn't matter when he would have told me that the Beneventi family got their hands on him. My brother would have been gone if there was no deal.. but that was it.

"You would have let my brother die." I tried to keep my composure and I don't know why in this moment that thought crossed my mind. "You said no."

"I didn't have a choice-"

"Please don't.. just don't." I pushed away from the truck to straighten up. "Everyone has a choice." I tried to walk away and into the house of chaos but he his hand gripped the back of my elbow. His body faced me but I didn't turn to him.

"I had a choice to make." His voice was calm and collected but he didn't let me walk away. He pulled me so my hand rested against his stoned chest. "Everything I do, I have a motive behind. I knew what was at risk, and I won't apologize for that. I have to look after what I care about most."

"Sage? Is that it?" I turned to look into his eyes, I tried to hold them to the best of my ability. "You have one to protect, I have many, I already couldn't protect him-" The sentence hung itself. "Look, lets just get this done please." I tried to pry my hand away from him.

"I understand you more than you think Olivia, if you keep this up you'll fall before you can rise. And you haven't risen yet." His words hitting home, I was to busy falling to pick myself up. I don't know what took control of me lately but I wasn't the same girl in the beginning, I hid my emotions better than this.

"Nicholai Corsetti giving me a life lesson." I scoffed before I stopped putting up a fight to be let free. He was right, most of the time he always was. "Well let me give you one. You don't call Matteo his rightful name of being your father, you have scars that run the Mississippi River and you ask me if I'm fine? Don't seek out broken people because you are too." I snatched my hand away before walking into the house to go to my brother.