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Everyone was surprised when Gabriella volunteered to help me clean up, including me. Ryan immediately jumped up to insist, but I managed to talk him out of it and encouraged him to spend the time with his sisters instead as Serafina had grown tired and gone straight to bed after dinner.

I broke away from Gabriella’s hostile glare and looked over my shoulder at the doorway. The others were just in the next room but the volume coming from the TV was loud, they’d have no way of hearing what was going on in here. Gabriella had planned this out well. This was her chance to say exactly how she felt without anyone around to stop her. Too bad I wasn’t afraid of her.

“What do you want from my brother?” I turned back to face Gabriella. “His money? Fame? What is it?”

I blinked at her. Was that why she hated me? Because she thought I was after his money? “I don’t need money and I definitely don’t want fame,” I replied firmly.

“Then what is it? Do you work for the media? Are you a reporter?”

I frowned. “No.” She was out of her mind.

“You’re a pretty enough girl, you could have any guy you want, why him?”

And what is with all the ludicrous questions?
“Gabriella, I admire the way you’re protecting Ryan but it’s not really any of your business why I want to be with your brother. You have no right to ask me questions like that.”

“When I believe you’re a gold-digging whore using my brother to uncover his secrets, I have every right to ask questions.”

Okay, she was completely insane. Was she not aware that her brother was the one that slept around? Or was that part irrelevant to her? The image of my father’s young girlfriend he left behind came to mind when I heard the words ‘gold-digger’. I was nothing like that woman. Unlike her, I was born into wealth, but I’d never flaunted it and I’d give away every cent I had to bring back my mom and brother. “I’m far from being a ‘gold-digging whore’,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. I immediately regretted doing that.

Gabriella’s eyes widened slightly before she snapped. “Listen, bitch!”

I flinched and immediately took a step back as she pointed a long, threatening finger, still dripping with dishwater, directly in my face. “When my brother’s happiness is concerned, it becomes my business whether you like it or not! Somehow you’ve lasted longer than a one-night stand and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, Ryan is fond of you. He’s different with you, but I will not let him make the biggest mistake of his life.”

My chest tightened hearing her last words. I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant but she quickly cut me off, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do either.”

“What’s that?” I managed to choke out weakly.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
What was wrong with me? Listening to Gabriella going on about this nonsense made me furious but for some reason, I was fighting an internal battle with myself not to cry.

“I know you’re aware of Ryan’s secrets,” she continued. “I won’t let a nosey little slut like you destroy him, or this family, because you’re after your next scoop. You aren’t anyone special, Evangeline. You’ll just be another conquest to him. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you can leave him the hell alone.”

Before I could stop myself, my vision blurred and hot tears began falling down my face. What a bitch! Nothing she had said about me was true but it was what she said about Ryan that upset me the most. Was she right? Was I just another conquest? One that happened to last longer than a one-night stand? I went to cover my face with my hands, forgetting that I was still holding the dinner plate and it fell to the floor and smashed.

Almost instantly, I heard Ryan’s loud angry voice shout, “
What the fuck is going on, Gabby
?” before I felt big, strong arms engulf me and pull me into a warm, hard body. I buried my face in Ryan’s chest. Closing my eyes, I let the tears fall.

The loud shouting going on around me was hard to ignore. Whether I liked it or not, I heard every single word of the heated argument. I could also hear Duke barking somewhere close.
He must have followed Ryan in.

“What the
hell
is your problem, Gabby?” Ryan roared at his sister.

“What makes her special, Ryan? How do you know she’s different from the other girls you’ve been with?” Gabriella shouted back.

Ryan squeezed me tight before letting go and turning away to face his sister. “Because she is, damn it!” he declared.

I could see the muscles in his arms tense as he worked his hands into fists. “And you need to back off before you do something you’ll regret tomorrow,” he continued in a warning voice.

“She’s just after your money! Can’t you see that? I won’t let her ruin this family, Ryan! And you know she will! You’ll tell her the truth and she’ll run and tell the world! You can’t trust her! She’ll hurt you!”

“God damn it, Gabby! Evangeline is Rupert Montgomery’s daughter! She doesn’t need my money, and if I choose to tell her the truth about Dad then that’s my decision! You got that? I have to live with the consequences, not you!” he shouted.

“
What
?” I heard the surprise in Gabriella’s voice. Wiping my face, I peered over Ryan’s shoulder so I could see the stunned look on her face for myself.

“I didn’t know that…”Gabriella replied. I caught her gaze flick over to me for a spilt second before returning to her brother.

“Of course you didn’t! Because you didn’t bother to ask or give us a chance to explain, did you? I warned you! I’ve given you enough chances and you’ve continued to act disrespectful towards Evangeline―”

“
Stop fighting!
” came a high-pitched cry. The room fell silent as everyone turned to see Annabelle standing in the kitchen doorway. Even Duke had stopped barking. He eyeballed both Gabriella and Ryan then with a low growl he turned and trotted over to Annabelle and sat by her feet, taking a protective stance. “What really happened to Dad, Ryan?”

“
Annie…
” Ryan’s shoulders slumped as soon as his gaze met his baby sister’s panic-stricken one.

“Annabelle, I think we should let them sort this out first,” Chiara said, stepping up and placing a reassuring hand on the teenager’s shoulder. Everyone else remained still.

“No, Chiara,” she replied removing her sister’s hand and taking a step forward. “You all think of me as your naïve, child sister. Well, I’m not and I’m not stupid either. Do you think I haven’t noticed the way Mom avoids talking about him, and that she took down all the family pictures of him as soon as I moved out?” Annabelle turned to Gabriella. “Gabby, you’ve never had a nice thing to say about him.”

“That’s not―”

“Shut up! It is and you know it,” Annabelle replied firmly, cutting Gabriella off mid-sentence. She then turned to Ryan. “And Ryan, remember those times growing up when I’d beg you to tell me stories of Dad? I saw the pain it caused you but you still told them anyway. And later, I’d hear you crying in your room. At first I thought it was because you missed him, but one night I overheard you and Gabby whispering. I heard her say, ‘he deserved what he got’ and that ‘we were better off without him’.”

The room fell silent again.

I knew there was more to his father’s death than Ryan was willing to admit. I was itching to know but this wasn’t the way to find out. I wanted Ryan be the one to tell me, but only when he was ready.

My eyes travelled around the room, looking at everyone before landing on Ryan. All I could see was the back of his head but his shoulders were hunched and he was staring down at the ground.

“Annie… Dad died from an accident.” It was Gabriella that spoke first but Ryan quickly cut in.

“Annabelle’s right. It’s time we tell her the truth. She has a right to know,” he said in a low, unrecognizable voice.

“Ry… this isn’t the right way to do it. Wait until―”

“Chiara, there is no other way,” Ryan added, slowly lifting his head to look up at his oldest sister, who’d taken a few steps towards him.

I couldn’t listen to this. Their family issues had nothing to do with me. I needed to get out of here before I heard something I wasn’t supposed to.

I took a few steps back, carefully not to make any sudden movements that would bring any attention to me. I ignored the small, sharp fragments of china pressing into the bottom of my bare feet from the plate I’d dropped earlier. There was always later to worry about that.

Everyone was so focused on the matter at hand that nobody saw me slip away. Or if they did, nobody stopped me. But I didn’t get away fast enough and managed to catch the beginning of Ryan’s confession. The part Ryan admitted to killing his father…

CHAPTER 21

My heart was beating so fast by the time I got into the room; I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. Had I heard him right? Had I heard him say that he’d killed his father? Poor Annabelle, what must she be going through? What would it be like to hear that everything told to you, as a child, was nothing but a lie? And what about Ryan? How could a ten year old possibly think to kill their father?
You killed your family,
the voice inside my head hissed.
No
. My situation was different, wasn’t it? I didn’t kill my family on purpose…
Killer. Killer. Killer. NO!

I kicked the mattress to try and get the whispers out of my head before collapsing on top of it. Staring at the ceiling, a single, warm tear trickled down the side of my face as more questions raced around in my mind. Was Ryan a murderer? Was he capable of killing again? I’d witnessed him lose his temper a few times now, was that the beginning? Would he eventually hurt me?

I felt guilty thinking whether I could see myself being with someone like him, knowing what I’d found out. I had my own issues and Ryan was able to see past them, how could I be selfish enough to not at least give him the chance to explain himself?

With everything whirling around in my head, I hadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep until the sound of the bedroom door closing woke me.

My eyes snapped open just in time to see a dark shadow hovering above me.

I gasped and quickly sat up. “Ryan? What time is it?”

“Late,” he replied, his voice strained. He’d been crying, that much was obvious.

I hesitated, not sure what to do. Did he want to me ask if he was okay? Or did he just want to simply go to sleep and put everything that happened tonight in the back of his mind.

“Come here,” I said eventually, lying back down and shuffling over so that there was room for him on the bed.

Without a word, Ryan took off his clothes and slipped underneath the sheets. “Can I hold you?” he asked quietly.

Swallowing the lump that suddenly appeared in my throat, I nodded and inched closer to him. He wrapped an arm around me and just held me there, wordlessly. Deep down inside I knew I wasn’t going to get any sleep if I stayed in here tonight.

Lying there in the dark with my eyes wide open, afraid to move, I waited until his breathing evened out and I knew he was asleep before I carefully lifted his arm and slipped out of bed. I felt terrible leaving him alone like that, especially when he needed someone the most, but I wasn’t sure whether I was that person. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to be that person…

I crept down the hall and made my way down the wooden staircase, careful not to make a single sound.

In the dark room, lit only by the dim moonlight shining through the curtains, I managed to find my way towards the sofa. I sat down and curled up into a ball, resting my chin on my knees.

Out of nowhere, a dark shadow silently approached. I let out a gasp just as something cold and wet touched my leg followed by a canine whimper.
Duke.
The huge hound licked my hand when I reached up and tried to pat him on the head, making me giggle. “Stop that boy,” I whispered, scratching him behind the ears. “You haven’t said hello to me all day and now that nobody’s around you want to be my friend, huh?”

The dog tilted his giant head to the side. “Well, as friends, do you think that you’ll let me sleep here tonight?” Duke snorted which made me giggle even more. “I’ll take that as a yes, then?”

With a smile I shook my head; did I really believe the dog was smart enough to understand me? The thought amused me.

“Okay, buddy, are you going to go back to bed or are you going…” Before I finished the sentence, Duke dropped to the floor in front of the sofa. The situation made me laugh. “You are a funny thing. Guess you’re sleeping right there, then.” Who was I to argue with a dog? “Oh and Duke?” The dog lifted his head to look at me. “Thank you for staying with me,” I whispered, fully aware that I looked crazy thanking a dog. Duke responded with another low whimper. Jeez, this dog seemed too good to be true.