Chapter 239 Brothers [1]

[Music: Forgotten By Lorne Balfe]

Elliot stared at me in disbelief. "All this time...?"

I smiled. "What? Aren’t fathers supposed to make their sons the next heir? Aren’t brothers supposed to stand by each other? Did you really think you’d forever remain on the sidelines?"

"Yes."

"I’d admit I was never the transparent type. I never allowed you to understand me truly."

"Why?" he asked. "Why tell me this now?"

He could sense something was wrong.

"After everything that has happened to this family, I trust you more than I ever did. I learnt one rule when I became Don. I learnt not to trust anyone, even my own brothers. The first person I truly trusted was Anastasia."

His eyebrow furrowed.

"The second is you. My position shouldn’t allow for things like that, but what’s the use of it when the family is divided?"

He gulped.

I tapped his shoulder and brushed past him. There was a slim chance I was gonna make it back alive. This was the point where I made amends and fixed what was broken between us so that there were no regrets.

For what felt like forever, I could finally be a brother and not a father figure or a Don. Just a brother.

I observed Dante smiling as Luca said something to him. He was still on bed rest, and Luca kept him company most of the time. He wouldn’t leave his side, not even for a second.

I peeled my eyes away from them and continued moving. It was easier with my brothers because they understood that every day we lived, we had one foot in the grave.

We have made peace with the blood on our hands.

I stepped into the room and set my eyes on Anastasia. No one said it was gonna be easy telling the woman I love that I can’t honor our vows anymore.

I’ve done a lot of things. I had to shoulder a load heavier than my little shoulders, and when they became broad and strong, I forgot how much they weighed.

It was at that point in time I told myself that nothing could ever bring me down to my knees, because I understood what it meant to endure.

I was so fucking wrong.

Seeing Anastasia smile at me when I walked into the room, standing on her own two feet even though I could see her stance waver. I knew then that all she had to do was tell me to kneel, and I would.

There was something about this woman that made me feel like I could unravel as much as I wanted, that I could get permission to break.

Anastasia was beautifully flawed. She lived in fear of her own decisions, but she was the one thing that reminded me that I could still be more than a Salvero, more than I was engineered to be.

My hands brushed her face, then I kissed her like it was the last time. She kissed me back with the same vigor, like all she needed was me, and I was the only reason she could breathe. The only reason she could keep going.

"Someday..." I murmured against her lips. "I’m gonna take you away where we can both disappear."

I traced the hair on her face and pulled it behind her ear.

"I made a promise I would."

She narrowed her. "Where’s this coming from?"

"Would you hate me if I didn’t keep that promise?"

She giggled. "Since when are you worried that I hate you? You always get off that I do."

"Not today..." I murmured. "You love me?"

Surprise flickered in her eyes, and she instinctively clenched my shirt and froze for two seconds.

I chuckled deeply. "You do."

Her breath was shaky as she asked. "D-Do you?"

The vulnerability in her voice gripped my chest tightly.

"From the moment you walked down that aisle, your dress torn and the heads of your calla lilies cut off."

I had never seen anything so beautifully disastrous. For the last two years, I kept the memories of her sweet innocence, but that sight of her walking down the aisle like she was about to start a war was the beginning of my own damnation.

She scoffed softly. "Of all the times to think of love, it was that day?"

I smiled. "Believe it or not, that is one of my fondest memories of you. It was the first day I got to see something other than sweet Anastasia."

"Zade..." she said with furrowed brows. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"

The fear in her eyes punched a hole through my gut.

"D-Dante’s recovering." She held me tighter as though afraid I’d slip away. "And I’m gonna be better. Dr. Keller said there are no setbacks. Jacob is finally out of our lives, and I know that we haven’t found Caleb, but..."

"But?"

"We should finally be happy..." Her voice broke as she said those words and got teary-eyed. "Don’t we deserve that after everything we have been through?"

A reply couldn’t find me, so I kissed her again, this time deeper, like I was allowing the words I couldn’t say to be my actions instead.

I wasn’t a man of flowery words, but this was the best thing I could do. The best I could give her.

~☆~

I slowly stepped through the doors of the manor, and I didn’t halt my steps until I got to the library.

I lingered for a while before I pushed the door open. I rarely come here.

The reason? My mother spent a lot of her time here. She loved her books so much that Father built this library and got his hands on all the best books he could find.

I couldn’t bear coming in here because it made me think of her. It was ironic that this was the same place Caleb found solitude in.

I saw Caleb at the table, casually sipping his tea, before his eyes locked on mine.

"I thought you wouldn’t come, big brother. Did you say your goodbyes?"

I inhaled sharply and walked in, and I pushed back the memories that threatened to consume me.

I stood at the table, looming over Caleb, then I caught something. He wasn’t in his wheelchair.

"Seems like I don’t know anything about you, Caleb."

His smirk stretched wider. "Disappointed? I know how controlling you can be, so this might be a bruise on your ego. Zayden Salvero, Eldest son of the Salvero bloodline, who raised his brothers through sweat and blood. Nothing can ever get past him." He raised his hands. "But look... he doesn’t even know his brother really isn’t a cripple."

The next thing was silence, stretching so coldly I could feel the goosebumps rising on my skin. I grabbed the chair and sat, finally noticing the chess game and the revolver beside the board.

"You taught me chess, remember?" he began.

"Father taught me, but I didn’t pay much attention."

He nodded, picking up the revolver. "Which means I’m a better chess player than you are. You’re already at a disadvantage, brother."

"I knew what I was in for when I walked in here alone and unarmed," I replied sternly.

He chuckled. "You may think that you don’t know me, but you do, brother. The moment I made that call, you knew there was no other way to avoid this confrontation."

"Why did you betray this family?"

He laughed, picked up the revolver, and opened the cylinder, showing me there was one bullet.

"I was..." he blinked as if thinking about it for a while. "...bored."

I ground my teeth. "Bored?"

"Should I feel bad for what I have done?" he asked as if I had the answer to that question. "I don’t. It was quite fun, really. I have never had that much fun when racing cars. After the accident, my legs were actually wounded, but I’m better, and I enjoyed playing the gullible little brother who hated the blood and violence."

"You made your point," I said sternly. "Everything has been a little game for you. Now tell me, what do you want?"

"To play a game with my big brother," he said. "What I have always wanted. You knew how special I was, so you gave me the best. But you forgot that might not be what I truly wanted."

I blinked.

"Do you have any idea how it felt to be... different from your brothers? To be excluded. In my own house, I felt alone. Have you ever been alone, brother? Of course you haven’t, and you wouldn’t know what that feels like."

I did.

"It’s like darkness closing in on you, and you just remain where you are while the rest of the world moves. Just because I was a special child doesn’t mean you should have abandoned me."

"You should have come to me then... You should have thrown your anger at me and not your brothers."