The last night

Scarlett's POV:

Loving Christian Marchetti was a sickness, and at eighteen, it was officially terminal.

It was over dinner that my father coldly announced that Christian was being exiled from the family dynasty tonight and my world completely imploded. The announcement dropped like an afterthought just when I was about to dig into dessert.

“Christian is leaving tomorrow morning. Permanently. And his name will no longer be spoken in this house.”

My father never liked Christian. To him, he was a living reminder of his cheating ex wife, Christian's mother. Even after conducting multiple DNA tests, all confirming that he was his son, father never forgave him. He tortured him for lengthy hours, treated him like dirt and always reminded him that he was the son of a filthy whore. And tonight, he was finally casting him away from the family and the Famiglia mafia entirely, stripping him of his inheritance especially since his latest child bride was finally pregnant with his ‘real’ heir.

Father adored me, however. Despite how depraved and sadistic he was. I was his golden child, his untainted princess. It was a painful contrast. While Christian spent his teenage years in the basement or nursing the injuries from father's belt, father would tuck me into silk sheets and press a kiss to my forehead and whisper that I was the only thing in his world worth protecting. He showered me with black-card allowances, designer dresses, and affection, using me to fill the void of his broken ego.

But every lavish gift he gave me felt like a weight on my chest because I knew that somewhere downstairs, the boy I loved was hurting when he deserved to be loved like I was.

And that was exactly why my sickness had grown terminal.

For years, I watched him endure father’s psychological warfare with a terrifying, silent dignity. He never cried, instead I shed tears for him while I heard the whips. He never begged. He just grew taller, broader, and deadlier. To me, Christian wasn't just my stepbrother—he was a beautiful, dangerous god trapped in a cage.

I became a shadow in his life, utterly consumed by him. I memorized the cadence of his footsteps in the hallway. I knew the exact time he slipped out of the house into the night, and I would press my face against my bedroom window just to catch a glimpse of his broad shoulders disappearing into the dark. I even snuck into his bedroom when he was out, sitting on his unmade bed just to inhale the scent of tobacco, leather, and woodsmoke left behind on his sheets.

But to Christian, I didn't exist. He treated me with an indifference that cut me everytime. Whenever our paths crossed in the house, he would look straight through me. If I tried to speak to him, he would walk past as if I were the enemy. I was the daughter of the monster who tortured him, the golden child who slept in luxury while he bled. I knew he had every right to hate me.

But I didn’t want his hatred, and I didn’t want his brotherly affection either. I wanted him to see me as a woman. I wanted him to burn for me the way I had been burning for him since I was thirteen.

Tonight was his last night under this roof, and I was resolved to make him look at me—even if it ruined both of us.

It was 1:30 AM, and reality was crushing me.

I sat on the edge of my bed, staring blankly at the wall, my chest aching and my eyes red and swollen from crying. The thought of him walking out of my life forever tomorrow was unbearable. I couldn't sleep. And even worse, tomorrow I would be meeting the man father had arranged to be my future husband, Damian Russo.

At least he would be free from father's torturing and vileness. But what about me? Would I survive life without Christian?

"Chloe... he's leaving. Tomorrow morning." I told my best friend over the phone in tears.

"What?" She gasped on the other end of the line.

“Scarlett you've loved this guy for years. If he's leaving, don't you want to tell him how you feel? Don't you want to find out if it's been mutual this entire time?"

Mutual? Christian hated me. There was no way it was mutual.

"I don't know," I whispered, a hot tear rolling down my cheek. "He won't even look at me, Chloe. To him, I'm my father's daughter. I'm his enemy."

There was a long pause on the line before Chloe spoke. And that's when she dropped the bomb.

"Then don't use words, Scarlett. Force him to look at you. Force him to see you, not your father's daughter. If he’s leaving forever, make sure he never forgets what he left behind."

"What do you mean?" My heart pounded in my chest painfully. Chloe's ideas have always meant trouble. But tonight, I wouldn't hesitate to do anything she asked me to do.

"Put on that red silk robe you bought while we went shopping last week," Chloe whispered into the phone. Then she went on to tell me exactly what to do when I walked into his room.

After I ended the call, I felt intoxicated. It was reckless. It was insane. It was entirely forbidden.

But desperation swallowed my fear. Chloe was right. This was my last chance to melt the ice between us. Maybe I could even convince him to take me with him and we could run away and be together, just like I had always fantasized.

With all the courage I could muster and all the desire that had built up in me for years, I slipped out of my bedroom stealthily. I walked to Christian's bedroom and stood outside his door, fumbling with the straps of my red robe.

My waist-long brown hair was combed and free, cascading down my shoulders and I applied red lipstick, so I could look like the mature women I had seen my stepbrother with. And underneath my robe, I wore nothing.

My heart was hammering against my ribs and my chest tightened. My fingers trembled as I wrapped them around the door handle.

Breathe, Scarlett.

Taking a deep breath, I turned the brass handle and pushed the door open.

The room was dim, illuminated only by a single desk lamp. Christian sat in his leather chair, in a black shirt that stretched tight across his broad shoulders. He didn't look up when I walked in. He was focused on the desk. In his large, scarred hands, he held a sleek, black handgun, calmly running a cloth over the barrel.

Did he want to kill my father before he left? Or me?

"You shouldn't be in here, Scarlett," His voice was low and gravelly. Christian hardly talked. He became selectively mute over the years so whenever I got the chance to hear that rich, husky voice, my core clenched. He still hadn't raised his eyes. "Go back to bed."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stepped deeper into the room, closing the door softly behind me. "You're leaving tomorrow morning. You didn't even say goodbye to me."

"And why, would I tell you goodbye?" he murmured, his thumb tracing the clean edge of the firearm.

"B.. because I'm…"

Hopelessly inlove with you?

Why would he wish me goodbye? I was my father's daughter afterall.

I walked closer. The sole of feet were freezing from the cold tiles of his bedroom. He didn't have plush rugs like I did and I had completely forgotten to wear my flip-flops. But his bare feet had no troubles with the cold floor. He had been through worse.

The scent of him—woodsmoke, expensive cologne, and raw testosterone—was making my head spin, making my mind race.

"Because I deserve it! Because I'm not my father.”

Christian finally stopped. He dropped the handgun flat on the desk with a deafening thud and tilted his head up. When his dark eyes locked onto mine, the intensity of his gaze made my breath catch. His eyes screamed danger, that was enough warning to send me away. It was clear, Christian wasn’t human. He was darker, more dangerous and more deadly than I thought.