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CHAPTER TENKieran~~~~~The reflections of the morning sun flashed on my face, dragging me out of the uncomfortable, dreamless sleep I had fallen into on the cold floor. My cassock was twisted around my thighs, stiff in places where my release had dried. The scent of shame still clung to me no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.Vicente hadn’t returned for hours. The silence felt heavier than i expected.I pushed myself upright, wincing at the ache in my lower back and the dull throb between my legs. My rosary lay a few feet away, scattered. I crawled over, gathered them with shaking fingers, and pressed the crucifix to my lips.“Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,” I whispered. The words tasted like ash.The fathers at the parish would already be frantic. There wasn’t a priest at Lauds, no one to celebrate the early Mass and no explanation for my absence during last night’s vigil.They would be calling the church hospitals, checking with the police, maybe even searching the streets

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CHAPTER ELEVEN Kieran ~~~~~ The ticking of the clock in the hallway felt like a countdown to my execution. It was already six in the evening. Each second that passed felt like a heavy blow to my chest. I had spent the day moving like a ghost through the parish, offering hollow smiles to the fathers and murmuring prayers that felt like lies. My skin still burned where the water had scalded it, yet I still felt his touch everywhere. I couldn't stay. If I stayed, he would release that video. The thought of the fathers and the whole city seeing me in that state, broken and ruined, made my stomach churn. I had to get out, but the fathers were watching me like hawks. They had been hovering all day, bringing me tea and checking on me every twenty minutes. I waited until Father Michael went to the chapel for evening meditation and Father Joseph was busy in the kitchen. I ducked into my room, my heart hammering against my ribs. I pulled on the gray hoodie and sweatpants Vicente had

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CHAPTER TWELVEVicente~~~~~I watched tears slip down his face and it annoyed the hell out of me. Every time he looked at me with those wide, watery eyes, it felt like a challenge and a pathetic, holy display of a weakness I wanted to crush until there was nothing left but the truth.“Stop crying,” I said, my voice cutting through the quiet room like a blade.Instead of stopping, he let out a broken hitch, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed even harder. The sound grated on my nerves. I didn't want a weeping saint; I wanted him to face what he was.I reached down and gripped Kieran’s neck, my thumb pressing firmly into the side of his throat. I felt his pulse jumping under my skin, erratic and terrified.“I said stop crying, Kieran,” I hissed, leaning in until I could see the gold flecks in his panicked eyes.He gasped, his hands coming up to instinctively clutch at my wrists, but he choked back the next sob. He squeezed his eyes shut, his chest heaving as he fought to obey, the silen

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CHAPTER THIRTEENVicente~~~~~I watched him lie there, a pathetic, broken heap of a man surrounded by the evidence of his own weakness. His chest was still heaving, and the scent of his release mixed with the heavy oil and the salt of his tears. It was delicious to watch him being in that state. He tried to turn his head away, to hide his face in the pillow, but I wasn't finished with him. Not even close."Where do you think you're going?" I growled, reaching down to grab his chin, forcing him to look at the stain on the sheets, the physical proof that he’d chosen his own pleasure over his God.Kieran’s eyes were bloodshot, his lips swollen and trembling. "I... I'm sorry," he whispered, the words barely catching in his throat. "I didn't mean... I couldn't stop...""You didn't want to stop," I corrected, leaning over him until my chest was brushing his sticky skin. "You loved every second of it. You loved being a pig for me."I reached for the phone on the nightstand, the screen glowi

All Chapters of The Mafia's Damnation: Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

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