Page 6 of His Cursed Heart

A son that I raised. A son that was never his. I’ll die before letting Vince stay with our father alone.

“You will marry Everette Keaton Moretti in a month. Don’t make me walk you down the aisle more dead than alive.”

Oh, dear Papa let’s see who will bleed more.

Fake tears. Fake wishes. Fake people.

The whole funeral I watched everyone to see if I can get someone to show the littlest emotion possible.

But they just kept this fake pity face like they’re feeling sorry for me. For the woman who was supposed to warm my bed. Most women here would’ve wished to be in Keres’s position, other just came here to do their duty. Men came here to show respect and get under my skin, because they thought my future wife was my weakness.

They just assume things.

Keres was loved by many, her beauty always made heads turn for her. Her kindness was appreciated, her selfless soul was too good for people like us.

I knew that.

But still, I couldn’t find myself to love her.

The moment the empty coffin is left in the cold ground, I look in everyone’s eyes, wanting to read their minds.

“May God rest her soul.” Cornelia, one of Keres’s cousins says. God will do that since she was the most innocent human that I’ve ever met.

I am looking at the Italians who are in a circle, talking in their language. No sign of Hanibal. No sign of Althea.

And that makes me burn with anger.

When Keres moved in America, it was very hard for her to stay away from her siblings. For months she was talking daily with them, crying all the time because she wasn’t there.

I’ve never met Vincent. The heir of the Italian throne. He is the most guarded in that country and he rarely comes to any events. I heard he is exactly like his big sister, Althea.

The she-devil in person.

I don’t know exactly how our hatred started, but the moment we laid eyes on each other, we just wanted to spill blood.

And probably is because I don’t like fake people, and Althea is much more than fake.

She’s wicked.

Evil.

Sinful.

After she almost killed me when I proposed to her sister, and after she made me swear with literal blood that I would protect Keres with my own body, Althea left like she never existed.

One day she stopped answering calls, she stopped calling. When Keres went back in Italy to see what’s wrong, she came back crying because her sister won’t talk to her.

For almost four years I had to see Keres begging her sister to tell her what’s wrong. She thought that

something happened to her, but no one can hurt that girl.

Hanibal even made a joke that she doesn’t have feelings. We came to the conclusion that she really doesn’t fell anything.

But I hoped, for Keres’s sake, that Althea would show up at her funeral.

Even if it’s a fake one.

I feel a hand on my left shoulder and I turn toward the person in a black suit that came here to support me.