Page 163 of Capuleto

"R, look at me. I'm not pregnant, I lost the baby two days ago, there’s no reason for you to hold back."

"She’s lying! She’s still pregnant with that monster." Yuri was getting angrier. He grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back.

I swallowed the scream and kept talking, it was the only way to get R to react for once.

"I miscarried because of the medications you gave me, I didn't tell you because I also know how to keep an ace up my sleeve." I saw the confusion in Romeo’s eyes, I just needed to stretch the tension a bit more. Yuri kept pressing my arm, if he continued, he would break it. I had to act. "Do it, R. Don’t stop, shoot point-blank. And never forget that my heart has always belonged to you, even if I didn't know it myself. I love you, amore."

I bit my lip and did what I had to do, an unexpected twist that allowed me to drive my elbow with all my strength into my brother’s abdomen. With that move, I could make a forward escape.

"Now!" I shouted, placing myself in the possible trajectory of Yuri's bullet to kill him.

I fixed my gaze on my splendid husband and thought I was lucky to have known him and to feel loved by someone so magnificent.

Maybe it was the last time I would see R, but also my brother.

67

I’m going to fuck you up

My own scream thundered louder than the two disjointed gunshots.

Both trapped between skin, muscle, and perhaps bone.

Nikita collapsed, giving me the brightest and most radiant smile he had ever offered me.

Although my first impulse upon entering the place was to rush at Yuri, I had to restrain myself for fear that he would hurt Nikita. Now, that terror had become something tangible and real.

My wife intervened in the trajectory of the bullet that was aimed at me. She fulfilled her promise to give her life for mine.

I had never felt so much pain and fear. What if I lost her? If Yuri escaped, I would never forgive myself, but if Nikita died, I would follow her.

I grabbed her by the shoulders before she hit the ground and hugged her, roaring like a wild animal.

Yuri growled in turn, bringing his free hand to his left collarbone. Korolev was also wounded, although not mortally, as I would have wished. I had aimed for his heart, but I missed.

With my wife in my arms, I attempted a second shot that missed and hit one of the walls. Yuri had moved towards the door and also tried to finish me off before escaping through it.

I dropped to the ground, taking Nikita with me. My wife's sacrifice was not going to be in vain; I owed it to her.

The bullet hit a coat rack. The wood splintered. I shrank, lost in the closed eyes of my wife and placed my fingers on her neck to check if she was still alive.

Her rat of a brother had jumped out.

"Amore," I murmured.

Her heart was still beating, which gave me hope. I gently lifted her head. With everything I had seen and heard, I had enough to understand that, as difficult as it might seem, Nikita was not lying; she loved me and had chosen me over her brother.

She opened her eyelids, her gaze was glassy. My hand was getting soaked in her own blood.

"And Yuri?"

"He’s gone out."

"Then what are you doing here? Run! Go after him! Kill him! You can't let him escape this time!" My wife spoke with determination and heaviness. The sweatshirt she was wearing was starting to turn crimson.

"You need a doctor urgently."

"And so do you, and Cheng." My eyes flew to the Chinese woman who was still pressing her wound. A pool of blood was flowing freely under her body. "I am not mortally wounded, moreover, I promise you that I will not die; I need more time with you to recover everything I lost. So move your ass, Capulet, and don’t let that traitorous dog kill you." I couldn't help but offer her a smile.