Page 104 of Sinister Vows

He shook his head, keeping it against mine. “Your father hired a woman to assassinate you.” I recoiled from him as the weight of his statement hit me. “She infiltrated the staff at Armarow and laid in wait for the perfect moment to strike. She tainted your meal with a concentrated form of your allergen and then switched all of the rescue pens out for duds.” His jaw popped from how tight he clenched it as his anger rose. “I gave you two doses, and nothing was happening so we rushed here. You were completely unconscious and blue by the time you were finally given medication. You were dangling by the thread of life, Ari.”

“I can’t believe he did that,” I said sadly. “I mean I can, but.” I shook my head, not needing to use any other words to express my feelings.

Nico knew.

“Carmine has moved Anita and Amelia into a safe house. We’ve interrogated the woman that attacked you and have information about where your father will be in two days.” He said firmly. “We’ll strike then.”

“You and Carmine?”

“Yes. He and Cristian were here. He stayed with you and Cristian helped me get the information we needed out of the woman.”

“Cristian helped you torture her, you mean?” I shuddered, and then flashbacks of the dream I had came back. “Wait.” I gripped his shirt in my hand again as I played the dream back, trying to decipher if it was real or not. It felt like a misty image on the edge of my sight that I couldn’t quite get to come into focus. “The cat.”

“What cat?” Nico asked confused with a scowl. “We’re talking about your father, Little One.”

I smiled up at him as the mist cleared, revealing the dream to me completely. “You called me that the first time I met you.” His brow knitted deeper as his confusion grew. “In the woods at Armarow. You saved my life.”

He sat back and watched me closely. “I thought you forgot about that.”

“I did,” I admitted. “I didn’t remember it at all. I had a weird sense of déjà vu the first time I walked the grounds of Armarow, but I couldn’t find the place where it came from. But then I had a dream, I think.”

“A dream?” He cocked his head.

“A memory?” I shrugged, running my hand over his cheek. “You were so young.” I sighed wistfully. “And handsome,” I smirked as he groaned and brushed it off.

“Gone are those years.”

“Wrong.” I removed my hand from my stomach and held his face in both of them. “I think you are absolutely breathtaking now, just as you were before. You’re strong, and wise. Weathered to the life you live but not in a negative way.” I smoothed my finger over the frown lines formed between his brows as he watched me cynically, “You could stand to smile more often, but I think our little babe will help with that.”

He smirked and then sighed, taking my hands in his and kissing both as he took a deep breath. “That was the day that our fathers agreed to the marriage contract. You were a fucking baby, and I was already a grown man.”

I glared at him, “I was three months away from being a teenager. And it doesn’t matter, because even at that age, you were still my prince charming.”

He snorted and shook his head, “I’m still the big bad wolf.” Running his hand through my hair. “You’re still the perfect little Cinderella.”

“Finally the princess you always thought I was. Even with a scar.” I fingered the white line I knew that marred my cheek from something I had blocked out of my memory. But now I had the answers I’d always sought after. “Wait.” I paused, thinking back to that terrifying day. “Were those boys your brothers?”

“My father’s sons. But no brothers of mine.” He sneered.

“By a woman that wasn’t your mother.” I clarified. “The woman he stole from you selfishly but still didn’t stay faithful to you mean?”

“Something like that.” He agreed. “My father sired eight children that he claimed in his lifetime. But he was only ever married to my mother.”

“And when he died you-,” I paused, raising my eyebrows questioningly.

“Eradicated that infestation.” He answered evenly. “Those three were the only ones to live on the grounds at Armarow. Their mother was a maid when she met my father and then she wormed her way into living in the estate because she continued to spread her legs for my father and bear him more children.” He scoffed. “They didn’t deserve anything they were given over the years. They were menaces; torturing animals, and disrespecting the staff. More than once maids would up and quit with bruises around their wrists and necks from one of the trio getting rough with them. I couldn’t stand it. And short of beating their asses each and every time, I had no power to punish them for being degenerates.”

“So you waited until you were the Don and then you removed them.”

“I destroyed them. And their whore mother.” He declared. “She was particularly vile, ridiculing my mother constantly and undermining her at every turn like having to live with her husband’s whore wasn’t punishment enough.” He stood up off the bed as the tension became energy inside of his body. “I made her regret every single thing she did to my mother before her death.”

“The whore or your mother’s?” I asked for clarification but already knew the truth.

“Yes,” Nico answered evasively, giving me the answer without outright admitting it.

“Noted.”

“Don’t act like that is appalling, Little One,” He stalked back to the bed and leaned down over me. “because I’ll do so much worse to anyone who ever crosses you.”