Chapter 184 My Sister Pled

Chapter 184 My Sister Pled
Varos POV

I arrived at the small villa after dinner. Father gave me the address, and I didn’t feel intrusive slamming my fist against the solid wood of the door.

The door opened, and I came face-to-face with Dante.

When I first saw him, he was wearing some kind of disguise but now he was exactly as I remembered from the pictures in his file, his gray t-shirt hugging his muscular frame and stretching across the shoulders. Ink was all over his arms, sleeves of tattoos withmidnight-black coloring. He was my height, and his crystal blue eyes were the only thing about him that wasn’t innately dark.

He stared at me, his guard up just as high as mine. He knew exactly who I was, and now I knew he recognized me.

“You want to talk to Isabella now? Or would you like to punch me first?”

He tilted his head slightly, regarding me with subtle hostility. “Punch you?” I asked. “I usually stick a knife in the throat of my enemies.”

My father told me to keep my eyes peeled and my hands to myself but when I was face-to-face with him, it was impossible to be diplomatic. He didn’t deserve my sister.

“You wanna do that, then?” he asked, dead serious. “I’m sure I could handle it.”

My father was right. He had a natural ability to turn threats into signs of power. “My father told me not to kill you....yet.”

He smiled. “That was nice of him. Can never tell how much he hates me.”

“I’ll be the messenger, then. He hates you a lot.”

Isabella ducked underneath his arm and squeezed past him in the doorway. “So glad you two are getting along…” She moved up to me, her arms crossed over her chest. “What are you doing here?”

“You know exactly why I’m here.” My eyes flicked to Dante again.

“To kill him?” she asked incredulously. “When you brought your wife around, I became her best friend and It didn’t matter whether she was a good person or not. You loved her, so I had to love her. I accepted her without an
interrogation.”

My eyes turned back to her. “Are you suggesting these situations are the same? This man is a murderer, Isabella. He kills people for cash and his s family.....”

She raised her hand. “I’ve had this exact conversation with Mom and Dad, like, fifty times. I’m not doing it again.”

I looked at Dante, the hatred in my eyes. “Disappear.” I wanted to speak
to my sister alone and to my surprise, he shut the front door and walked away.

Isabella stepped farther into the cool air in the front yard, approaching the truck parked in the gravel. “So, Father told you today?”

“A few hours ago.” I slid my hands into my pockets and followed her. “I’ve gotta be honest. I’m pretty shocked.”

When we were away from the house so we couldn’t be overheard, she turned to me. “I know he’s not ideal but I never wanted to love him. It just happened and now that it’s happened…I never want to love anyone else.”

My father wasn’t kidding. “I know you’re probably never going to like him, Varos and that’s fine but I hope one day you’ll have an open mind, can do this for me?”

My sister had always been better with words than I was, and she’d made an astounding point. “I love this man with all my heart.”

I took a deep breath when she confessed her feelings, hearing the sincerity ring like a bell.

“I don’t want anyone else. I’ll never want anyone else. Mama and Father are trying to accept him and I’d appreciate it if you would do the same. I don’t expect it to happen overnight, and Cassian is very patient but I’ve always been there for you when it mattered. So you owe me this, Varos. Big-time.”

I clenched my jaw, having no argument against that at all. My sister had paid her dues and I would give this to her in abheartbeat under any other circumstance. “I don’t trust him, Isabella. I don’t trust him not to kill our family.”

“Trust is something earned, not given. I would never ask you to trust someone you didn’t know, Varos. You never have to trust him if you don’t want to and you don’t even have to like him. I’m just asking for acceptance right now.
The rest of that stuff will come later…when you’re ready.”

“Can you really be with a man your entire family hates? I just talked to Father, and he despises him more than anyone else on the planet. You’re smarter than this, Isabella. Find a better man and don’t put your family through this.”

“I tried to forget about him, Varos and I broke up with him when he told me he loved me. I dated someone else. I did everything…it didn’t work. I knew I loved him so much I was willing to do anything to make it work. As slim as
the odds are, I want you guys to learn to like and accept him. He’s willing to be a punching bag to make it happen. If it doesn’t work, at least I tried. I had to try before I gave up.”

She took a deep breath, her chest rising. “But I don’t want to give up. The way I love him…is the way you love your wife. Just keep that in mind when you talk to him.”

“But how do you know he’s the right man to love? How do you know this isn’t a plot to hurt all of us?”

Isabella eyes watered slightly, like the question offended her. “Because he would die for me, Varos. Would a man die for me if he didn’t love me with all his heart?”

I kept my hands in my pockets and stared at her, feeling the chilly air surround me and enter my lungs. I saw a different side to my sister, a
vulnerable side she never let me see.

Her beating heart was on her sleeve because all of her cards were on the table, and even
though she had a shitty hand, she wasn’t ashamed. “Please try,” she whispered. “For me.”