Chapter 155 Usurper
\[Lilia\]
He could end this now. He could talk to Ronan and hope to change his mind. The bastard told me once that he cared for Pa, and he respects him as he was the one that took care of him and pulled him out of the gutter.
Guards surged inside right behind him, circling around us with their weapons drawn, most of them pointing at Kael and the rest at Ronan.
“Ronan!” Pa barked out furiously. His eyes fixed on me with perplexity. “What do you think you’re doing!? Get that gun away from her!”
Instead of listening, Ronan only snickered and bared his teeth to everyone, ignoring Pa’s order.
“What are you all standing at!? Take that cretin immobilized at once!” He snapped his fingers and turned to his guards before he finally noticed Kael standing in the middle and fixed his eyes on him in bewilderment. “And you, what the hell are you doing in my place?”
He doesn’t know?
No one spoke, not moved. Even a pin drop could be heard in between. But the tension was so palpable in the air that I could taste its bitterness on my tongue. Pa shifted his gaze to his guards, brows furrowing when not one of them listened to his order.
“Haven’t you heard me, bastards!” His piercing loud voice broke the silence, ordering his guards once again, but none of them moved a muscle.
What the hell is going on?
Just then, to answer our unasked question. Ronan burst into a burst of manic laughter that raised the hairs on my arms upon hearing it. The guards shifted their guns away from Ronan and pointed at Pa instead.
“They won’t listen to you old man, they are under my command, now.” He gloated, pressing his arm tightly on my neck.
“What?” Pa exclaimed in utter disbelief looking at his guards. “You buffoons! I am still your master, not this bastard!”
I couldn't believe this. How did Ronan turn my grandfather’s men against him? Are we going to lose this battle? Am I going to die? But my baby. I haven't even held him yet. I don't even know if he’s a he or a she, and Kael. We just got married and we haven't even spent our time together as a couple.
The thought of it starts to freak me out.
No. This couldn't happen.
“Is this all about the inheritance boy?” Pa spoke softly but the strain on his voice is apparent. It broke me out from an appalling trance.
Ronan snorted humorlessly again. “You should have named me your heir, not this bitch. I was the one beside you raising this empire, and in just a blink it was all gone.”
Grief and sadness flash across my grandfather’s eyes looking at the man he had brought up in this kind of world.
“Ronan, I loved you as if you were my own. But, you aren’t my blood. My Lilia is, I thought you already understood this?”
They talked?
I could see a valid reason why Ronan is doing this. He had expected so much more in his life since Pa took him. He worked so hard, dripping blood and sweat to get his approval, and finally named him his heir. Then, I came along, appearing out of thin air, ruining everything that had already been laid out for him.
Pa is the only person left for him, and I also took him away.
This is more than inheritance. That is why he didn't want me giving him all the titles when Pa is gone. The reason why he simply didn't want to kill me.
He wanted more.
A place in this world where he can rule. An empire all for himself.
Taking control of the De Luca Mob is on top of that. It’s the leeway to his dreams. One of the biggest in Italy and a nemesis to Kael.
Russia and Italy are both two worlds apart, yet they are fighting over one spot.
Now they are like two giants over one place clashing like rocks while I stand in the middle and crushing me down.
“I know you’re going to say that.” Ronan leered, moving his hand to wrap his fingers around my throat. “Here’s a proposal… Let me marry your dear granddaughter. She will bear me a child, a son preferably, and then he will be the heir.”
Pa looked at me for a moment, and I did my best to shake my head in vain, hoping he wouldn’t fall into this trickery. However, I could see it in his eyes that he was already wavering, that he was walking right through the flames.
“Is that what you really want?” He asked Ronan without looking at me.
“More than anything.”
Pa nodded and said nothing. I could see the way his mind was turning.
Turned against me. I know that looks too well.
“Pa, please don’t.” A sob broke through my lips, begging.
“I’m sorry, mio cara. If it means to keep you alive.” He sullenly said.
Just like that, tears flowed down from my eyes without even noticing them.
“See, cara? I told you we would get his blessing. Soon enough you will be mine and we will be one.” Ronan preened, forcing my head to slant towards him and then lick on my cheek.
The smell of liquor and a heavy scent of cigarettes lingered on his breath, wracking up my nerves and curling the pit of my stomach with repulsion. Which immediately elicited a violent shudder on my spine.
“I will never be yours.” I grimly hissed, clenching my teeth and holding back the bile rising at the back of my throat.
Please don’t throw up.
Please don’t throw up.
I chanted inside my brain, manifesting the smell of lavender wafting into the air to prevent myself from vomiting right here and right now.
“You can’t marry her.”
I froze just as Kael’s voice intervened, snapping our attention to him.
Ronan jaunted and snorted excessively, scrunching his nose as though something caught inside it.
“And why is that Kael? What are you going to do? Kill me? You can try.”
“You can’t because she’s already my wife.” He promptly declared with such a tone of anger and resentment.
“Now, get your fucking hands off my wife!” He was dead serious, yet his eyes fixed on me, telling me that everything is going to be alright.
I hope so.
He told them the truth but not all of it. Kael didn’t disclose my pregnancy. It would be too dangerous.
There was another moment of silence wrapped around us, but it didn’t last for a second when Ronan started laughing again. Shaking me with his as he cackled loudly.
“Nice one, right there Russian boy. Try harder.” He wheezes, barely recovering from his laughter.
“He’s telling the truth,” I uttered, inhaling a deep breath and steadying my quavering voice.
“We got married on the night of my ball. You saw my ring when I came back, Ronan.”
I still wore the ring and is now glinting on my finger. I could feel his eyes drop and realization took place.
“You little whore!—”
However, he didn’t get to finish what he was about to say when the ground suddenly trembled, almost knocking me off my balance and a blast of smoke engulfed around us. No, it wasn’t smoke, it was dust and debris flying all around from the shock wave.
It happened too fast. Too fast for my mind to even comprehend what was happening. An exchange of gunshots fired from a distance, barking orders and screams filled my ear.
But one thing came clear to me when a snarl roared at my side before I was whisked away.
“Fuck! We are under attack!”