CHAPTER 146

CHAPTER 146
Celine

“Ouch,” the man spat playfully, mischief gleaming in his light brown eyes. “I'm hurt, but I understand how confusing this must be, so I forgive you for that.” 

I continued to hold his gaze as I racked my brain on who he shared a remembrance with, not even batting an eye. Yet I still couldn't place who it was, no matter how hard I thought.

“You seem a little lost and confused,” he went on, reaching into his pants pocket. “How about I show you a little something to help jog that memory of yours?”

He pulled out a portable recorder, a spine crawling robotic laughter piercing through the quiet air of the incompleted building as he pressed a button on the device.

My eyes widened in sheer horror, leaving me freezing dead on my seat, as the laughter I'd grown accustomed to because of how often I'd heard it echoed from the recorder. 

I felt a wave of sickening chills running down my spine as the laughter reverberated through my head on repeat.

How…? How could I ever forget the sound of that laughter when it was the same one that lingered whenever that faceless man who has constantly haunted and terrorised us, spoke from across the line of his burner phone.

His robotic laughter died down as he removed his thumb from the button on the device, and just when I thought that was all, he stretched his hands out to one of the bodyguards standing guard and he hurried over to him, handing him an iPad.

The man swiped up to unlock the phone, showing me the screen. And on it were tons and tons of photos and videos of me, Antonio, the Luna Nera brothers, Anna, Alessia, everyone I've ever come in contact with; at virtually every place Antonio and I had ever been to.

A shaky gasp flew out of my lips, my whole body freezing like a bucket of ice water had been dumped all over my head.

This only meant one thing. 

This was clear proof that he was the one.

This young man standing right in front of me was the faceless man… in flesh and blood.

“Remember me now, Celine?” he asked, returning the iPad to the bodyguard. Then his dark twinkling eyes began to trail through my body. 

They rested on my cleavages for a brief second, before returning to my face. 

“You're even more beautiful in person,” he went on, wearing a grim grin. “It's no wonder the Gray brothers went absolutely crazy for you.”

I paid his words no attention as I stared into nothingness, my mind racing in urgency, and my eyes swirling slowly from side to side, as I questioned why Armando and Antonio's sworn enemy were in the same space right now.

Then it clicked, the missing pieces of the puzzles finally coming together.

My eyes widened in horror as I slowly met their gazes with a ghostly expression, my lips hanging open. 

Armando and this man….

“You two are working together, aren't you?” I muttered out the words that lingered in my thoughts, my tone laced with a hint of disbelief and dread.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this would happen.

“You finally figured it out,” Armando blurted, a sly smirk creeping up to the sides of his lips. “Good job.”

“How…?” My words caught in my throat, my nose quivering. “How long have you two been…?”

“Working together?” he stole the words out of my mouth, sucking his teeth with a taunting expression lingering on his face. “Some months ago, he approached me one beautiful night while I was out gambling, with a proposal to come work for him. I think it was right around the same day your husband finally decided to let me leave the cellar, after keeping me locked up in that horrible place for months.”

A bitter scoff escaped my lips, hot tears filling my eyes.

It all made sense now. 

It was Armando all along. He had told him all about me.

I shook my head dejectedly, a strangled chuckle escaping my lips.

That's what Armando meant when he had said some time back when we'd met, that he was living a pretty good life right now, and didn’t have to worry about money anymore.

How stupid could I have been? 

I should have known the moment I found out Antonio’s arch-nemesis knew about things virtually only Armando and I knew about. So why didn't I? Why on earth didn't I or Antonio figure out that there was a link between the two of them?

That’s how Armando suddenly found out that the man I'd killed and Antonio were blood brothers; because this man somehow figured it out and told him right after they met.

And this also explains how this man knew so much about what had happened between me and Luigi that night at the bar, my pregnancy, and that my daughter was stolen away from the hospital before I even got to find out about it, because my very own brother gave out that information to him. 

“Do you get it now?” Armando blurted, yanking me out of my thoughts. “That’s right. I told him all about your dirty little secret.”

I held his gaze squarely, hurt flickering in my eyes. “So all this time… you've been taking orders from him to bring Antonio and I down?”

“Pretty much,” he answered with no shred of remorse, nodding. “You could say I've been his trusted henchman and informant.” He brought his face closer to mine, a self-satisfied glint lacing his eyes. “Want to know a little secret?”

My brows furrowed deeply, a questioning scowl settling on my face.

“I was the one who actually purchased the Organophosphate used to poison the food of the kids at the orphanage,” he bragged, bursting into a devilish cackle.

“What?” I said in a low tone, pain flickering in my eyes.

“I was also in the car with my boss over here when your sweet little Nico was burnt to crisps in front of the supermarket,” he added with darkened eyes, the side of his lips curling into a sneer.

“Fuck you!!!” I exploded in his face, rage burning in my bloodshot eyes.

The chair rattled underneath me as I sprang towards him in attack mode, his head quickly jerking back in reflex as I violently struggled to force my hand free from the ropes and just grab his head and bite his fucking head off.

“Release me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, hot tears filling my eyes. “Just you wait and see. I’ll fucking kill you myself, you worthless piece of shit!!”

Armando threw his head backwards as he bursted into a chilling cackle, while the man just stood there quietly and watched us with his hands buried in his pants pockets, amusement gleaming in his eyes as he laughed under his breath, clearly enjoying the show.