Chapter 88 Chapter 88

Chapter 88 Chapter 88
For another minute, I destroy whatever’s within my touch. The drapes are wrenched off their rod and ripped in half. The laptop on a desk with the screen showing an overhead shot of the city gets thrown halfway across the room. 

I wreak havoc, breaking any and everything within reach. Volcanic rage consumes me instead of accepting the truth of what’s happened.

Truth that’s most destructive of all.

Ms. Tremaine sees it plain as day. She’d claim it’s dripping off me. It’s in every breath I heave and roar that thunders out of me. 

Ayanna, mia bella ballerina, did not love me. She never loved me. 

The entirety of our relationship was only a dream. My fantasy where I forced a frightened young woman to marry me and then I proceeded to hold her captive until she agreed she was in love with me. When she peered up into my eyes and told me she did, I believed her. 

We had many rough spots in our relationship, but she wanted to be with me.

It had seemed so fucking real…

I let out another roar worthy of a great beast and then find there’s nothing left to destroy. The entire war room resembles the aftermath of a bomb explosion. 

And then there’s prim and proper Ms. Tremaine still stubbornly waiting for me with her silvery curls and house dress. 

My heart twitches. Physical pain I prefer to deal with than the emotional kind. 

The truth that I’m avoiding. 

“What is it?” I snap, panting for a clean breath. “Why are you still fucking staring at me?”

“Massimo, don’t let this destroy you. It’s only been thirty-six hours. You’ve got to have your head in the game.”

I scrub a large hand over my face. I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten. I’ve barely taken a piss since mia ballerina has gone. Dr. Tulio has shown up twice trying to lure me to his office for my next treatment. I don’t have long before foregoing it causes major complications for me.

“My head is in the game,” I mutter, closing my eyes. “But Aya takes precedence.”

“I understand,” Ms. Tremaine says. “We’ll get her back. I’m sure she has her reasons.”

“NO! There is no fucking excuse. No justification she could give. She walked out on the vows we made for each other. She will pay a price.”

“Massimo—”

“Get the fuck out of my face!” 

She sighs in disappointment, turning away. “As you wish. I just hope you come to your senses soon. This is no game, Massimo. We’re in the thick of it.”

I don’t bother asking what she’s lecturing me about. Ms. Tremaine’s opinion is one of the few I respect, but make no mistake, I do what I want above all else. 

A lot may be happening at once with the war between my family and the D'Angelos. Salvatore has waged an even more concentrated war with me after what happened at the theater. Family loyalties are all but gone in my family after I’ve discovered Marco’s betrayal. 

More level-headed capos would focus their time on these matters. They’d devote more of their energy and efforts to battling Salvatore and besting my family members out for Pa’s throne. 

I’ve never claimed to be a level-headed man. I’ve never cared about inhabiting thrones or winning stupid titles. All of it is meaningless when I shut myself off from the rest of society most days. What do I need with the mantle of Don when reclusion suits me so much more? 

I have my estate. I have my men. I had everything I wanted except for…

…mia bella ballerina.

She was the missing link to my life. She was the angel of my dreams. The person who helped me through the pain and looming death. How could she disappear as if she never cared?

I’m out of howls to give. I’m out of things to break.

My chest aches. The pain stabs away at me.

Finally, I give in and seek Dr. Tulio out. I find him in his office where he usually is. He snaps into preparing the treatment from the second he spies me walk through the door. 

“I’d hoped you’d come,” he says, grabbing the vials. “You must be in pain.”

I sink into the exam chair and close my eyes, exhaustion already setting in. Ayanna creeps into my thoughts.

“Always.”

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Fogginess clears like clouds when the sun breaks through. It’s no wonder why they have—she twirls into view with her arms arced gracefully and the point of her toes barely touching the ground. She’s defying physics the way she flits about so light and airily. 

Suddenly, the razors cutting me up from the inside fade. I’m no longer consumed by pain. At least no longer cognizant of the damage its wreaking.

Her every move entrances me. She spins and leaps, telling a story with the petite body I know so well, the pale pink tulle skirt she wears glittering in the light. 

Hypnotic in how she launches into pirouette after pirouette. I’m unable to look away until it dawns on me others have materialized.

We’re no longer alone for her performance. The others edge closer as if trying to intrude.

She notices, slowing down, coming out of her twirls. Her pretty dark eyes widen.

I come to the conclusion in the same moment she does. Something’s not right; something is terribly wrong. 

The pain rushes in, a thousand sharp pricks stabbing into me all at once, as I open my mouth and yell.

“NEVI!” 

Her name leaves my lips over and over again as my arms and legs thrash. 

“Mr. Massimo, please! Restrain yourself!” Dr. Tulio grunts. He’s leaning over me with his hands scrabbling to grab hold of mine and pin me down.

I’m too brutish, too monstrous for him. I spring up despite his efforts to hold me down, and knock him back a couple steps. Sweat pours down the sides of my face and sticks my shirt to my back. I’m clammy and dizzy, my lungs short on air.

But Ayanna is the only thing I can think of. She’s all I see before my eyes as I struggle between the dream and reality around me.

It had felt so real. It had felt like something was… very, very wrong. 

“Ayanna,” I huff out. “Where is Aya?”

“Mr. Massimo, I don’t—”

“Get out of my way!”

I storm out of the doctor’s office and stagger into the hall outside. The guard stationed at the entry point calls out to me in concern. He’s probably wondering why I’m rushing out of the Tulio’s office lurching around like I’m belligerent and drunk. 

I don’t make it far down the hall. Angelo must overhear the commotion, because he appears with a harried look on his face.

“Massimo, there you are! We’ve got news. I just heard back from the guys on the streets. They’ve made an interesting discovery.”