Chapter 202 Book 2 CHPT 34: Perché

Chapter 202 Book 2 CHPT 34: Perché
VALENTINO

Alina opened her mouth to speak, but I lifted my hand slightly, signaling her to stop. I could not afford her saying anything that might put her under stress.

I could not afford anything that could harm our child right now, not ever.

I stepped away from her and moved closer to Bianca, my boots sinking lightly into the cold ground as I closed the distance between us.

I stared straight into her eyes.

She was different now.

The woman standing before me was no longer the Bianca I once knew.

Her beauty was still there, sharp and dangerous, but it was twisted by pain, by hatred, by something dark that had settled deep inside her soul over time.

Her eyes were hollow, burning with vengeance, like someone who had died once and come back wrong.

My gaze slowly traveled down to her throat.

There it was.

The faint scar circling her neck. The mark of execution.

The place where her life was supposed to have ended.

A slow smile curved my lips.

"Before we begin this whole revenge nonsense," I said calmly, "I clearly saw your corpse being disposed of. You were dead, Bianca. Dead alongside your maledetto (damned) father."

Her jaw tightened instantly.

I saw the muscles in her face flex, saw her nostrils flare as she struggled to contain her rage. She looked like she was barely holding herself back from lunging at me.

That only amused me more.

I smirked.

"So tell me," I continued softly, tilting my head, "how did you escape death? Tell me how you cheated death itself."

She let out a low laugh and began to circle me slowly, her heels crunching against the snowy ground as she moved. I could feel her presence behind me, beside me, like a predator savoring the moment before the kill.

"Well," she said smoothly, her voice dripping with satisfaction, "since tonight will be your last night on this earth, I suppose there's no harm in telling you everything."

She stopped in front of me again, her smile cruel.

"I'll tell you all the secrets you never expected to hear. After all, once I'm done talking, there will be no place for you in this world anymore. Consider it my regalo di Capodanno (New Year's gift)."

My eyes never left hers.

"You wanted to know how I escaped death back then?" she continued.

"Thanks to my most loyal, most devoted man, the one I planted right beside you all these years, I survived."

My chest tightened instantly.

So I was right.

There truly was a mole.

Bianca smiled wider when she saw my reaction and continued, enjoying every second of it.

"While the execution was being carried out," she said calmly, "he made sure the blade missed the place where I would bleed out completely. He made sure I lived."

She leaned closer.

"Do you want to know who that man is?"

My blood roared in my ears.

Only one man had overseen that execution.

My eyes snapped instinctively to where he stood.

Rocco.

No. That could not be.

Impossible. Rocco would never betray me like this.

My gaze locked onto him as he stood there, silent, unmoving, his face carefully blank. Before I could say anything, Bianca walked toward him slowly.

She stopped in front of him, and what happened next shocked me to the bone completely.

Rocco lowered his head and bowed.

"My lady," he said quietly.

The world shattered.

Betrayal. Shock. Disbelief. Humiliation.

It all crashed into me at once.

I staggered back a step, my chest tightening painfully as my heart slammed hard against my ribs.

Rocco is the mole???

My most trusted man is the one plotting behind my back???

The one who had stood beside me for years. The one I trusted more than anyone, even more than Dante.

No wonder.

I had said it countless times.

Someone was feeding the Bloodhounds information. That was why I could never catch them, that's why it always looked like someone tipped them off whenever we were close to catching them.

So it was him.

But how?

Rocco and Bianca were never close back then. They barely spoke.

When did everything go wrong?

Bianca laughed and patted his shoulder, and she looked utterly pleased.

"Bravo," she said lightly. "You. May. Rise."

Rocco straightened slowly, his face completely devoid of emotions.

My vision blurred red.

This could not be real.

It could not.

Rocco was not just my capo. He was my blood. My fratello (brother).

The pain of betrayal punched straight through my chest, sharp and brutal, and for the first time in years, I felt something dangerously close to breaking apart inside.

Bianca turned back to me, her face glowing with triumph.

"Don Romano," she mocked, her voice thick with satisfaction.

"How does it feel knowing that the man you trusted the most has been the one destroying your life all this while? Does it hurt? Do you feel like crying right now???"

I ignored her completely.

My feet moved on their own, carrying me toward Rocco.

Then I stopped right in front of him.

We stared at each other without saying anything.

The look in his eyes was unfamiliar.

Cold, indifferent, and intense.

This was definitely not the man who had stood by me for over ten years. This was not the Rocco who stood by me ten years ago, fighting rivals and enemies by my side.

This was not the fratello who took five different bullets for me.

What went wrong??? Had I hurt him in some way I wasn't aware of???

What could Bianca have promised him to make him throw away everything we had over the years???

I swallowed hard, forcing down the lump in my throat and forcing my voice not to crack.

"Rocco," I rasped, my voice eventually breaking despite the effort.

"Perché (why)?"