Chapter 177: It Was An Accident

Don’s lips lifted in a slow, lazy smile. He turned back to the view.

Meanwhile, Veronica clutched Luca’s face again, hands trembling as she pressed her lips to his. “Luca…please, please beg him to stop…” she whispered.

Luca tried to steady her as Marco reached them.

“Careful,” he instructed.

“Always.” Marco whispered.

Marco’s hands gripped her gently to remove her from the scene, but Vee was unstoppable. With a sudden, panicked strength, she yanked herself free, the disability in her leg causing her to collapse backward onto the ground. Luca lunged instinctively, arms outstretched, to break her fall as the whip—blind and cruel—sliced through the air again.

The leather wrapped around both of them, striking Vee across the chest. Pain shot through her and she let out a scream. Her body convulsed, shock and pain twisting her movements, but even through it, she clung to him with a feral determination.

“No!!!” Luca yelled.

Marco reacted immediately, scooping Vee up from him.

In one fluid, violent motion, Luca twisted, planting his feet into the ground. His bound wrists didn’t slow him. He lunged. His hands found the man’s throat. His fingers flexed. His muscles tightened. He had one sole purpose, to kill him right then and there.

The man barely had time to react.

A choked gasp escaped him as Luca’s grip crushed inward, cutting off air, cutting off thought, cutting off everything.

“Luca…Luca please…stop!”

Luca didn’t hear her.

Don watched the scene unfold without moving.

“Luca, it was an accident!” Vee tried again. “Somebody stop him!”

But no one moved.

The man’s eyes bulged, veins straining against the pressure, lips parting in a silent, suffocating plea. The whip slipped from his fingers, hitting the ground.

Still—Luca squeezed.

Vee screamed, demanding to be heard and that was what finally reached him.

He let go.

The man collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, hovering dangerously close to death.

Luca bent and picked up the whip before turning to Vee. “Are you okay?”

“Yes! Yes…” Vee nodded quickly. “please, Luca make it stop. Beg if you have to. Apologise, just do it for me. Please…”

He turned his head to Marco. “Take her to the annex. Have Nonnina look her over before taking her back to the hospital.”

“No, I’ll wait for you,” Vee argued immediately, panic flaring again.

Marco carefully helped her get settled into the wheelchair. Luca waited until she was wheeled away.

Only when she disappeared from view did Luca move.

He walked back toward his father.

Every step leaving faint traces of blood behind him.

He stopped in front of Don. Then extended the whip.

“You can finish the job,” Luca said, “but not when she is here.”

“She cannot handle this life, Luca,” Don said. “She is soft. She will break.”

Luca’s body throbbed with every heartbeat, pain radiating across his back in hot, pulsing waves. “Is that all you see?” he asked. “Is all you see her weakness?”

Don said nothing.

“Did you not see how much that woman loves me?”

“Love is never enough,” Don said. “Men like us… we don’t deserve love. It is the payment for all our sins.”

He understood exactly what his father meant. Luca shook his head slowly, dismissively. “I think you should get off my back for a minute,” he muttered, tone laced with dry irritation, “and ride on Julian’s, father.” He gestured lazily toward his brother with his still-bound wrists.

Luca turned to walk away.

But Don’s voice stopped him. “I have one question, Luca.”

Luca paused, his back still to his father.

“If,” Don continued, “and I know it is definitely going to happen… if one day she decides she has had enough of this life—of you—and cannot stay with you anymore…” He let the words breathe. Let them sink in. “Will you be able to carry out her sentence?”

Luca exhaled slowly, then finally turned his head just enough for his voice to carry back. “Maybe I will have a ten-year-old son to beg for her life too.”

He walked off, blood still marking his path.

Marco appeared just then.

Luca stopped in front of him and extended his wrists.

Marco worked quickly, untying the bindings.

Luca flexed his hands once the rope fell away.

“I think somewhere inside you…” Julian’s voice pulled his father’s attention back from Luca, “you wish he were your only son.”

Don’s gaze shifted slowly to Julian. “Okay,” Don said, “we are doing this again.”

“It’s always been him,” he continued. “You love him more because you love his mother more.”

“You are such a whiny little bitch. What do you want from me?” Don demanded. “Hmm? I gave both of you the same opportunities.” He took a step closer. “You are fucking older than him,” he continued, each word hitting harder than the last, “and he excelled at everything. Everything.”

Julian’s fingers curled slightly on the armrest of his wheelchair, the only outward sign that the words were getting through.

“Did you think this was some kind of monarchy?” Don went on. “That everything would be handed over just because you got lucky enough to slide out of your mother’s birth canal first? I tolerated your failure,” Don said. “I pitied your inadequacy because I felt guilt toward your mother.”

Julian’s jaw tightened, his composure fracturing just enough to let the crack show.

“Luca,” Don continued, “had to work twice as hard. Who the fuck do you think I would hand my life over to?” Don snapped, the calm shattering completely. “You? You have failed at everything,” he said, “including fucking your brother’s wife.” “Fucking bitch,” he muttered under his breath as he turned, already done with the conversation, already dismissing Julian.

Then he walked away, leaving behind the wreckage.

Julian sat there in his wheelchair, the world around him suddenly too large, too quiet. The doctor lingered at a cautious distance, unsure whether to approach, while the man Luca had nearly strangled coughed weakly on the ground, dragging in air.

Don’s words settled.

He looked up at his doctor. “Get me away from here,” Julian snapped. “Away from this house. Get me back to my own house, goddamnit!”

(Brought to you by Jennifer Willard)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep