Page 130 of Poisoned Promise
Three days and finally the circus around me calms enough that sleep through the night with Felix right beside me.
Cracked ribs, two broken fingers, a scalp laceration, concussion, several deep contusions and minute abdominal bleeding; all worth it to see the look on Alex’s face when we crawled home.
Never in my life did I think I could love him more than I already did, but it’s possible.
The sun streams in through my window, a perfect blue sky stretches to the horizon without a single hint of any lingering smoke from the blaze that consumed the Salamone Estate, birdsflit back and forth with one another, and I rest back against the pillows knowing I should get up.
For once, I’m enjoying the peace.
Painkillers keep the pain dulled and the softness of the bed mingled with the lingering scent of Felix is enough to soothe me almost right back to sleep. I almost give in if not for the knock at the door.
“Mom?”
“Alex? You okay, honey?”
The door cracks open and Alex peeks in through the gap. “Can we talk?” He pushes the door wider and steps in. “Felix said… he said you looked good today so maybe we could talk.”
My brows twitch, pulling at the scratches left down my cheek by Caterina. “Honey, you can always come and talk to me.” I brace my hands on the bed and push myself up further.
“I know. But this…” He swallows nervously. “I wanted totalktalk.”
“An important talk?” Despite knowing that I can handle whatever he says, my stomach tightens. “Sure, honey. We can talk. Come in.”
The way he closes the door and scurries toward me is reminiscent of when he was just a toddler, and warmth blooms through my chest. As soon as he sits on the edge of the bed, I take his hand between both of mine.
“Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing is wrong,” Alex says quietly. “I just… I want to understand everything that happened. Felix won’t tell me howhe got hurt, how you got hurt, or even why that man kidnapped me. He told me it wasn’t his story to tell.”
“He’s right.”
“And before you say I’m not old enough to understand, I feel like since I lived through a lot of it, I deserve to know the truth.”
I wince slightly. “I raised you too well,” I chuckle. “You’re right. I suppose you do deserve to know the truth. What… what do you want to know?”
He glances down at our joined hands, then he shifts toward me more. “Everything?”
“Everything is a big ask, honey.”
“Then… your old life, why did you really leave?”
It’s a long story when I have to lay it out in detail to Alex, but to his nature he sits through the entire thing and listens as intently as he did when he was a child and still wanted me to read to him.
I explain all about Nico, telling him the truth about the attack and the reason I killed him, then the reason why I left.
Repeating the misunderstandings between Felix and I feels a little silly now that everything is out in the open, but it’s important to know the context to why I left and why I hid for so many years.
Explaining Caterina is like explaining the Devil but Alex doesn’t flinch when I detail why she hunted down my family, and why she was so determined to kill both of us.
But the entire story hinges on one detail that the idea of sharing makes my blood run cold.
“Alex… the reason Nico hated me so much, and the reason Caterina did as well was because of Felix. Nico felt like I was taking Felix from him and Caterina seemingly felt the same toward the end. He’s a powerful man and his influence was the key to her power. She kept him under her thumb using guilt for years.”
“But why?” Alex asks softly. “Just because he loves you?”
“Partly, yes. But… Alex, I was pregnant back then. And Felix was the father. That pregnancy is what triggered Nico’s jealousy and in short, triggered the whole thing.”
Alex blinks at me with wide eyes. “Pregnant?”
