as Enzo emerges from the bedroom, coming to a stand behind Jared.
“John and James–our biological father–are estranged brothers, but it wasn’t always like that. Your mother married John when they were young, and they were happy at first, but John’s job as a police officer changed him. James was always on the wrong side of the law while John took his job a little too close to heart, and I think that’s what broke him at the end. I think he realized that nothing is as simple as good and bad, black and white. He ended up with a case involving the King Family.” Jared pauses, looking between Enzo and me. Have we been connected to one another since before our own births?
“Many of his own men, people he considered to be his best friends, were dying left and right. Killed mostly in the line of duty, but because there were many problems in the family back then, most died trying to take down The King Empire. During that time, John started working with the FBI, and that’s when John and your mother’s marriage turned dark. As he became more and more consumed with finding out what he could with the King family, his mind turned dark. Verbal abuse turned into physical abuse, and eventually, your mom was running. Running from a life she felt she had caused.”
“Wait. My mom felt she caused all these problems?” I can’t even wrap my head around this. My mother couldn’t be to blame. Then again, I thought John was a perfect angel. It was all a lie.
“Just listen,” Jared continues. “Then your mom fell pregnant with you. Now, I say fell because it wasn’t a planned pregnancy. Your mother had been seeing James behind John’s back. Most of the time, it was just out of comfort but eventually, it morphed into so much more. Anyway, John came home and found out about your mother’s affair. She had to tell him she was pregnant. He would have found out anyway. And thus, this started the long war of hate between the two brothers.
“Now, I’m not sure if the abuse stopped, but your mother broke off all contact with James. Told him to leave her alone. Maybe John simply made her keep it secret, or he actually changed. I do know that he did threaten to take you away if she ever told him. John later discovered our father was working for the King family. This only fueled his rage more. So, when your mother died, he used you. He made an agreement with Lorenzo putting you in the line of fire. He knew what he was doing. He just wasn’t seeing it for all it was… His need for vengeance and revenge was more important than his love for a child who was never his,” Jared finishes, and I can’t help but grab the bottle of whiskey again. This is too much.
Are there even words to describe how I’m feeling? Enzo killed John—someone I considered to be my father, but had he deserved it all along? Had he really beat my mother? Had he hurt the person I loved most and then used me for revenge?
The whiskey warmed me all over again as my insides burned like fire. “This is so fucked up,” I whisper into the air. Sitting the whiskey back down on the table, I look over at both of them.
“How did you find all this out?”
Jared smirks. “Well, asshole over here couldn’t handle losing you. He needed something to hold onto. I went to my father to do a little digging, and he told me. Turns out, on your mother’s death bed, she let our father know. She told him everything.”
I stare deeply into Enzo’s eyes. In them, I can see the flames of fire flickering back and forth. He did come for me. He wanted to save me. He may have been a man of death who held pain and heartache, but he knew love. After all, his vengeance was fueled by his love for his mother.
I take a deep breath, trying to digest all of it. It felt like one of those huge pills you had to take when you were sick. The bigger the pill, the harder it is to swallow.
“Let me recap, John and James are brothers. My mom married John, cheated on him with James because John was abusive. She then ended up pregnant with me, but only managed to stay with John because he said