Two loud bangs.
No.
Warm liquid sprays all over me.
No.
The loud thud beside me has me moving my head and a displeasing smell in the air takes over. The man is no longer on top of me. He’s fallen to the side and his head has hit the floorboard. His gun is scattered at his feet and that’s when I realize the blood sprayed on me isn’t mine. It’s his. He’s been shot.
It’s not me…
I lift my gaze, desperately wiping away the blood on my hands, his blood, and then I see it.
No!
Giulio stands a couple feet away, a silver gun still pointed at the intruder.
No.
Waves of disbelief ripple through me as I stagger to my feet. What is going on? I’m in utter shock…I can’t even blink. My eyes widen at Giulio’s merciless, screwed up face. His darkened eyes say it all.
Giulio has killed him.
No!
I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say.
Giulio killed…
He lowers the gun and slips it into the waistband of his pajama bottoms. He doesn’t say a word; he only looks at me with his lips parted.
“You…you killed him! Oh my god. Oh my god!” My trembling finger points to the man between us. “What di-did you just do? Why did you do that?”
“Valencia…”
“Oh my god, Giulio! We need to call the police!”
“Lencia…” His attempt to calm me triggers me further. Air laced with the smell of metallic blood churns my stomach. When my gaze averts to Giulio’s gun, a terrifying conclusion consumes me. He has his own gun. My chest pinches. No. No, it can’t be.
“Why do you have a gun?” I stop him when he attempts to step forward. “No. Please stay there.”
Giulio raises his hands in surrender and sighs sharply. I don’t know who this man is anymore. It’s ludicrous to think that not too long ago we were devouring each other and now…this.
“Valencia.” His tone is softer than I imagine but it does not change a thing. Not a darn thing. He killed a man. Killed him! “You know I would never put my children in danger.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Why do you have a gun in the house with the twins?”
His lack of response leads me to clutch my throat. “Oh my god. You are scaring me, Giulio.”
Just then, the intruder groans, and I jolt back.
He’s alive.
We can call 911. We can extract information from him and enforce real justice. He knows about Addilyn. He’s our only hope. The police can make him lead us to Addilyn. My sweet Addilyn.
“Soon…” The intruder’s strained voice is weak. Dark blood seeps through his face covering when he coughs. “Soon it will happen and…without me…you…cannot stop it.”
Stop what?
Soon what happens? Until Addilyn comes back or until they…
Giulio slaughters my every last faith when he pulls out his gun and without warning fires three rounds into the man’s head.
No. No. No.
Holy…
Oh my god!
I stumble to the floor at the side of the counter. Blood. Blood is all I see and smell. I hate it. Hate it.
The man is sure to be dead now.
“What di-did you just do?” I’m so distressed, my own voice deceives me. “Oh my…Giulio, please call the police! Please! We need to call them right now!”
“No. No, this has to stay between us.”
“Ar-are you crazy?”
Giulio’s gaze remains distant. I don’t want to believe it. Giulio being capable of something like this is beyond imaginable. He just killed a man who may have been our only chance of finding our youngest daughter.
He’s killed the hope I’m searching for, the same one he claims to be looking for too.
“Please. If you don’t call them, I will.”
“No, we cannot. This has to stay between us.”
“No. The kids…what if they heard it all?”
“It has a silencer and I locked their doors, but if they did, we can say it was a car backfiring.”
“That was supposed to be quieter?” I shriek, shaking my head as the tears begin to fall. I wipe them away and summon the strength to stand back up, away from the lifeless man. “No. You’re acting all secretive. I am going to call the police and—”
“We cannot go to the police with this. This has to stay between us, please. I’ll call somebody to clean up this mess and discard the body. It will be as if nothing ever happened.”
“As if nothing happened? What the hell you are talking about?!”
“Please, Valencia…” he pleads with a staggered breath. “We cannot go to the police.”
“Are you hearing yourself right now?”
“I…”
“Why are you talking like this? Why? Why are—”
“BECAUSE HE ISN’T THE FIRST PERSON I HAVE KILLED!”
No.
I take a step back and hit the edge of the barstool. No. The air in my lungs is barely enough to push out a full breath. No. It can’t be true. What he just told me cannot be true.
“He…he isn’t the…” Swallowing thickly, his face falls. “The first person I have…”
Where is the man I fell in love with?
“Valencia?”
Where is the man I love?
“Lencia…”
Where’s my love?
“I’ve killed somebody else,” Giulio repeats for the second time. “Please, say something.”
This time it feels real. “When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“Who?”
Giulio stumbles on the question. His head is down, as if he’s ashamed and unable to find his voice. It’s ironic, that the simplest question is also the most complex. When he steps closer to me this time, I have no strength to look away or stop him. I only stare deep, sickened and afraid.
“Who?”
Silence.
“Who did you kill?”
A pause…and then…
“My father’s death wasn’t a suicide. I killed him. I shot him dead.”
Tears well in Giulio’s eyes and it hurts me, just as much as it hurts him. Because once we were so close. So united. I thought this could be forever. I thought we trusted one another. I thought we did not hide anything from each other.
Oh my god.
It feels as though he’s ripped my heart out and split it in two, because right here standing in front of him, I am heartbroken. I am lost. And I
