Chapter 606: You Work For My Money

"But I also think you’ll cooperate when I give you the right reason." Vee assured her.

Val’s eyes narrowed. "What reason?"

"Matteo is currently with me. You work for my money," Vee said, "or I throw his lifeless body at your feet."

Every trace of colour disappeared from Val’s face.

"You will not!" Her chair scraped against the floor as she jerked forward against the cuffs. "You will not touch him! No matter how far gone you are in this madness, you cannot hurt him!" Val yelled. She looked truly terrified.

"You’re right," Vee said.

Val stopped struggling.

Relief flickered across her face.

Vee got to her feet. "I can’t.... But Don can."

"Vee! Don’t hurt my baby," Val cried.

"You did this!" Vee snapped. "You did! Actions come with consequences. You had everything handed to you, Val. Everything. And you tore everyone down with your fucking crusade."

"I was trying to help—"

"You were trying to control everyone!" Vee’s voice bounced off the walls of the interrogation room. "You looked at me, your sister, and decided you knew better than I did what my life should look like. You tried to take away my happiness because you didn’t approve of it. What else could I have done for you, Val?" she demanded.

"What else? Where did I go wrong?"

"I couldn’t watch what this was doing to you, sis," Val cried.

Vee stared at her in disbelief. "I am happy."

"You were—"

"I am happy!" Vee shouted. "Why couldn’t you just leave it at that?"

"Because you were happy but constantly in danger!"

"And that was my choice!" Vee pressed a hand against her chest. "It is my choice to love whoever I want. My choice. Not yours. You chose Ricardo at first, and we all bent around it despite everything he had done. We accommodated it because you loved him. Luca made gaps for you because you are my sister. Do you understand that?"

"He made exceptions. He protected you. He tolerated things from you he would never have tolerated from anyone else because you mattered to me. He adored you. You broke his heart," Vee said. "You broke our hearts. I can never forgive you."

Val lowered her eyes. "I’m sorry I hurt you," she whispered. "But I’m not sorry for trying to help you."

"I’m going to make sure you are served to the most brutal and sadistic men I have access to. I will make sure you learn exactly how hard your life would have been. How hard it should have been before Luca stepped in and changed it."

"You wouldn’t."

"You still don’t understand me."

Val pulled against the cuffs. "Vee, please."

"Then I will let you watch as everything you have held on to is stripped from you while you still breathe."

Val’s breathing became ragged.

Vee’s voice stayed frighteningly even. "You wanted Luca gone because you thought my life would somehow become better without him. You were willing to destroy the one thing that finally made me feel safe because you decided you knew what happiness was supposed to look like for me."

Tears gathered in Vee’s eyes again. Even now, after all this, part of her wanted to cross the room, hold her sister and somehow wake them both up from the nightmare their lives had become.

"You will watch your life collapse just as you wanted me to watch mine, sister."

"He has turned you into him," Val said sadly. "He has taken everything that made you my sister, killed it and made you his Donna. You cannot tell your left from your right anymore." Val’s eyes moved over her face as though searching for the sister she remembered. "He’s clouded you, owned you, finished you."

Vee smiled triumphantly. "I am a happily finished woman, dear sister."

Luca had not destroyed her. He had not stolen anything from her that she wanted back. If loving him had changed her, then fine. She had changed him too. They had built something between them that belonged to nobody else, and Valentina’s biggest mistake had been believing Vee needed rescuing from it.

"Do whatever you want to me," Val said. "Just don’t hurt my son, Vee." Val’s eyes pleaded with her.

"That is entirely up to you." Vee turned towards the door.

Behind her, the cuffs shifted as Val moved in the chair.

"Vee..."

Vee stopped with her hand on the door. "One thing is certain, Val." She looked back at her sister. "You will die." She opened the door and walked out.

Luca was waiting outside the false wall.

One look at her face told him enough.

Vee did not give him time to ask anything. "Where is Don?"

"I told him he could leave." Luca pushed away from the wall. "I’ll drive you home."

Vee nodded and walked ahead of him towards his office. She needed water. Her stomach had started turning again, whether from pregnancy, stress or the fact that she had just sat across from her sister and promised her death, she could not tell. She entered Luca’s office, crossed straight to the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.

The cap nearly slipped from her fingers.

Vee drank quickly, barely stopping to breathe.

Luca came in behind her. He could see her trembling.

Her hands shook around the plastic bottle, and her shoulders were too tense. She had managed to keep herself controlled inside that room, but now that Val could no longer see her, the cracks were beginning to show.

Luca did not ask if she was all right.

That would have been insulting.

He knew she was not.

Vee lowered the bottle and stared at the floor.

Luca stepped closer. He lifted her chin gently until she had no choice but to look at him. His other hand settled over her stomach. "You don’t have to lie to me, Bambola. Will you be able to kill your sister?"

Her eyes dropped away from his. "I’m sorry." she swallowed hard. "I’m sorry. I can’t."

"It’s okay... it’s okay, babe. I’ll find a way."

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