They Loved Their White Moonlight, Till I Disappeared Forever Chapter 02

They Loved Their White Moonlight, Till I Disappeared Forever Chapter 02

Zane called over two security guards and had them haul me up from the floor. When he saw my deathly pale face, vomit still smeared at the corner of my mouth, mockery flashed in his eyes.

“Who’s the performance for? There’s no audience here. If you wanted to die, you should’ve picked a more crowded venue. This place is too remote. No one would have seen you.”

A faint smile touched my lips.

He thought I was faking.

“Zane, if this place is so remote, why are you here? Did you come looking for me?”

Zane’s expression tightened for a split second before a sneer replaced it.

“Seraphina is back. I don’t want you ruining her holiday. She should be with family. If you really want to die, go do it somewhere else.”

Zane had them drag me out of the building and toss my canvas bag after me. He stood in the doorway, looking down at me as if I were something filthy he’d scraped off his shoe.

“You think I’ll give a damn what happens to you once you’re out of my sight?”

I looked up and smiled at him.

Perfect. That was exactly what I wanted.

I left everything else behind. I ran for the Brooklyn Bridge and jumped.

The East River was bone-chillingly cold. I didn’t struggle. I let myself sink.

I was almost home.

I wondered if Mom was making pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving.

Just as my vision went black, a hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me violently from the water.

“Helena! What the hell are you doing now?”

I opened my eyes to see the man who had been so calm just moments ago, now soaked to the bone. His face was pale, his body wracked with coughs, but his eyes were locked on me.

“You think faking suicide erases what you did to Seraphina?”

I looked at him calmly.

“Then why didn’t you let me die? If I’m dead, isn’t that exactly what you all want?”

Zane looked like I’d slapped him. The rims of his eyes turned red.

“Seraphina just got back. I just don’t want you upsetting her again.”

Seeing the red in his eyes, I was pulled back to the past.

When Zane’s family first fell apart, he endured all kinds of humiliation. His health had always been fragile, and he kept everything bottled up. When the pressure got to be too much, he’d never say a word, but his eyes would turn red. Back then, I was the only one who could talk him down.

But what right did he have to look so hurt now?

For four years, he was the one who had humiliated me, who had stripped me of my humanity.

It seemed I wasn’t allowed to die here. I picked up the canvas bag from the ground and started walking toward my brother’s house.

Seeing me head back, Zane gripped my wrist and fell into step behind me.

“You have too many tricks. If I don’t watch you, God knows what you’ll pull on the way. Once I hand you over to Matteo, you’re his problem.”

I stopped in my tracks.

In this world, the person who wanted me dead most was my brother, Matteo Vitale, a tenured professor of cardiothoracic surgery.

That was why, when they drove me out all those years ago, I never dared to look back.

Now it seemed that going there might be the easiest way to leave after all.