Double Betrayal, Broken Donna Chapter 05
A man was standing in the hallway. He looked at Rocco and let out a laugh.
“So you’re the husband. The one who’s been sleeping with Teresa behind Camelia’s back.”
“But did you know Teresa’s the one who handed Camelia over to me in the first place?”
Rocco went dead still. His head came up slow.
“What did you just say?”
He didn’t know how the words came out. His fists were locked at his sides, knuckles white as bone.
He watched the man’s mouth move. Every word out of his mouth was filth – and it just kept coming.
“Teresa was the one I wanted. But she was a coward – and mean clear through.”
“She offered me Camelia instead – her idea, from beginning to end. That spiked drink? Teresa mixed it
herself and put it in Camelia’s hand herself.”
“And after I was done? Teresa held her and sobbed, screamed in my face like I was the monster. Should’ve
won an Oscar. She’s a born performer.”
He gave a slow clap – once, twice, three times. Each one hit Rocco in the chest like a punch.
His jaw was clenched so hard it ached. The edges of his vision had gone red.
“Is any of that true?”
Lucius looked him up and down, something close to pity on his face.
“Not as sharp as your reputation suggests, are you? She played you like a fiddle.”
“She can fake anything. She never runs out of lies.”
“When I found out Camelia was pregnant, I was going to do right by her. It was my blood, after all.”
“But Teresa told me the child wasn’t mine. Said Camelia slept around that the baby could’ve been
anyone’s.”
He sneered.
“I believed her. It took me years to find out the baby really was mine.”
“As for why she lied about that…”
He stopped. His eyes drifted past Rocco, toward the hospital room.
Teresa was upright in the hospital bed, white as the sheets. Her expression had cracked wide open with
terror, her eyes locked on Lucius.
“Lucius’ What are you doing here?” she screamed.
Her fists twisted in the bedsheets. She was shaking her head, mouthing no, no, no over and over begging
him to stop.
–
Rocco watched her. Rage, humiliation, the sick feeling of a lie finally coming to the surface all of it hit at
once.
But underneath it all was the need to know. The real story. Every last piece of it.
He turned back to Lucius.
“Why did she lie?”
Lucius shrugged. His voice went almost gentle.
–
“My dear stepsister doesn’t want me talking. And honestly, Don Caruso some things are better left
unknown.”
“The truth might break you worse than she ever did.”
Rocco grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out of the doorway, then slammed him against the corridor
wall.
The words ground their way out of him. “Tell me everything. Now.”
Lucius didn’t flinch. There was nothing sane left behind those eyes.
“You still don’t get it?” He almost laughed.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out a folded certificate. He flipped it open and held it up to Rocco’s face.
An official marriage certificate stared back at him. Teresa and Lucius. Husband and wife.
“I’ll tell you why.”
–
“Teresa’s wired wrong. She doesn’t love anyone not really. But she’s obsessed with men who’ve been with
Camelia first.”
“For ten years, I was the only man who’d been with Camelia. So when I got out of prison, Teresa came to me.
She proposed marriage herself.”
“A few years in, she disappeared.”
“I spent years looking for her. Then I found out she’d sunk her hooks into you.”
Lucius watched the realization tear through Rocco’s face. His own grin widened.
“At first, I couldn’t figure out why she’d want you.”
“I tailed her for months. And the thing is – Teresa really does care about Camelia. That part’s not fake. She
really does think of her as her best friend.”
“She’s just so broken she can’t stop herself from sleeping with every man Camelia gets close to ”
Rocco’s grip went slack. The hallway tilted. Sound came in waves – there, then gone, then there again
Time slipped. He didn’t know how long he stood there before he could really breathe again. Lucius was still
watching him, patient as a hunter.
“So Camelia never went to you willingly. The two of you set her up. You raped her and Teresa made it
happen.”
Lucius raised an eyebrow. Nodded once.
“That’s right.”
Rocco swayed on his feet. The absurdity of it – all of it – pressed down on him like a physical weight. And
beneath the absurdity: fear. Raw, animal fear.
He started moving blind, frantic, tearing away from the wall – muttering under his breath.
“Camelia. I have to find Camelia.”
He made it one step before fingers caught the back of his jacket and held him there.