Sensual Redamancy

Chapter 22

•DOMINIC•

A flood of evidential photographs rained on my face from a gruff hand, forcing me to sharply tilt my face to the side. "You've grown so soft it insults my bloodline," Teodoro accused venomously, his angry eyes undoubtedly burning holes through my guilty conscience.

I remained calm and composed, shrugging some clinging pieces off my shoulders as I dragged the chair backwards to take a seat.

Despite sitting across from my father with his home office desk separating us, I knew I wasn't entirely safe. Lately, his violent tendencies knew no bounds and I wasn't so sure which was more explosive, his aggressive temper or the impatience bubbling inside me to lash out at him for piling things that made me hate not only him but myself as well.

Teodoro banged his fist loudly on the desk, openly demanding my undivided attention which I calmly awarded him.

"At this point," he seethed gruffly, crunching a piece of paper lying on the desk in his hand, "Greta is more a Bernardi than you are and you're supposed to be my fucking heir with that willy-nilly doormat behaviour."

To say his fury came as a shock to me would be a hypocritical atrocity, given I'd known him for as long as I'd lived. I'd expected worse, and still, no ounce of regret for braving the odds and following my heart plundered my conscience.

My wife was well-fed and feeling better this morning to the extent of grinning despite the bleakness of the situation and that was all I could think about. The rest was bullshit and mere irritable barking.

"Dominic Bernardi!" Teodoro barked louder than I'd heard in a while. "I am talking to you and I demand you give me answers. I ask you to give her a hard time and you feed and take her out on a run?"

"You raised your dirty hands to my wife, Father, and left a visible mark for me to see your aggressive print on her," I pointed out gingerly, my fist slowly clenching at the mere memory of the welt on her cheek. "I thought you'd been doing a great job pretending to be a man of honour until you spat on your promises."

Teodoro scrunched his brows furiously, leaning forward towards me with his palms anchored on the desk. "Did your source perhaps mention that bratty wife of yours threw up on me like filth?"

Even his tone had disgust laced all over it. I couldn't imagine it without stretching my lips into an uncontrollable sharp smirk. That'd be quite an interesting sight to see on a proud and pompous man like him.

"You definitely did something so disgusting she couldn't control nature," I retorted cynically, looking straight into his eyes. "Have you reached a level so filthy you deserve to have vomit all over you?"

I'd anticipated a violent reaction from the second I walked through the door and he didn't disappoint, raising his hand to strike me the second I let the insult spill from my mouth.

I swiftly stood up, catching his hand just in time before he could slap me, my fist tightly clenched around his pulsating wrist.

"Ava Martel lies paralysed in her bed and the situation could be permanent," I seethed through gritted teeth, releasing all the anger I'd caged for way too long. "She's a fucking child and you promised you wouldn't touch even a single strand of her hair."

The only reason I'd agreed to get roped into his diabolical scheme of giving Sofia a cold shoulder had been solely for her sister and that sacrifice proved pointless given her life was hanging by a thread.

He'd given orders to induce her paralysis and if it'd get as bad as her losing her life, I'd lose the one person I burned to keep by my side for as long as forever lasted.