Chapter 4 - The Sister’s Betrayal
The Battalia estate was a fortress of limestone and iron,
hidden behind high walls and guarded by men who looked like they had never known peace.
I was given a suite of rooms that were more luxurious than my entire apartment building,
filled with flowers and books and clothes that were all in my size.
Carter spent his days in meetings,
his voice muffled by heavy mahogany doors as he planned his retaliation against the Morettis.
I felt like a bird in a gilded cage,
but every night,
he would come to my room,
his presence a grounding force in the middle of the chaos.
One afternoon,
a maid brought me a letter that had been delivered to the gate,
its envelope marked with Vanessa’s familiar,
looped handwriting.
“Diana,
please,”
the letter began,
“I know you’re with him,
and I’m terrified for you.”
“Meet me at the old pier tonight at midnight,
I have a way to get you out of the city and away from his influence.”
I felt a pang of guilt,
wondering if I had judged my sister too harshly,
if her jealousy had simply been a mask for her concern.
I didn't tell Carter about the letter,
believing that this was a family matter that I needed to handle on my own.
I waited until the house was quiet,
slipping out through a servant’s entrance that I had discovered during my explorations.
The pier was a desolate place,
the wood rotting and the water of the Delaware River lapping against the pilings with a mournful sound.
Vanessa was waiting for me,
but she wasn't alone;
two men in dark jackets stood behind her,
their faces hidden by the shadows of their caps.
“Vanessa?”
I called out,
a sudden chill running down my spine that had nothing to do with the river breeze.
“You’re late,
Diana,”
she said,
her voice lacking its usual warmth and replaced by something cold and brittle.
“I told the Morettis you would be here by eleven.”
I froze,
the betrayal hitting me with the force of a physical blow to the chest.
“You sold me out?”
I whispered,
looking at the sister I had spent my life trying to please.
“You were always the talented one,
the smart one,
the one Dad loved,”
she spat,
her face contorted with a lifetime of resentment.
“And then Carter Battalia,
the one man I wanted,
looks at you like you’re the sun?”
“I’m not letting you have him,
Diana,
even if I have to see you in a casket to stop it.”
The men stepped forward,
and I realized that the "way out of the city" was a one-way trip to the bottom of the river.
I tried to run,
but the pier was a dead end,
and the shadows were closing in around me.
Then,
the silence was shattered by the roar of an engine,
and a car surged onto the pier,
its headlights blinding the men and my sister.
Carter stepped out before the wheels had even stopped spinning,
his shotgun held at his hip with a casual,
deadly intent.
“I told you I’d be watching,
Diana,”
he said,
his voice a low growl that made the men stumble back in terror.
May you like
“And I told your sister that if she ever touched you,
I’d burn her world to the ground.”
