Chapter 9 - The Ashes of the Past
Julian backed toward the curtain at the rear of the stage, his eyes wild and bloodshot like a trapped animal.
"You think you're so smart, Dante?!" Julian spat, dropping his refined accent entirely as his calm facade shattered into ugly rage. "You always acted like the saint! The grand protector of the family! You looked down on me every single day!"
"I gave you half of everything I owned!" Dante roared, his voice booming across the grand hall, shaking the crystal chandeliers above. "I took a bullet for you in Chicago! I burned my own skin dragging you out of our father's house!"
"Because you're a fool!" Julian laughed maniacally, a dark, twisted grin spreading across his face. "You dragged me out of that house, but you didn't know who started the fire in the first place!"
The entire room went breathless.
Dante’s eyes narrowed into slivers of dark ice. "What did you just say?"
"Father found out I wasn't his son!" Julian sneered, pulling off his black leather glove and throwing it onto the floor, revealing smooth, unblemished skin beneath—no burn scars at all. "He was going to disinherit me that very night! He was going to throw me into the street with nothing!"
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Julian leaned in close, his voice dripping with venomous pleasure. "So I locked his bedroom door from the outside and lit the gasoline myself. I burned the old man alive, Dante! And you spent ten years playing hero for his killer!"
👉 How will Dante react to the horrific confession that his father was murdered by the brother he saved?
