Redeemed (Dirty Air #4)(91)

Matteo’s reddened cheeks lose their coloring. “My brother can’t come here.”

“Why not? Where is he? I’ll pay for anything he needs to get here.”

Matteo’s head hangs against his chest.

My stomach drops, and a chill spreads across my skin. “Where is your brother, Matteo?” I bite out harsher than intended.

Matteo sits in silence, staring at his hands.

My patience wanes as Matteo fails to respond. “I’m going to need you to tell me how I can get in contact with Dominic. I don’t care if he’s a bad person or troubled, I just need to meet with him once to clear the air. I’ll fix the rest.”

He looks at me, pain etched into his face like permanent wrinkles. “You can’t get in contact with my brother because he’s dead.”





40





Santiago





I choke on my breath of air.

Dead?

Dead?!

How the fuck am I supposed to fix this if the one man I need isn’t alive to begin with? I wipe my sweaty palms down my pants.

What the hell is Chloe supposed to do if her father isn’t even alive?

I settle on one question despite the flood of them filling my head. “What happened?”

Matteo places the picture frame facedown on the coffee table. “My brother had issues.”

“What kind of issues?”

“The kind that end with an early death.”

I can’t say I’m exactly surprised. Based on the one interaction I had with Chloe’s mom and the stories, it seems like she had a type.

“I’m sorry about your loss.”

His head drops. “Me too. The pain gets easier, but then something like this happens to bring it all back again.”

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a sibling who struggled and passed away. The thought of losing my sister alone makes me sick.” I love Maya with everything in me. If she battled the same problems as Chloe’s dad, a part of me would struggle with her.

“You have no idea the things I did to help him out. I’m not proud of half of them, but I didn’t have a choice. He was my brother.”

“I can tell you cared about him a lot.”

“It wasn’t enough in the end. I failed him. And now, he’s not here, and Chloe… God, what am I going to do?” He runs both hands through his dark hair.

“You need to tell her the truth.” I disguise the tremble in my voice. The idea of this makes me sick with nausea.

As much as I hate what happened to Chloe’s father, avoiding the topic won’t bring him back. Chloe deserves to know what happened to him before she invests more of her feelings into her relationship with Matteo.

“He’s still getting me into trouble, even after all this time.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to him?”

“Drugs, alcohol, legal issues. You name it, he struggled with it. He was a mess up until the day he died, but I loved him despite it all. The summer before he passed, he got into some harder stuff, and his body couldn’t keep up. He died of cardiac arrest in the middle of a rat-infested apartment in New York City. He wasn’t even found until two days after he passed. My mother was absolutely destroyed. And me—” He clears his throat as he brushes away a single tear away from his cheek.

Shit. What an awful way to go. “I’m sorry for your loss. Truly I am.”

“Losing a brother is hard. But losing a twin is like someone cut off my arm.”

I cringe.

He swears something in Italian. “Sorry, that was a bad choice of words. It’s just, when I lost my twin, it was like I lost a part of myself that I never got back. Even with all his problems, we were close. I mean, we were mirror copies of one another, and we loved it.” A small smile spreads across Matteo’s lips. “It got us in all kinds of situations growing up. But I was loyal to a fault, and I bailed him out way too many times in life. Maybe I was part of the problem, always saving him. It took me a decade to let go of my guilt about his death. I was consumed by the idea that maybe if I had gotten him help sooner, he could still be here today. Maybe he could’ve had this conversation with you after all. Maybe he could’ve met his daughter.” His eyes fall to his lap. One tear slips down his face before landing on his clenched hands.

“I can’t imagine how hard it was for you.”

“How am I supposed to tell Chloe that I’m not her father and that her real dad is dead?” His voice cracks.

“I’m not sure there is an easy way to tell her.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think I can do it. It would destroy her.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t think you can do it’? You need to tell her.” I don’t like the look on his face. I don’t like it one bit.

“How do you tell someone their real father is dead? How can you expect me to do that?”

“I don’t know how you should tell her, but you will do it. She deserves to hear it from you.”

“What if you told her instead of me?”

I sputter. “What?” This man is absolutely psychotic.

“Yes. You’re her boyfriend. She trusts you the most. It would be easiest coming from you than me—someone who is basically a stranger. You can soften the blow, and then I’ll share who my brother was with her once she’s ready.”