Beau's eyes went dark, terrifyingly devoid of warmth.
The mention of the circumstances of his birth sent a shard of ice through his heart, freezing him.
Finn laughed bitterly, wiping blood from his forehead onto his shoulder. "She told me you were a parasite! That you would always try to steal whatever was mine!"
A suffocating silence descended upon the room.
Beau lifted the back of his hand, casually wiping the blood from his split lip. When he spoke, his voice was unnaturally calm—and exponentially more terrifying because of it.
"You threw her away," Beau said quietly. "I simply picked her up."
Finn's expression turned downright murderous. "You bastard."
"You had her," Beau said, taking a step forward despite his assistant putting a cautious, warning hand on his chest. His dark eyes drilled into Finn. "You had someone who actually cared about you. And you treated her like she was completely disposable."
"You don't know a damn thing about us!"
"I know enough." Beau dropped his voice to a low, lethal purr. "You didn't want her at all... until you saw that I wanted her."
Finn went completely rigid. The air pulled out of his lungs.
For one brief, agonizing moment, no one moved. No one spoke.
CRASH!
The sharp, violent shatter of porcelain against marble made everyone in the room jump.
Giulia stood beside the tilted dining table, her chest heaving in short, shallow gasps. At her feet lay the shattered remnants of a serving plate she had thrown to the ground to get their attention.
Her hands were shaking violently. Her face was ashen, drained of all color. But her eyes—her wide, dark eyes—were burning with a raw, terrifying mixture of hurt, humiliation, and absolute hatred.
She looked at Beau first. Then at Finn. Her gaze darted back and forth between the two men as if the veil had finally been ripped away and she was seeing them for the very first time.
"Why..." Her voice cracked into a thin, fragile thread.
She swallowed hard, fighting for air, and tried again.
"Why did he say... that you got engaged to his girlfriend?"
Neither man answered. Neither man could even breathe.
Giulia let out a tiny, broken laugh. It was a horrifying sound.
Finn took a cautious, trembling step toward her, his posture softening into panic. "Giulia—"
"Don't."
The word was quiet, but it hit him like a physical wall. Finn stopped in his tracks.
She looked at him, tears finally pooling in her lower lashes, glistening under the chandeliers. "Don't you dare come any closer to me."
"Giulia, listen to me, it wasn't meant to happen like this," Finn pleaded, his voice cracking with desperation. "I love you. You know you're my girl."
Those words made something deep inside her break into a thousand sharp pieces.
Slowly, deliberately, Giulia turned her head toward Abby, who was still cowering near the counter. Abby instantly stiffened under the weight of her gaze.
Giulia lifted one trembling arm, her index finger pointing directly at Abby's heart.
"Then who is she?"
Abby's lips parted, but not a single sound came out. She shrank back against the marble.
Giulia's hand slowly shifted, her finger tracking across the room until it pointed straight at Beau's chest.
"And who the hell is he?"
Silence. Absolute silence.
Giulia looked between the three of them—the two brothers who had just beaten each other bloody, and the woman who had traded her friendship for a taste of status.
Neither of them had an answer. Because none of them saw her as a human being.
What was she to them? A sweet little secret? A discarded inconvenience? A trophy? A piece of leverage in a toxic family war? A game?
Her hand dropped limply to her side. She laughed again, a dark, hollow sound completely devoid of humor.
"One dates me..." Her voice trembled violently. "...gets bored of me..."
Finn's face crumbled. "Giulia, please—"
"...and passes his time with my best friend," she choked out, her gaze locking onto Abby, whose face had gone completely ghost-white.
Giulia's eyes snapped to Beau.
"And then he hands his sloppy seconds off to his brother!"
Beau's eyes widened, a sudden, rare look of genuine panic breaking through his stoic composure. "Giulia, that isn't—"
"AM I RIGHT?!"
Her voice exploded through the room, ringing off the tall ceilings like a battle cry.
The silence that followed was absolute. Giulia's chest rose and fell violently as hot tears finally spilled over her cheeks, cutting tracks through her makeup. She looked at Finn—the man she had once trusted. She looked at Abby—the woman she had called her sister. She looked at Beau—the predator who had dragged her deeper into his web.
She looked down at the massive, sparkling diamond ring on her left hand.
For three agonizing seconds, she simply stared at it.
Then, with a sharp, brutal motion, she yanked the ring off her finger.
Beau's breath caught. "Giulia, don't."
She didn't look at him. She raised her hand and threw the diamond with all the force left in her body.
It struck Beau squarely in the center of his chest before dropping to the floor, bouncing twice against the marble with a soft, metallic click. The sound was tiny, yet it echoed louder than the violent fight that had preceded it.
"Keep it," she whispered, her voice dangerously hollow.
Without waiting another second, Giulia turned on her heel and walked toward the exit.
"Giulia!" Finn yelled, taking a step to chase after her, but his assistant grabbed his arm.
She didn't stop. She didn't look back.