Chapter 82

Third Person POV

Sebastian’s eyes flutter open just as the morning light breaks through the curtains. He lets out a soft groan, his gaze moving to the smaller body beside him. Stella soundly sleeps in his arms, head tucked underneath his chin.

A small smile spreads across his face. He gently smooths out the frizz in her hair, his heartbeat slowly speeding up at the sight of her in his arms. He glances past her shoulder and looks at the alarm clock.

9:37 A.M.

Sebastian closes his eyes for a brief moment. He slowly sucks in, filling his lungs with air before exhaling, letting it all go.

The man moves as slow as possible, slipping Stella out of his arms while she stirs in her sleep, putting a pillow in his place. Stella clings to it, burying her face into the fabric as Sebastian creeps out of bed, trying to make as little sound as possible as he pulls a t-shirt over his head, walking out of his bedroom.

The house is quiet. It is usually filled with his brothers and parents eating breakfast and laughing before their day officially begins. Well, at least for Luca and Silas. Matteo and Dominic are usually gone by this time due to their busy schedules.

Sebastian walks down the stairs and shoves his hands into his pockets. His mind wanders to Stella’s cries last night, remembering how she mentioned Adrian.

Adrian was there. Adrian left her behind and saved his mistress instead.

Sebastian scowls at the kitchen, noticing Luca and Silas sitting at the countertop with bowls of cereal sitting in front of them. He relaxes at the sight but his anger towards Adrian remains on his face as he grabs a glass of water.

“Seb? Are you okay?” Luca asks.

“He left her last night,” Sebastian responds in a low voice.

“What? Who did?” Luca follows up. Silas’ eyes slightly widen.

“That husband of hers,” Sebastian can’t even bring himself to say his name, “abandoned her in there.”

There is an underlying anger to Sebastian’s words. He grips through glass, knuckles turning white, as he turns to his brothers. They abandon their breakfast, standing from their chairs before rounding the counter.

“Where’s Dominic?” Sebastian asks.

“He’s still here, actually, he wanted to check in on Stella and go over things for their divorce,” Luca informs him. He glances at Silas, who simply nods and walks away to find their lawyer brother.

“Good,” Sebastian hums to himself, “because we need to take him out.”

Luca raises his eyebrow at Sebastian. The man takes a sip from his glass before slamming it down, anger and fury prominent in every single move he takes, everything calculated and collected.

It is a terrifying sight to see.

“I want to make him suffer for what he’s done to Stella,” he huffs air through his nose, turning to Silas and Dominic who enter inside the kitchen.

“You don’t mean…” Luca’s voice falls off, going quiet as he makes a gun with his fingers.

Dominic’s eyes widen and he turns to look at Sebastian after noticing Luca’s gun, hands planted on his hips. Sebastian sighs and turns to his brothers, making the mental note to fill in Matteo of their plan when he gets home from his shift, and looks between them.

“No. We won’t kill him. We will destroy everything good in his life so he has nothing left. Even Clara will leave him because she’s only with him for his money,” Sebastian says.

His brothers are silent. They look between each other for a few brief moments. The silence is loud, deafening, even.

“I meet with his lawyer later today,” Dominic fills in the silence and captures the attention of the room. “Stella asked me to get as much from him as I can. I can see about getting everything. His finances, assets, properties, cars.”

“Yes,” Sebastian nods, his fists balling at his sides, “do you think you can do that?”

“I will definitely file the motion today or tomorrow,” Dominic nods in confirmation. Sebastian matches his nod, turning to his other two brothers.

“I will have my company act as a possible investor in his company. He just launched a new product, right? He’ll want to expand it as fast as possible,” he speaks his plan into existence.

“We can buy his company’s stock to help add to the inflation,” Luca chimes in, earning positive nods in confirmation. “That will make him feel more safe, right?”

“It will, yes,” Dominic adds, “I’ll be the only one who will be causing him problems in front of his face. I know his CFO is pushy for more money so it will work.”

“Silas, you keep an eye on him for us, okay?” Sebastian turns to his quiet brother. “We need to see what he is doing at all times to make for sure he does not learn about our plans…and to make for sure that he stays as far away from Stella as possible.”

“Sure,” Silas breaks his silence, his voice low and raspy, the scar on his throat a reminder of the time he lost his voice during a fight.

“So it’s agreed then,” Sebastian speaks up. His three brothers turn to look at him. “We’re going to take down Adrian once and for all.”

“Yes,” Dominic confirms. “He deserves everything bad that comes his way.”

“We’ll make him wish he never got involved with Stella,” Luca chimes in.

Sebastian turns to Silas. His brother just nods, always having been the silent type among the group.

“Good. Keep me updated on your progress, then,” Sebastian breathes out, his anger slowly slipping away from his body. “We can’t have him catching on to us so we need to be a united front. Make for sure that he doesn’t know the we are connected too, okay?”

Before any of them can respond, their ears perk up at the sound of footsteps coming down from the staircase. Sebastian signals to them to keep their mouths shut, slowly leaning to the side to look past the wall.

His anger suddenly disappears from his body, a small smile spreading across his face. Stella, who is still under the haze of sleep, yawns and stretches out her body, her eyes lazily opening once she reaches the bottom of the stairs.

A small smile blossoms on her lips at the sight of Sebastian. She pauses at the bottom step, biting her lip, before eventually pushing forward, closing the distance between them.

Sebastian’s gaze flickers to the brothers. He gives them a quick hand signal that the conversation is over as he continues to look at Stella.

“Good morning, Stella,” he speaks, warmth soaked in his voice as she draws near.

“Morning,” Stella yawns, slowly walking towards the kitchen, sleep still prominent in every step she takes.

Luca and Dominic immediately turn to the fridge, cracking it open as they begin to pull out breakfast ingredients, ready to make Stella a hearty meal.

Stella enters the room, scratching the back of her head as she takes her spot in one of the chairs at the counter, sitting beside Silas.

“What do you want for breakfast? We were just about to make something,” Luca smiles from over his shoulder, putting on an apron.

“Hmm,” Stella hums, giving Silas a nudge with a smile, “pancakes sound great right now.”

“Pancakes it is!” Luca announces. He turns to the stove, his eyes meeting Sebastian’s. He winks, a silent agreement that their previous conversation will remain a secret, the ugly truth to be hidden from Stella.