Red Card to Your Heart: You Don't Deserve My Love Extra Time novel Chapter 32

I lunged for the photograph, but Salvatore raised his arm beyond my reach. His other hand closed around my throat, fingers digging into my skin as his face transformed into something I barely recognized.

"Who the fuck is he?" he demanded, his voice dropping to that dangerous register that made his men tremble.

His jaw clenched so tightly I could see the muscle twitching beneath his skin. "You've been loving another man while in my bed, Isabella? While wearing my fucking ring?"

Tears streamed down my face, yet I managed a cold, bitter laugh that only fueled his rage. "Was it ever behind your back? I've been honest from the start. I told you I never truly loved you."

I met his furious gaze without flinching. "You're allowed to keep Carina as your precious little shrine, but I'm not permitted memories?"

Each word was calculated to cut deeper than the last. "I've been playing with you, Salvatore. You've been nothing but a distraction—a way to pass the time."

"You don't compare to the man I loved. Not in any way that matters."

His grip tightened until black spots danced at the edges of my vision. Still, I forced myself to smile through the pain. "You should either let me go or put a bullet in my head, Salvatore."

"Because I will never love you. Not if I lived a thousand fucking years."

Something shifted in his expression—the rage didn't disappear but crystallized into something more controlled, more lethal. He suddenly released my throat only to slam me against the wall, his body pinning mine so completely I couldn't move.

"Enough of your goddamn lies," he snarled, inches from my face. "You think I don't know when you're feeding me bullshit?"

His forearm pressed against my collarbone with bruising force. "You've cried for me, bled for me, nearly fucking died in my arms. Now you claim you don't love me? What kind of twisted game are you playing?"

His voice softened, becoming almost tender despite the violence of his grip. "You're sick in the head, cara. I won't hold this against you."

He pressed his lips to my temple, the gesture incongruously gentle. "But if you think I'd ever let you go, you don't know who the fuck I am."

His whisper carried the weight of an unbreakable vow. "In this life, you're mine. When we're dust, your ghost will still belong to me. That's not negotiable."

Carina's body crumpled to the floor, her eyes still open in that final moment of shock.

Salvatore didn't spare her corpse a single glance. His focus remained entirely on me as he cradled my face in his bloodied hands, his voice dropping to a tender murmur that contrasted grotesquely with the execution he'd just performed.

"I'm done being weak for her," he whispered, his eyes never leaving mine as Carina's blood pooled across our bedroom floor.

"From now on, you're the only one who matters to me."

His thumbs brushed away my tears with surprising gentleness.

"I love you, Isabella," he said, the words both a confession and a command.

"And you will learn to love me back."