HIS CLAIM

49

Nicholas

"Are you even getting some sleep?" Arianna asked me, looking at me concerned.

"How do you expect me to sleep when she's going through hell?" I snapped at her but she wasn't bothered by my tone.

I had stepped outside to smoke once Elsa fell asleep. She hadn't slept properly and I had secretly given her a sleeping pill just so she would be able to get a little sleep. I had never been this stressed or so lost in my life before, and even though I had quit smoking because she couldn't tolerate the smell of it when she was pregnant, I had picked it up again. It was the only thing that could help me relax a little and prevent me from going out and slaughtering people.

I couldn't be a ticking bomb right now. I had to be patient even though it was killing me to wait and watch her suffer like this.

"How are you?" She asked again and I let out a humorless chuckle at her question.

"Does it even matter?" I inhaled the cigarette smoke deeply but it was not giving me the fill I wanted.

"It does. You lost -"

"I know what I fucking lost!" I stared at her with an enraged glare. My hands were trembling in anger at the painful loss. But I had to keep it together for the sake of her.

"Mind your own business." I sneered.

"You are my business! You need to talk about it so you don't bury all of your feelings into that deep, dark hole like you're always doing." Arianna exclaimed in frustration and looked at me with a frown on her face. I flicked the cigarette bud away and turned to face her. My eyes were cold as I stepped so close to her that she had to take a step back.

"I will handle it the way I want to. I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what to fucking do." My voice was low as I looked at her furiously. A hand on my shoulder pulled me slightly back and I glanced over to see it was Antonio who had stopped me. I hadn't noticed that I kept walking toward Arianna, forcing her to back away from me. I frowned at him when he tried to get me away from her.

"What are you stepping in for? You think I'm going to hurt my sister?" I roughly pushed his hand away from me and took a couple of steps back. I may be pissed but I would never lay a hand on my sister no matter how fucked up I got.

"No. But you have pent-up anger and frustrations that you're taking out on your sister. If you don't want to talk about it, then fine, but get your ass in the ring and we'll take it from there." Antonio said calmly with his emotionless face.

I let out a scoff.
"Fuck off." I ignored them, making me inside when Antonio once again grabbed me.

"Or we can just settle it here." He said and threw a punch at my jaw. It had me take a step, my head got whipped to the side at the impact. I let out a low laugh as I moved my jaw a little and spit out when I tasted blood.

"Antonio!" Arianna gasped out in shock and tried to step in between us but he stopped her from intervening.

"Trust me. He needs this before he fucking explodes." Antonio looked at me as if he hadn't just punched me in the face.

"I won't go easy on you." I smirked and he mirrored my expression.

"I don't expect you to." He said and threw another punch my way. This time, I blocked it and sent him a strong kick to the side of his stomach. He grunted out a little in pain as I kicked him where I knew he got stitched up.

He quickly composed himself and lunged at me again. We kept going, throwing punches, kicking and slamming each other to the ground, not giving each other a break before making the next move.