- 29 -

AURORA

3 months later

In all honesty, I never wanted it to come to this. I never wanted Viktor to find out that his youngest brother was involved with drugs.

But life in Chicago was fucked up as hell. You either choose this life, or this life chooses you. Unfortunately for Stef, it was both.

He did manage to effectively lie to us for months until a few weeks ago, he overdosed. And all hell broke loose. But, like every male Romano I know of, he was stubborn and a pain in the ass. And like I had already feared, he dug a hole too deep than he had realized.

When everything else in the book failed to drag him back, Viktor decided he was better off in rehab because the home was too close to his heart to bring a change. It must have been the toughest choice Viktor had made in the longest time, but it was needed.

It was needed to keep his brother alive.

But the cocktail of drugs wasn't the only threat to Stefan's life.

Viktor and his family have harbored enemies for a long time, and there wa