And while I wish I could always be the woman I was this morning, safe and secure in the arms of the man I love, I am also this—an unforgiving, fractured soul yearning to inflict pain on every bastard who made me this way.
Watching Xavier’s men drag Vito to the place of my nightmares, my pulse quickens, finding it so fitting… that it should be here. Here, where I once died. Where Xavier’s father was killed. It all narrows to that place. And for once, I think that this could actually be the end… of everything.
We could be free of our past tonight if I canjust?—
“Four years of searching… I'm not letting him go again,” Xavier says.
My wide eyes have slimmed, and my hands are no longer shaking. “You won’t need to.”
Before he can intervene, I seize the gun from his hip and turn. I can’t reach that deteriorating building fast enough. A profound hatred propels me through the doors that housed the darkest months of my existence.
I hardly register the disapproving glares from Xavier’s men as they carry out his orders against their will. Not long ago, one of those hateful looks would have paralyzed me, making me fear how far their hatred might escalate. But I’ve seen what hate looks like, feels like.
I know it as intimately as love.
I’m sure they can see it clearly on my face because I do absolutely nothing to disguise it. It’s dangerous. Unwise. Andyet, as I ground my feet into the unforgiving concrete, I absorb the havoc Xavier unleashed upon this small hellhole.
The odors. The sounds. The bars.
The walls are closing in. I’m battling fits of nausea, perspiring, but I continue to press on.
I am not the captured here.
I am not the prey.
My feet pause at the entrance to the cell—thecell.
I see it all. Thomas decaying beside me. Sinister, unending eyes filled with something I'm glad I’ll never understand. Even the sight of myself, curled into a ball, having no choice but to let them steal the core of my very being.
Somehow, my eyes are dry. Painfully so, as I step into the cell with a steady gaze fixed on my father, who is shackled to the wall… just like Thomas was.
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I swear I feel a weight on my shoulders, as if his hands are guiding me into the cell, the place of our nightmares, his spirit urging me to abandon the gun for a rusty cutting blade.
Anything Vito might want to say is restrained by the cloth gag in his mouth.
His eyes.As much as I tried and tried, I could never forget them. Not the color. Not the creases deeply set into the crooks near them. While I inherited my grandmother’s eyes, Victoria got his. Looking into them, I’m reminded of my sister in the pool of blood I left her in, reliving the loss. It never had to happen. He could have continued with his life without his nuisance daughters.
But that’s not Vito Marin.
“I'm sure you know it was me by now,” I finally say.
His gaze betrays him. He’s scared… and he should be.
Bending down, watching him follow the blade I pass between my hands, I confess one of my sins. “You made me kill my sister.”
By the door, Bo inhales, unaware of the darkness I tried to shield from them. Xavier remains silent, the only one with a heart tormented enough to comprehend what it takes to kill family. I grab the stifling gag, pulling it down just enough to free his mouth.
The man slumped in front of me no longer carries the primped appearance of a former Boss. He looks ordinary and aged. His hair has nearly fallen out. The long days on the streets have sagged his skin like worn leather. But those black eyes are the same, bursting with the same hate he always had when looking at me. Vito opens his mouth, really thinking about what he wants to come out.
As usual, he doesn’t disappoint.
“You willneverbe happy, Sophia Marin.”
It sounds like a curse, something he’s projecting into the universe. Once, I might have believed he was powerful enough to make it happen.
“You’re the only thing standing in the way of making it happen,” I reply.
He shakes his head, resolved to deliver a final devastating blow. “No, piccolina. Like your Papa, you are a black stain oneveryoneyou dare to touch. Like your sister, they will leave you too. One by one… Dominic will ensure it. He’ll do it just to get you alone.”
