"Oh, please. You didn't do anything. You ran to a man and let him handle it all for you."
"Like you didn't get wrapped up with men who dragged you into this life."
"Please, Romy. When are you going to stop being so damn stupid? No one dragged me into this. I did this. I organized this. I planned this. Did you think those idiots would have thought of the composting toilets, the fans, would have been able to calculate how many pounds of food were necessary for each woman in that container? No, that was all me."
I was starting to understand that perfectly well. As much as that hurt. When the truth was staring you right in the face, only a fool denied it.
I might have been slow on the pick-up, but I was no fool.
This woman—she was absolutely capable of evil, and spreading that evil around.
"Girls. Some of those women were just little girls. Innocent little girls."
"We covered that. Keep up, sis. Innocent little girls get the most money. Only now you stole a bunch of them from me. Hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth. And you brought the feds in? Seriously? You haven't taken enough from me?
"Taken from you? All I ever did was give to you. I sacrificed my childhood to raise you."
"No one asked you to do that."
"No, but I guess I always thought you appreciated it. Or, at least, got something out of it."
"I got something out of it. Knowing I would never settle for shitty apartments and shitty jobs and shitty opportunities again. Once I got out from under your thumb."
My heart hurt.
But somehow, at the same time, my rage boiled, begged for a release for the anger coursing through me.
"Call off your boyfriend," she demanded at my silence.
"You don't just... call off the mafia, Cell. It doesn't work like that."
"Well, you are going to have to make it work like that," she told me, stepping out from the shadow, making my stomach plummet at seeing the gun in her hand.
A gun.
Pointed at me.
In the hand of my baby sister.
"Cell, what are you..." I started, losing my words at the sound of Luca's feet running down the steps.
"Sorry about th—what's the...," he trailed off, following my horrified gaze.
"Fuck," he hissed.
"Don't even think about it, mafia boy," Celenia said, shaking her head in rhythm to the gun.
"Are you okay, Romy?" he asked, voice tense.
"She's fine. For now. But she won't be, if you and your people don't back the fuck off," Celenia snapped, voice getting tight.
"Celenia, you have to know this isn't going to end well for you. Put the gun away."
"You don't think I'm willing to use it. I'll use it," she said, turning it to me.
"Hey, stop. Point it at me," Luca demanded, voice taking on a hint of desperation.
"No. She's a nerve for you, right? I can get to you through her," she said, aiming it better at me.