“I think it’s a little disrespectful to be rude to a member of the Dio Lavoro when you’re here to celebrate what my father has created. I might not be what you all think I was, but I’m still an Abbiati and all I would have to do is click my fingers and someone, preferably Giovanni, will have your head on a silver platter. Think before you disrespect Italian royalty, coglione.”
I could argue until I’m blue in the face, but I refuse to entice them. I uphold my end of the bargain to seem dutiful when inside I think my father has destroyed everything my grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, has created. They don’t need to know that, so I head to the kitchen, finally finding solitude in the quiet room where working staff prepare drinks. I’d rather them watching me than the angry mob that ridiculed me. When the door opens again, I ready myself for a second onslaught, but I’m met with a beautiful brunette, who just stares at me wide-eyed, as if in shock. I have no idea who she is, but I have this feeling she knows me.
“Sorry, I can leave,” I suggest, pointing to the door.
“No, don’t be silly,” she says, giggling a little at my lunacy. “We can both hide in here.” She goes over to the table of alcohol and starts to look among the bottles, surveying them. I awkwardly stand here watching, wishing I could leave and find a new place to hide out. But when she turns back, she approaches me with a friendly stance. She extends a hand and I see a warm introduction about to occur between us. “I’m Pippa,” she introduces herself. Her smile is inviting, as is her attitude, so I take her hand in mine, but regret it immediately as her fingers tighten, her nails begin to dig in and she pulls me forward. As she does so, her face falls, and she becomes twisted with anger. “Marius’ fiancée.”
“Oh,” I gasp, allowing her to outdo with her strength. I’m stunned momentarily – Marius had a fiancée?
“Is that all you have to say to the woman whose life you destroyed?” she croons, her words snarl and lash at me, cutting deeper than she could even know. “We were supposed to get married tomorrow, but instead of getting excited over my wedding, I’ve had to spend my time cancelling plans and mourning the love of my life.” She moves, this time getting closer to the block of knifes. “And all because of you.”
The woman, who walked around outside so poised and eloquent, is now a disheveled shadow of her former self. She’s wild, enraged, riding off her grief and I fully understand this persona – I once used it to do wrong. She’s the aftermath of my actions. I am being dealt the reminders that my every action had lasting consequences.
“You must know the man he really was,” I begin to say, striving for some forms of strengths. “The life he was mixed up in, Pippa. He had it coming.”
“Well, then,” she remarks, taking a step forward, “that makes this easier for me.”
Her comment unnerves me, and I begin to shake. “What?”
“Killing you, you sick, twisted bitch! You murdered all across Manhattan for so long and I am sick and tired of hearing how sweet, beautiful Amelia is the princess everyone should fear.” Her anger is beginning to unleash; the more she speaks, the more unhinged she’s becoming. “You don’t scare me, though.” Her eyes narrow, her glare becoming menacingly heavy on me. “I knew this party was happening and Marius wanted nothing more than to be a part of it, so I decided to make sure his name isn’t forgotten by killing the woman who killed him.”
I can feel the room getting smaller. My sins are racing to catch up to me, and I know I cannot run forever. I knew this day would come, but now that it has, I’m not ready or willing to give up.
“You do know that he wanted me?” I ask her, casually backing away to put a counter between us. “He came to a house knowing he’d have a moment of lust with me and didn’t even think to tell me about you, Pippa. No, he told me how he wanted Zane dead so I could see he was the man who loved me right.”
“You’re lying,” she tells me, defying my comment.
“I don’t lie over business,” I remark, making sure I’m sickly sweet. I steel myself for the overload of killer instincts. I need that persona to mask me and protect me right now. “If anything, I tend to gloat about it.”
“I know that to be a lie,” she says, moving around the middle counter, and I mirror her to keep the distance. “You tried to kill your own father because you wanted out. You fell in love and found another purpose. I was Marius’. We were going to get married and leave this life! Until you took it away from me.”
I make a run for the door, hoping that once I’m out in the crowds, I can get lost in order to find my way out to safety. However, Pippa’s quick, and as I near the door, she tackles me from the side and we fall tangled to the ground. It’s while lying there winded that I find myself with an intense pain in my thigh. I look down and find a knife sticking out of my leg.