Like before, he had been enough to make Zane let me go. This time, however, my father has left a few surprises. He deceived me in order to get me to kill. He drove this murderous stake into my heart and took full advantage of my heartbreak after Zane’s first breakup. After then, he pulled the strings on me like a puppet master would, and I got lost in the murder and the death and anything that took my mind off Zane. It makes the fact my father presented the man I loved and lost as a hit all the more confusing. Why would he be so cruel to do this to me?
As the thoughts pour into me, my feet gain speed. I’m infuriated, maddened by all that’s happened. Everything that has been building for weeks has finally taken me in its rapture, and I’m about ready to blow. No longer does my hate radiate toward Giovanni, but it lies solely on my father.
Life would run smoothly if he just wasn’t around and when my house finally comes into view, I realize it’s all going to end tonight. No more tears flow, I’m just left seeing red through bloodshot eyes.
I rush into the grounds of the house, run up the drive digging furiously through my bag to find my keys. When I do, I catapult my body up the stairs, unable to wait any longer to save my family from our own. I know what I have to do. The decision only feels more right as I go to the safe in my bedroom, punch the key code in, and fling the door open. I pull my mother’s revolver from the back of the safe and check for bullets before I stalk from the room, pushing the loaded gun down the back of the waistband of my skirt. I thud through the house barefoot, not caring for the noise. I want answers and justice for my own inhuman abuse at the hands of a man I used to idolize. I want blood for what’s occurred. I move through the house uncaringly until I’m met with my father’s office door. I hear voices behind the heavy black door, but I don’t care for that. I throw the door open and don’t hesitate to enter.
“Ahh, here she is!” my father welcomes me as I walk into the room. “Finally done trying to escape your brother’s protection?”
“I want answers,” I hiss, clenching my jaw together straight after I speak.
“So do I,” he states, sitting back in his seat, hands clasped together in his lap. “Bambina, you couldn’t kill Lenny, but you could run off and leave your brother.”
“I’m serious about wanting answers, Papà,” I state and realize I won’t be getting far without putting a little threat to my actions. “I want you to stop lying to me.”
“I’ve not been lying to you about anything,” he remarks, looking to Giovanni with a sense of confusion.
I need to play my father at his own game. I didn’t think this would be a merry chat, but I didn’t realize this moment would spiral so quickly. But it has, and I have to take whatever’s going to happen. After all, it’s what I want – an end. I reach behind me, my finger snake around the handle of the gun and nothing ever felt more perfect. Swiftly, I pull the revolver out and into the view, pulling back to make them see how ready I am to fire this.
“You stupid bitch,” Giovanni scolds immediately, reacting to my crazed reaction.
His sentence ends with the cold press of a gun barrel to my temple. My eyes flick shut as I realize the predicament I’ve gotten myself into, and my tears only seem to run thicker. I swallow hard against the lump in my throat and steady myself enough to open my eyes.
I look at my father, who is now standing with his hands up, as he looks at his two children – both after blood – and he looks more tortured than ever before. A part of me laughs at the sight, pleased that he is caught like this.
“This is how it’s supposed to be now,” I start to say, trying to apply some mirth into my tone. “You at gunpoint, your children the same.”
“Amelia, let’s be rational here,” my father tries to start a bargain.
“What is there to be rational about, Papà?” I ask him, shakily the gun moves around before me more haphazardly, but it’s still trained on him nonetheless. “The man I love just cut a loss from me because of you! Because of what I do for you! He left me because he found out that I killed those men who attacked him. I did that because the threat you put on me was so high I was desperate, and stupidly, thought it would not only save the man I love, but would also restore your faith in me. But that was all a lie!” And now I gear myself up for the ultimate truth. “And I have to find out that a majority of the men I’ve killed for you, were nobodies!”
“Ah, that,” is my father’s only response.
“No,” I cry at his response. This can’t be happening. I do lose control at the reaction he had to have, but as Giovanni presses the gun barrel against my temple once again, I remember not to falter. “So it was true?”
“Bambina,” my father starts. He’s putting on a tone he knows will melt me. One he thinks he can mollycoddle me back into submission with.
“No!” I shout, stunning him to silence. “You can’t keep doing this to us. You can’t brainwash us to do your jobs. You can’t keep abusing us to do your dirty work. You can’t corrupt us, Papà. This all has to stop now!”