“I’ve been connected to the Diamond family my entire life,” she begins, giving me a little squeeze. “My name was Cecily Abagail Diamond. Salvatore is my older brother.”
I stand and move over to the wall, pressing my back up against it and glaring at everyone in this room. I stop when I land on my mother.
“In other words, you’re a mafia princess,” I say with malice.
“I used to be. That is, until I met your father and fell in love.”
Her smile speaks the truth. Even though my parents would fight and argue when I was growing up, the love they had for each other was very evident, even as a young girl, I knew how much they loved each other.
“I don’t understand, then. Enlighten me here, Mom, or what about you, Dad? How do you fit into all of this?”
I hold my breath and wait for him to speak. The tension in the room coils around me.
“Calla, baby. I really think you need to sit down,” Cain declares.
“I don’t want to sit down. What I do want is the truth from all of you.”
I feel cheated, sad, and humiliated. This is a lot of information to incorporate. I’m so angry right now. With Cain, I had so many questions; with my parents, I feel like they have hidden too much from me since the day I was born. My brain at this minute doesn’t even know how to function. My dad gets up and puts his arm around me, tugging me into his chest.
“Honey, you’re shivering.”
“Please don’t touch me,” I whisper.
I duck out from under his arm and step away. Suddenly, the tension leaves him as if he’s come to some sort of decision. I watch it roll right off of his chest. His eyes turn glassy. My knees start to buckle. I stand firm, though. I’m not weak. I’m frightened and scared for my life; for my family’s lives.
“I’m a hitman,” he says emotionlessly, as if he hasn’t just crumbled my entire world. I’ve worshipped this man my entire life, and now he sits before me telling me he’s a murderer.
“Y…you kill people? Oh, my God! What’s wrong with you people? Don’t any of you care about how badly corrupted this world is? And dead center lies my family. The untouchable Diamond family,” I say bitterly.
“You’ve stolen loved ones away from others, Dad. Is this why you pushed me so hard to become a lawyer? Because if you ever got caught one day you would hope like hell that your daughter would defend you? Come on. Tell me. Why? How can you sleep at night? Breathe the same air as the very families of the wives, husbands, or even children whose loved ones you’ve killed?”
“It’s not like that, Calla.”
My father looks genuinely hurt. He should be.
“Then tell me how it is. Because like I told Cain, I’m on the good side of the law. The right side of the tracks. I can’t just stick out an olive branch to all of you. My entire life has been a lie. You’ve left me hanging all by myself on that small branch and today is the day it finally snaps and the ground I thought was underneath isn’t ground at all. It’s a cliff. And I keep falling, smacking my head into every hard rock along the way to the bottom.”
“Jesus. Fuck. Help me out here, Cecily?”
“No, Dad. This is between me and you. Father and daughter. I’m sure she has her own poison she needs to shove down my throat. I want to know how my own father could take someone else’s life?”
“I have no choice. I was born into this lifestyle just like your mom, just like Cain, and just like Manny over there. We don’t have choices like you do. You wouldn’t be here today if I had told them no.”
“You’re still not making sense to me. Were you threatened? Spit it out. The truth, all of it.”