I have learned that, with privilege comes responsibility. I never understood that fully until now.
Sitting in Jase and Carly’s kitchen after Joe made and served lunch to our degenerate children, they all ask to be excused, and we say no, that we would like to discuss this as a family.
Josephina, though, shuts her children down, telling the kids, “Go run along and play.”
She and Jase then have a stare-off as the kids look between her and him before scattering like mice.
When they leave the room, Jase continues to stare at his mother and says, “Momma Joe, you don’t get to—”
“Shh,” she cuts him off, pulling out a handheld monitor from her apron pocket and setting it in the middle of the table before turning it on. “This would have come in handy when the four of you were younger.”
Zandor shakes his head. “That’s not right, Momma Joe.”
“To fuck if it’s not.” Cyrus smiles at his mother. “Good work.”
We all sit and listen like Cyrus, Jase, Zandor, and Xavier still sometimes sit out on the beach and listen to their beloved Yankees’ baseball games while the children play.
We hear Kiki first.
“We are sooooooo screwed.”
Carly palms her face and shakes her head.
“Like hell we are. Assholes deserved it,” we hear Justice tell her.
Tara gasps, while Cyrus sucks in his top lip, trying not to smile.
“Why’d you have to punch them in the faces?” Truth then asks her brother.
“What did you want me to do? Kick them in the balls like you did?” is his retort.
We hear Patrick laugh then ask, “You did what?”
“So what? I kicked him in the nuts,” Truth defends herself. “He had it coming.”
“Then the fucker grabbed Truth, so I had to grab him. If Justice hadn’t popped him in the nose, I would have strung him up by his balls,” Marcelo adds.
Mel looks down and shakes her head. Sabato chuckles.
“What even started this shitstorm?” we hear Max ask the question we are all wondering.
Carly drops her head to the table and groans out, “I give up.”
I can’t help laughing. Max is one of the youngest, only in first grade.
“He told me they were crying ’cause he told them their daddy killed someone,” Truth tells them, and now, now I know it’s about my girls. “I told them to shut up. He grabbed his nuts and said suck these, so I kicked him there instead.”
“Justice better have punched that fucker more than once,” Cyrus hisses.
“I’m so sorry …” I begin before I am stopped by my daughter’s voice.
“We know,” Cesca whispers.
My heart breaks.
Toinette continues for her, “Mommy doesn’t talk about him, and we always take vacations during father/daughter dances. We aren’t stupid. We know our daddy is a bad man.”
“How do you know?” we hear Tris ask her.
“Because Mom does something every year,” Cesca whispers. “Something weird.”
Aunt Joe giggles, and I look up at her.
“What?” Dromida asks.
When there is silence, I have never been more thankful.
“Hey, we’re cousins, we’re family—all of us,” Kiki’s voice booms through the monitor’s speaker. “We’re forever Steel!”
“Yeah, you can tell us anything,” Max chimes in.
“She pees on his grave,” Cesca says.
I stand up abruptly, and Joe puts her hand on my shoulder.
“Wait and think, Valentina.”
“Think about what?” I snap. “I will not have my daughters think Benito is their father. I will not.”
Jase blocks the doorway, stopping me from leaving.
“I am warning you; Truth is not the only female in this family who can kick—”
“Listen to him.” Sabato is beside me now.
“You need to move,” I begin to panic. The room seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
“What will you tell them, Valentina?” Abe asks.
I look back at him. “I will tell them the truth.”
“We’ll tell them all the truth … together.” Zandor wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings me back to the table.
Jase sighs as he sits beside me. “We’ll talk about it first; decide what’s best for them together.”
That night, my girls and the rest of the kids learned about what Benito had done, in kid-friendly terms. It was honestly a great lesson to them in what they have been taught about stranger danger. It isn’t always strangers who mistreat others; it can be a person you thought you could trust, too.
They learn about grooming and that sick people do such things, not only to children, but adults, as well. My girls also learned what their father had done to make sure Benito never hurt anyone again, and yes, they were all told it was wrong and that he paid the ultimate price in making that choice. Ultimately, they now know what Franco did to protect us all and why he should have considered what it meant to our family as a whole.
We didn’t tell them they had to keep it a secret. We told them that some things are better kept between us. They weren’t told they had to tell the nuns what had happened, but if they chose not to, they would have to pay the price, too.
The lesson they learned that day was the biggest of their young lives. What they chose to do the next day was a lesson to us that, even though we sometimes doubt ourselves as parents, and even though they might hear us say one thing and do another, we actually were doing a fine job raising our children.
For two weeks, they missed recess, were made to empty trash cans and clean them out, help in the cafeteria doing dishes, and attend thirty minutes of afterschool detention.
We joked that they were actually doing chores that some of us, mainly me and Josephina, never had to do as children, and shockingly, they survived. Not shockingly, they grew a stronger bond amongst themselves, possibly stronger than … steel.
Capitolo Tre
Vincent
I have always secretly loved watching the rich be brought to their knees. Hell, I have enjoyed them being on their knees, looking up at me like I’m some sort of trophy to be won. I was raised with nothing, but I lucked out by getting my mother’s looks, the only thing a whore like her had to offer. I made sure I became strong, stronger than any opponent I may ever come up against. In doing so, I became something.
I have no respect for rich bitches, only disdain and malicious satisfaction gained from seeing my cum filling their well-fed mouths and dripping down their overly made up faces.
Having worked for Miss Segretti’s family for years, covering for Franco’s much-needed vacations and time off from his charge, I knew what I was getting into if I agreed to become her full-time protector. The family trusted me because I had been chosen and trained by him.
I knew her erratic behavior and tenacious ways. I understood she was a nightmare and any normal man would have run the other way.
Even so, I agreed.
Eight years ago, I was on edge, watching her look at her children like she was afraid of them. It wasn’t an act. She was afraid of them.