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“What the hell happened? Why do you smell like alcohol? Have you been drinking?”
“Apparently,” I replied, taking off my shirt.
“Well, we told you not to! You’re recovering. Why would you go ahead and drink, and drink so much you stink of it?” Maria yelled.
“Shoot for the moon, land in the stars. Why start small?” I replied sarcastically.
“Dorothy said there was a fight with members of the family,” Maria continued.
“Dorothy talks too much,” I added.
“Well, what happened?” Maria pressed. “Why was there a fight?”
“So, what are you now? The counselor for inter-family squabbles? You have a degree in therapy all of a sudden, as well as nursing?”
Maria scoffed and took a step backward, “I just want to know what happened.”
“Well, I don’t think you need to know. It’s family business. Now I want to go to bed, so join me and stop asking all these fucking questions!” I turned around and dropped slowly to the bed and began to untie my shoelaces.
“No!” Maria yelled. “Fuck no! Angelo, I have been here with you for days. I have ignored your bullshit and helped out in any way I can. Hell, I saved your ass from dying when you went out and got shot! This is my business now, and I deserve to know, too.”
I got to my feet and quickly crossed the distance between us, getting up in her face. Who did she think she was, talking to me like that? “Maria, you are a fuckingnobody. A rat that I picked from the streets and nurtured into what you are now. You should be grateful for everything I have done for you, you should be groveling at my feet every single day!”
Maria pushed my chest, and I stumbled backward, “Fuck you, Angelo! I never wanted to come here in the first place! Youkidnappedme! You’ve been holding me here against my will! Everything you did was of your own benefit; I never asked for your money or your time or anything else! But you took away everything I had, and now you want to put that on me? No, fuck you, Angelo!”
I laughed, “You think just because I’m sleeping with you, you’re now some big shot. You’re just the means to an end. I use you to help me unwind from stress. You mean absolutelynothingto me, you understand that? Nothing!”
I saw the tears in her eyes as she turned away and grabbed a jacket. As she picked up her purse, the tears began flowing freely, and she walked up to the elevators and stopped. “I want to leave Angelo, right now.”
I was silent for a moment, and I wondered if she was sincere. Was I about to lose the one thing that brought me peace in the time of my troubles?
“Angelo! Give me the fucking password!”
“Your name, Maria. It has always been your name.”
I heard the soft sound of her fingers hitting the buttons. A few seconds later, the doors to the elevators shut behind her, and I watched as Maria Doyle left my home for the first time since she had arrived. I fell back into the bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Maria
“Your name, Maria. It has always been your name.”
I turned around and typed in my name on the keyboard beside the elevator, the tears stopping me from seeing the letters. I got it in the end, and the elevator gave an annoyingpingbefore it opened. I walked in and turned around, the first tear falling from my eyes as the doors shut in front of me, giving me one last view of Angelo Preston.
It had always been my name? Since when? He was a liar, and I knew it. There was no way.
I so badly wanted to believe that this man who had shown me such love and care was good beneath all the bravado. He had made mefeelfor him, care for him, only to show me what he really thought about me in the end. How could I have thought that I could deal with a Mafia boss on my own? Who was I to think that this could be my life? I had let myself get swept away by the madness of it all, and now I was paying for it. His words played out over and over in my head, ringing as I heard him say them.
It was just as Benny had said. I was a means to an end, and now the end had come, albeit not in the way that I had expected. Now Angelo had had enough. I realized that the elevator had not moved, as I had failed to tell it which floor I wanted to go to. So, I turned to look at the panel and moved my finger to the button that declared itself as leading to the ground floor. I paused for a moment, knowing that once I left, there would be no going back.
I could not stand to face him again, not after what he had said to me. I had given too much of my time to him already, and his games, only to have it blow up in my face. If I went back in, I didn’t know what I would do.
I balled my palm into a fist and hit the button for the ground floor. A sinking feeling struck me at once, and not only from the elevator gliding downwards. I realized that I had not stopped to take my purse, or anything else which had belonged to me.
Even the dress I wore in that moment had been the one Dorothy had picked out for me. But going back up was not an option; despite the fact that I knew what the password was, there was still a chance that I could get locked in again. This was the first time I was out in so long. I would not risk my freedom for anything. As the elevator came to a halt, I brought up my palms and began wiping at my face with the sleeves of my jacket, trying to make myself look presentable before the doors parted. I did the best I could and walked out into the lobby.
I spotted Dorothy standing upright behind the desk, staring right at me as I stepped out. I turned to look at her and realized that she had been called by Angelo already. She put the phone on speakerphone with a beep, and then walked around the counter to get in front of me. Dorothy moved fast, but I had to be faster. Even if it meant I had to knock her over to get free, I would, regardless of our friendship.
