I’m not sure why this surprises me so. I may have never been on the receiving end of our mother’s ire. But Leon certainly has. Multiple times, often due to me.
When I look at my brother’s face, it’s clear that it’s not the betrayal that angers him. It’s the embarrassment of not seeing it before, of not acting against her sooner.
How long had my brother resented her? How long had I willfully ignored his warnings and encouraged him to take her advice and be grateful for it?
It’s all too much.
And suddenly, Teo moves again, and it’s far too much.
He’s going to die in there. He’s going to die, and it will all be my fault.
I watch his figure retreating back to the house, and the panic is overwhelming. I launch forward after him. Only for Leon to catch me again.
“He’s going to die,” I wail helplessly into his arms.
Mother laughs.
It’s long, and it’s bitter, and it pierces my skin like a careless blade. Its sole intent is to prolong my suffering.
“You foolish girl,” she sneers once the laughing has subsided. “Is that not the point? Or have you truly turned your back on this family?”
I have never wanted to harm my mother before now.
The fury with which I lunge for her almost takes Leon off guard, and I make it a few feet before he pulls me back.
“You’re a monster.”
“You have betrayed us,bambina.You got too close, didn’t you? He was your target, and you whored yourself out to him.”
“Under your orders.”
She laughs again. “You want to stand there and pretend you’re not loyal to him now?”
“You killed his sister!” I scream. “She was eight years old, and you killed her in cold blood.”
“She was a loose end. She would have grown up just like her brother and slit your throat in your sleep.” She jabs herself in thechest. “I’m the only one who could ever understand the lengths we needed to go to keep our family safe.”
“She was a child!”
“She was collateral damage.”
“Enough of this!” Leon roars suddenly before depositing me firmly behind him before he stalks forward toward our Mother. “Did you purposefully ensure a pregnant woman would be in that house today?”
Ida scoffs at him. “How dare you speak to me like this.”
“ANSWER ME!”
She doesn’t even flinch. “Like I said. Collateral damage.”
I watch as Leon’s shoulders aggressively rise and fall. “I gave you an order.”
“You can pretend to be the don all you like, but you and I both know where the Prince’s Hands’ loyalties lie,” she sneers back. “And it’s not with you. Not when you’re too weak to do what needs to be done.”
“I will not murder children. I will not murder pregnant women.”
“Then you are doomed to make the same mistake I made. That your great-grandparents made. It’s a cycle, Leon. The only way to ensure that we survive is to kill them off once and for all.”
I gape at her, unwilling to even comprehend what I’m hearing. “Cassandra has nothing to do with this!”
