I spread my arms wide. “You know the consequences of going after a mafia boss’s daughter, right? Back then, I had no idea Alvin was sent to kill me. Or should I say, John Talis?” I tilt my head, watching for a flicker of recognition—a lip twitch, anything that shows he understands.
He doesn’t even flinch at the name. That’s fine. I’m not finished with him yet.
“Being the daughter of a mafia boss, many assume I live like a princess who shops daily. But after everything I endured as a child, Dad showed me how to harness that anger instead.”
I step right up to Steven, confronting him. “You can’t possibly understand what it feels like to see my mother tortured right before my eyes. Then those monsters talk about how they intend to rape me—a fourteen-year-old girl. Of course I snapped and ended their lives.”
On some weekends, I’m confined to a padded room built into my basement. Before buying this house, I spent an outrageous sum just to rent a padded room at the psychiatric hospital where I was once admitted. The nurse I employed watches over me nonstop. My bodyguards, Javier and Fitz, stand guard nearby. Ms. Jonas, my psychiatrist, comes to meet with me.
I recall our recent conversation this past summer.
“You’ll be turning twenty-five next year. Have you thought about marriage and starting a family?”
Sitting restrained in the straitjacket, I lower my head and stare at the tiled floor beneath my bare feet. The leather straps bite into my body every time I move. My breathing comes too fast.
The sterile scent of bleach hangs heavy in the air.
The fluorescent lights above throb painfully in my skull.
“I have,” I whisper.
Across the room, Ms. Jonas watches me intently, her clipboard resting on her lap.
“My ex-boyfriend will need to marry soon. I thought about marrying him, but…”
My throat tightens around the words.
“Continue, Serenity,” she says gently.
A bitter laugh escapes me, cracking midway.
“He’ll want children.”
The image slams into me instantly.
Blood.
Screams.
My mother curled on the floor.
Hands bracing her stomach.
Begging.
I squeeze my eyes shut so hard stars burst behind my eyelids.
“He has to have children,” I choke out. “He’s going to be a boss. He needs heirs.” My voice shatters. “I can’t give him that.”
“Because of what happened to your baby sister,” Ms. Jonas says.
My eyes snap open.
“You know what world I come from.” Panic claws up my throat. “Someone could kill my child inside my stomach. They could kidnap my baby. Torture them. Use them against me.” My body rocks violently now. Forward. Back. Forward. Back. “I can’t live through that.”
“Serenity—”
“Lock me in.” The words burst out of me. “Please. Just lock me the fuck in before I lose it.”
