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“I remember them trying to rape me. I remember you and your family barging in, guns drawn. I remember Clive saying that I was theirs, not yours. That you couldn’t do anything to save me. It would ruin the deal you had with them.”
My nostrils flare, and my whole body is on fire, thinking about it.
“You started firing. All of you, even Enrico, came to save me. I remember Enrico getting shot. Matteo was stabbed. You were the only one who wasn’t hurt. You got me out of there but not before they made threats against your family, against Gia.”
I can’t relive any more of the night. “Stop.”
Her eyes widen.
We both just stand for a while, looking at each other, both breathing heavily, both reliving that night.
“I remember signing the contract. It was just you and me. I was terrified. Traumatized. I thought I had just seen your brother and father die. Your sister’s life threatened. I was almost raped. You gave me the choice to sign, and I signed without a second thought. That was the last thing I remember. Signing.”
“You passed out from exhaustion after that.”
She nods.
We stare at each other a moment longer.
“What I don’t understand is, why would you do that? Risk your whole family’s life for me? I know you needed a number seven, and I’m guessing you have saved other women from similar predicaments, only to be met with an equally bad situation. But why did you choose me? Why didn’t you just let them have me and rape me and, most likely, kill me?”
I don’t answer.
She takes a step toward me and looks me dead in the eye.
“Do you love me?”
I knew she would ask that question, too. She thinks I did it all because I love her. But she doesn’t understand that I am incapable of love. And, even if I was, she is better off with someone else. Someone good.
I didn’t do it because I loved her. I saved her because she’d saved me, and I couldn’t watch her die even if I was saving her then, only to watch her die now.
“What do you think?” I say, not answering her.
She takes a deep breath but doesn’t answer me.
“Why did you drink it? Why did you marry Heath? Why fuck my brother?”
She takes a step back, not answering me either.
But I answer
ed all of her questions, except one. She needs to answer my questions now. I grab her arm and pull her back to me, firmly kissing her on the lips like it is the last time I’ll ever be able to.
She pulls away. “Because I was obsessed with you. I’ve always been obsessed when it comes to men. I like sex. I want the attention. Blame it on my deadbeat father who died a slow, torturous death after his drinking finally caught up with him.”
“Why did you marry Heath?”
“Because I loved him. I know you don’t understand it, but when I fall, I fall hard. I can’t always control it. Maybe part of it was the fear of being ripped away from my reality and needing something to keep me grounded. But, whatever it was, it felt a heck of a lot like love. It still does.”
I see the tears when she says it.
“Why did you fuck my brother?”
“Because I hated you. Because I wanted to get back at you. Because I thought I could make him love me if you wouldn’t.”
“And who do you want now? Who do you dream about at night? Who makes you obsessed?”
She sucks back her tears. “What do you think?”
