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A distorted smirk lifts his lips, revealing a golden tooth. “You were always a resilient one, my red dahlia. I should’ve named you that. It fits you better than the name your mother chose for you. She said Aspen is a tree with delicate heart-shaped leaves that quake with the gentlest breeze. We both know your mother was a hopeless cause and you’re anything but what she envisioned for you. Despite being a woman, you grew up to be tougher than all of my men combined and even willingly chose the mob life. That was an audacious move that you’ll pay for. Not only did you pick up the life you locked me up for, but you also turned my boss against me. But if Nicolo thinks I’ll let you go just because he told me to, he must not understand the extent of my need for revenge. This is personal and he had no room to fucking interfere, which is why I escaped.”
“You…escaped?”But why didn’t the guard call me?
“He’s dead.” My father circles Gwen like a deadly animal, and she watches his every move, shrinking into her seat.
“Who’s dead?”
“The guard you bribed to watch me. I stabbed him ten times in the fucking heart. One for every year he spied on me for you. Oh, and by the way, he had two beautiful children that he often talked to the other guards about, so congratulations for orphaning them.”
My fingers tremble, but I clasp them together, refusing to give him the reaction he’s trying to get out of me. “Nicolo won’t let your disobedience slide. I work for the family now.”
“Nicolo can go fuck himself. I’ll just go solo after I take care of you. Though I must say, I like how smart you’ve become. You take that after me. Shouldn’t you thank me for it?”
“Thank you for what, exactly?” My blood boils and I march toward him until I’m only a few steps away from him and Gwen. “For supplying me with a shitty childhood, or abusing my mother until she took her own life? Which part should I be grateful for?”
His expression doesn’t change, appearing completely unaffected by my outburst. “The part where you’re still alive and have come this far. If I hadn’t asked my subordinates to raise you after I was arrested, thanks to your betrayal, you wouldn’t have had enough misfortunes to harden your soul and expel the naïvety your mother implanted in your heart. You can never be strong if you aren’t broken.”
“You…you were behind Aunt Sharon and Uncle Bob?”
“Of course. They were all a pawn in my game. I told them to roughen you up a little and give you colorful memories to carry. You might have put a guard to watch me ten years ago when you became a lawyer, but I’ve been observing you every step of your life. I had my men follow you around and two live-ins. That was Bob and his wife, Sharon. But the two idiots screwed it up when you got pregnant. I planned to make you a single mother, but Bob and Sharon overhead my other men who followed you around talking about the potential father and acted out of pure greed. When they took that rich woman’s money and let you run away, I got rid of them.”
“But why?”
“I had no use for them anymore. But seeing how broken you were from losing the baby, I let it slide. It was better torture than having you become a teen mom.”
I shake my head, fighting the tears that are trying to escape. “No. Why did you do all of that? Was it your god complex? Revenge?”
“Nothing that immature, no. It was just so you’d be aware that your life was in the palm of my hand, my red dahlia. The moment I decide to crush you, I will. That moment happens to be now.”
He pushes Gwen’s chair and it slides to the edge. Her muffled shriek sounds haunted in the silence when she’s about to tumble down. I jerk forward, but he slams his leather shoe against the foot of the chair, catching her at the last second.
I swear my lifespan has shortened by a few years as I stare into her huge, bugging-out eyes. But I force myself to go still even as my heart beats so loudly, I can hear the thumps in my ears.
“Why now?” I ask with a calm I don’t feel. I need to keep him talking, to distract him enough until help comes.
“See, ever since you sent me to prison, I’ve been waiting for the moment when you had everything you wanted. A career, a family, a man. The reason I didn’t get out isn’t because I couldn’t, it’s because the right moment hadn’t come yet. As you can see, I could’ve escaped at any time, yet I didn’t for the Lucianos’ sake. But I have no loyalty to whoever takes away my revenge. I will make you feel what it means to lose everything.”
He pushes the chair and she tips to the edge so that she’s half dangling and only my father’s hold on her collar keeps her upright.
Gwen screams again, her whole body going into shock. I swallow any sounds bubbling in my throat so as not to freak her out. So even though I’m being ripped apart from the inside, I give my daughter a reassuring glance and tell her what I used to say to her while patting my belly. “It’s okay, baby. It’s going to be okay. I’ll protect you.”
“That’s a bold promise.” My father’s grating voice cuts through my head as he nonchalantly retrieves his phone while still holding Gwen by a handful of her dress. “My sniper on the other end of this line will take out your baby’s father in the blink of an eye.”
Both Gwen and I freeze.
“What?” He smiles in that manic way. “You thought I’d make it easy for you and only capture your daughter? Where’s the fun in that?”
My lips tremble, but I set them in a line. If I get lost in the emotional loop he’s trying to lure me into, I’ll definitely lose both Gwen and Kingsley.
“Tell me what you want.” I lift my chin, refusing to cower.
“To make you pick. Will you watch your daughter’s brains explode on the concrete below or receive your lover’s head on a platter? I’m curious which poison you will choose to swallow, my red dahlia. Your child or the man who gave you that child? If you choose her, she’ll hate you for the rest of her life for being the cause of her father’s death. If you choose him, you’ll hate each other for losing her. Isn’t this a beautiful conundrum?”
A tear falls down my cheek as the scenarios he just painted repeat in my head like a distorted film.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself either way. No matter which choice I make.
A pained, muffled sound comes from Gwen as she shakes her head frantically and struggles against her bindings.
