16

##Revelations

Emilia

After spending the night at Joe's country house, he drove me back to town. My luck is that today I don't have to go to work, someone from Mr Stark's family passed away and out of consideration he won't open the cafe for three days. Of course, I don't consider it lucky that someone died, but that it won't open, I'm dead tired and I really need a whole day to sleep or I'm in serious danger of becoming a zombie that walks with its legs spread.

Joe has done me a good deal of damage.

comfortable pants and a shirt and go to bed. The house is silent, my parents are sleeping, I looked through the door lock, my brothers are each in their beds, I take a deep breath relieved that everything is going well. After all, it was for my little ones that I decided to make a great sacrifice to my honor. I close my eyes and quickly fall asleep.

Hours later, I don't know how many, I wake up with a lot of headache. I get up a little dizzy and go after some painkiller, after taking the same, I go back to bed and I can't sleep anymore. I look over the side of the bed at my kitten clock, it's almost one o'clock now. How wonderful, I slept a lot!

I'm about to close my eyes again when I hear a knock on my bedroom door. I take a while to answer, I don't want to see anyone, I need some time for myself, but the knocking doesn't stop.

"In between." I speak and see my parents enter through the door of my room. I automatically roll my eyes.

"Hi daughter." They speak together and I let out a wry laugh.

I need to hold back.

"We're worried about you. It's been almost a month since you left your room when you're home, you just eat and come back here." My mother speaks.

"You've been going out a lot too, arriving late or maybe not staying home at all. I always see a car coming to pick you up, a luxurious one by the way. What's going on?" My dad adds feigning concern.

Or maybe you're really worried?

Despite everything, I love my parents, they gave me life. But when I remember their attitudes, everything I found out about them and how they have the ability to live normally when they even thought about selling their own daughter. I feel furious.

"I'm fine. Don't worry." I just answer.

"How not? We are your parents, you are our firstborn. We love you and we care about you." Emilio speaks softly.

"Talk soon, what do you want?" Without further ado I inquire. I know there's something wrong.

"Who are you seeing? Who is the person you're dating?" my mother asks.

"I don't want to talk about it…" I reveal.

"Please daughter, he seems to be someone with a lot of money in his pocket. That car is not in this country, we are concerned about who you might be involved with." My dad tries to hold my hand but I can't let go.

"I'm not dating anyone. It's just an affair." They look at me in astonishment. "That's right, I'm having an affair with a billionaire who has the money to buy this entire city." I say with anger in my voice.

"My love, we need to talk." My mother speaks calmly.

"Isn't that what you wanted to know? I already told you." I exclaim.

"It's about something else. We are having financial problems. As you know, this house is very big and the taxes are increasing every month, we are unable to pay the bills and support the children." Fiorella speaks in a soft tone.

"How did you support us all these years? What was your source of income? Is it gone all of a sudden?" I ask already knowing that Joe must have blocked all ways for them to earn dirty money like they did.

"I had some problems with foreign trade. Unfortunately, an old partner of ours gave us a scam and we had to borrow money from other organizations. We thought we would be able to get back on track with trade, but nothing is going forward, the debt is accumulated and the interest is almost exceeding the debt." He explains and I feel terrified as I realize the gravity of their cynicism .

"And why are you telling me this?" I indago and they are silent looking at each other. "How much is your debt?" I ask one more time.

"It's millions." I widen my eyes and swallow hard.

"Heavens... And what are you going to do?" I can't help but feel a deep concern.

"You are the only person who can help us right now." My father pronounces.

"Me? How? The money from my work is for me to pay for college. You said it yourself, that I have to pay for my own college. Besides, what I have isn't even close to a million, what say millions!" When I realize I'm more upset than I should.

Or should I.

"I can not do anything." I concluded.

"Maybe you can ask your boyfriend for money." I am stunned by what I hear from my mother's lips.

"I don't believe it will be a problem for you. From what I see he must like you a lot, he always comes to pick you up and bring you back." I hold my hair in such a fury that I can't think through what I'm hearing.

"I have no money and I will not ask him for money!" I exclaim with my eyes burning with tears.

"Daughter, have you noticed that you might be being a little selfish?" His calm tone intended not to make me angry doesn't work.

"I'm not going to ask him for money! I told you, I'm not a whore!" Furious scream.

"We're not saying you are. We know that. Calm down. We're sure if you ask him he won't have the heart to deny it." Once again rage floods through me and I go blind.

“ Stop saying that . you! Because I know what you do. And so does he!" Exhausted and not thinking about anything, I reveal everything with bitter tears streaming from my eyes.

Now I feel mortified. I have just revealed what I would never have the courage to reveal, but desperation and fury forced me to. I look at my parents who are gaping at what I just said.

"We had no idea…" my mum says sheepishly. My vision is blurry and I can't hear anything anymore, it seems the shock of having revealed this is plaguing me.

"Emily?" I hear my father's voice calling me.

Without thinking about anything, I get out of bed, with the same old clothes I wear to sleep, I leave the room with my cell phone in my hand, ignoring all my parents' protests. I see my brothers playing in the living room and some in the backyard, I have no head for them now. I leave through the gate ignoring Crowley who barks incessantly and run to Malvina's house which is next to mine.

As soon as I arrive, my friend welcomes me with joy but is sad to see my critical condition. I hug her and she squeezes me with comfort. I cry for several minutes before I can get a word out. When I finally calm down, I hear my cell phone ring. It's Joe, I'm surprised he still wants to talk to me, he certainly already knows what my parents asked me about, he knows everything about me, he even knows when I breathe or not.

To avoid anything, I turn off my cell phone. Malvina offers me something to eat, as I'm not one to reject food, I accept it. As we ate a plate of Japanese food, we sat in silence. After that she calls me to her room taking a bottle of wine with her.

Then, over a few glasses of wine, I find the courage and tell Malvina everything, exactly everything. About Joe's hobby, about my parents' profession, everything without leaving anything out, including the barbarity they proposed to me.

"And you don't think he would be able to help?"

"I doubt that. He hates my parents, he just didn't kill them because of me." I say taking another sip of wine.

"Who knows... From what you've told me, he seems to like you a lot. Back at the karaoke he was crazy jealous when he saw you with Roman."

"Everything he feels for me is physical. He's obsessed with the idea that I'm in love with another guy, which is a lie." I confess.

"I don't even want to say what I think about your parents. Damn, they are…" She trails off the hideous word she was going to say. But I do not care.

"My God friend! You, the saint, are dating a murderer who only kills murderers! Do you have any idea how exciting this is?" Heavens, Malvina is the best person anyone could ever meet.

"Only you can make me smile at times like these." I speak smiling. "I thought you would judge me."

"Never. Am I a judge by any chance?" We laughed together and then we heard the doorbell ring.

She goes down to answer it and minutes later returns with Roman who smiles when he sees me.

"Hi, didn't know you were here." He says.

"All good." I speak and smile.

"I need to tell you something serious about me." Roman reveals.

"Tell me soon. Today I'm enjoying hearing confessions." Malvina claps her hands happily.

"I slept with a man yesterday. I was drunk and high, he looked like a woman, I only found out today." I open my eyes in surprise and suppress the urge to smile.

A few minutes later, we're all lying in Malvina's bed, suddenly she leaves to go to the bathroom and the doorbell rings again, I go downstairs to open the door and my heart races violently when I see Joe standing there with his eyes furious in my direction.

Then he enters and on the stairs running, in the room he finds Roman lying on the bed who gets up scared, I run after him and see when Joe punches my friend in the face who falls to the floor.

"You're getting crazy?" Shout.

"You were in bed with him!" Joe exclaims with loathing. "Be quiet there, now I'll settle this with him."

"Hey man! I'm not in the mood to box." Roman mutters with his hand over his face.

"You aren't even willing to fight for her! Fuck, what kind of man are you?"

"I would even fight for her if I hadn't just found out I might be gay." Roman declares and I crouch down to see if he's hurt.

"Gay?" Joe repeats in disbelief.

"My God! What is this? Am I that drunk?" Malvina comes out of the bathroom smiling like a madwoman.

There sir! What a mess...