19

##He finished.

Emily

I see my parents enter the house in the distance, my heart is racing so fast that I can barely breathe easily. I'm scared of what I'll hear, I'm broken, broken and infinitely hurt inside. Knowing my whole life was a lie hurts. It hurts so much my heart almost can't take it. I have no more tears, my head hurts so much, my mind is spinning. I'm lost.

When I enter the house I notice that the office door is closed, I enter it without knocking and find the two of them looking at me with surprise. I toss the folder onto the table in front of them and cross my arms. Not a word has been said, there's no need, and I have nothing to say until you see what I've found.

When they finish frantically flipping through the documents, Emilio and Fiorella look at me with pale, shocked faces.

"How did you get that?" my father asks.

"It doesn't matter. Please, no more lies, I need to hear the truth." I sigh heavily.

"It's not at all what you're thinking…" My mom tries.

"Then what is it? For God's sake, how dare you even say that clichéd memorized phrase?" I close my eyes trying to control myself. I can't lose control.

"We'll explain everything." Fiorella says. "Tell you Emilio, I can't do it." She looks at her husband who runs his hands through his hair.

"I'm waiting. And don't lie anymore. I already know everything!" Notice.

"It all started when you were still in your real mother's womb." Heavens! Hearing that is so weird.

"What's her name? Or did she call her?" Curious question.

"Her name was Emilie." Respond and continue. "We recruited her to be a courier for a Polish mobster , we didn't know she was already pregnant, we found out after a week, it was quite recent. We tried to persuade her to have an abortion ." Disgust settles in me and I want to throw up, but I control myself, I have to be strong and listen to everything.

"And then?" I tease them when they are silent.

"Emilie didn't want to but decided to continue with the work even after finding out what it was about , she said she wanted to save the money and raise her daughter. When you were born, she wanted to leave, but it's not that simple to get out of it, there was a customer who would only accept merchandise if it came from her hands, it was one of the highest revenues. She was adamant and I was very angry because the customer was someone very important, so I..." His hesitation only proves my theory.

"So... what did you do with my real mother?" I encourage you.

"We killed her!" My mom exclaims with tears in her eyes.

I look down feeling an enormous discomfort, something unlike anything I've ever felt, as if a bullet had penetrated my chest. Nothing they say to me now will change my feeling of emptiness and death within.

" It was on impulse. We had nothing else to do, the guilt consumed us, we were not murderers! We created love for you and decided to register you as ours. You were a beautiful daughter, your eyes that changed color, your angelic face, you she was the most beautiful child in the world. We couldn't have made a better choice. Forgive us, my princess..." She says crying.

That's what they called me until last month, when they changed their treatment of all their children from water to wine.

"Is it true that I'm listening to forgive you? You killed my mother just because she didn't want to be a drug dealer anymore , because of money!" I exclaim in disgust.

"The man was dangerous and our top billing, he would only accept merchandise if she was the delivery person ." My mother, I mean, Fiorella says.

"I don't want to know anything anymore. I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouths." I crouch down in the corner of the wall and feel as if my soul leaves my body and returns. The pain I feel is supernatural. "How many more people have you used? Killed? Why did you do that to my mother? She wanted to raise me!" I rant.

"We gave you a home, love and a family. We were happy until today Emilia, don't be so ungrateful. We did all this for you, so that you had a better future!" Emílio speaks and the anger is so great that I squeeze my hair tightly so as not to scream.

"Don't say it as if I was guilty, because it's all your fault! I want you to leave my life and my brothers' lives, I hate you!" I speak and get up taking the papers putting them back in the folder.

My will is to tell them to leave this house and never come back. But not yet. I just remembered something Joe said the day we agreed, and it will change my life forever.

"I have one more thing to say, Miss Antonelli." I stopped and stared at him. “If you agree to be my mistress, I'll clear your parents' names, pay your family's debt, considering everything is in your name, you'll take everything they own now, you'll be responsible for everything. They will still pay for what they did, only in extreme secrecy. Your reputation and that of your family will be intact, I give you my word."

That's what he said.

And why did he humiliate me earlier today for borrowing money when he himself had promised me that? I look out the window and see him leaning against the hood of his car at a reasonable distance from my house, it's already dark and by then I don't care what he's going to do, I just know that I won't sacrifice myself anymore for those who aren't worth it. the pity.

Maybe he kills them or not. They deserve? Yeah, does it hurt to think that? Yes. But I'm not to blame for anything, if there's any victim in this crazy story, it's me and my five brothers. Besides, Joe lied to me, gave me his word and when it came to fulfilling it he refused, too bad I didn't remember that at the time we were arguing about it.

In short: it means our deal is over.

I don't know why I feel so stunned by this.

Ignoring any words said by these two people, I retreat out of the house, walking towards Joe who looks at me without expression. I take courage to say what's been stuck in my throat for a while, I'm already at rock bottom.

"Our agreement is over." I speak at once and see the dark eyes widen.

"He finished?" He swallowed hard.

"You can do whatever you want with my parents. I don't care anymore, after all, your word isn't worth as much as you say."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Confused question.

"You had given me your word that by accepting the agreement I would have all my family's debts paid and our name cleared. You humiliated me when I asked for a loan to at least support my brothers for a few days, you refused." I throw my hurt in your face.

"I didn't want to say, but you weren't in debt, I had paid it off. Your parents wanted more money using you to get it. How long has it been since you looked at your bank account? You're a millionaire." I swallow hard at her revelation. I haven't looked at how much money I have in my account for months.

But beyond that, did he do that whole scene with the intention of humiliating me?

"Why didn't you tell me?" I inquire.

"I wanted you to know who your real parents are, you asking me to have compassion on them hurt my honor as a bad man. And don't ever say I don't fucking have words!" He walks over to me and corners me against the wall of his car.

I look at his face which is pale and tense, his jaw is set but now I can't be afraid, I can't.

"It's over Joe, there's no such deal anymore. I don't belong to you anymore, you can't control me so let me go." I whisper with a whirlwind of feelings coming at all, oddly enough I'm suffering from having to say this.

But that was all we had, wasn't it? An agreement. If I don't have any more reasons to go on with it, Joe doesn't have any more reasons to want me, after all, he just wanted my body.

"I don't think this is the appropriate place to talk about it."

"There's nothing to discuss. Goodbye, Joe." Taken by an unknown instinct, I stand on tiptoe and place my lips on his.

In a confused moment we didn't care about anything, we literally kissed like it was the last time. Your lips that always guide mine, devour them with thirst and voluptuousness, your big hands contour my waist and make a point of still leaving marks on me.

And it's always like that when he touches me, heat runs through my bloodstream, an unbridled desire takes care of me, but there's something different about this kiss, it's farewell and with that I feel a twinge inside my chest, it hurts. This way, he releases me from his arms and lets me go. Strangely he lets me go.