◆ Choose Your Fate ◆
◆ MILES ◆
"He won't even answer my texts."
"Don't bother."
"Did you try calling him again?"
"No."
Right. Fine. Clearly in no mood to talk to anyone. "You okay?" I crouched closer to my mother when she stayed motionless on the bed, the gun stuck in my back pocket now.
Loaded. But the safety was still on. I almost had a heart attack barely a minute ago. Thankfully the gun hadn't been used.
She was okay. For the most part she seemed fine. The reddish marks on her cheek and swollen eyes told me a different story, though. "No."
"Tsk." Of course she wasn't okay. "Sorry. I should've been here earlier."
"It's fine."
"Sorry." I stared at her, just watching her closely while she kept still on the covers. Something definitely happened before Pappa left her alone in here. I sighed and tried to ignore the urge to punch something and shoot someone in the head.
Preferably the selfish asshole she had been calling her husband for two decades now. "Don't bother looking for him." Mamma closed her eyes and wiped off a tear that ran down her cheek. Her face looked puffy, her eye bags especially—obviously not just from oversleeping. "He ran off with his new whore."
Whore? Shit. Of course. So he's got a new mistress. Wow. Unbelievable.
Just when I thought he couldn't be any more despicable... "You really don't know where he is?"
Mamma weakly shook her head. She wouldn't even look at me. As if what she admitted embarrassed her, too. "I found his secret books."
"What books?"
"She... That woman's been keeping them updated for him."
"Updated?"
"Every single day. She put in timestamps, too."
"Secret books. You mean..."
"Yes. Everything's in there." Mamma sniveled. "His transactions with Leandro and Ignazio's guys. Their traffickers. Dealers. Cops. Doctors..."
"They're actual books? Ledgers?"
"No. Maybe there's more. I don't know..." she muttered. "I found the files the other day, in a hidden folder on his office computer."
Sneaky piece of shit. "You have copies?"
"No."
Dammit. Archambault and his friends at Interpol HQ really wanted a copy of those books. They're the best solid evidence we needed to hand over soon, to finally put an end to all this.
"Saved them on my drive," Mamma went on, her shapely brows furrowed now. They looked a lighter shade of brown than her bangs that covered almost half of her face. "He found them yesterday and deleted them. After I...talked to him about it."
"Is that why your..." I bit back swearwords as the blood shot up straight to my head. Now I had more serious reasons to put that asshole behind bars.
He deserved it as much as the Tomassinis. No doubt he still felt like he would never get caught. Cocky son of a bitch.
Like the first time she decided to leave him, he hurt Mamma in the worst possible way. Although he more or less treated my mother like she was his property and not his wife, this time he's really testing my limits.
20 years later—clearly nothing's changed. At this point he's just asking for it. "He hurt you, didn't he?" I kept my voice down, trying my absolute best to keep calm. I leaned closer. Now my nose almost touched my mother's beautiful face.
She always looked so poised and elegant every time we saw each other. Every time she paid me a visit... Whenever she's at work or hanging out with family and friends... Now she looked sickly. Weak. Lifeless.
Clearly depressed, just as I'd thought. Her lovely hazel eyes looked dead. Cold. Emotionless.
My fist clenched on my thigh. "Mamma. Did he hurt you?"
No answer again.
Okay. I shouldn't force her to say it out loud. I already had some ideas on what her sadistic, lying creep of a husband did to her. My imagination and common sense told me he slapped her at least. Hard enough to leave bruises. Or maybe he did something worse.
Fuck.
She blinked and kept avoiding my eyes. Mamma just stared at the wall behind me, her tan skin unusually warm beneath my palms. Feverish almost. "Don't go after him and that charlatan whore. Total waste of time." She scoffed. "I bet they already left the country."
Probably. "You know her name?"
"She works for us. Well, worked," she stressed with a scoff.
"He told you where he's going? You sure he's with her?"
"It's that assistant accountant he hired last year."
Huh. That young redhead. Makes perfect sense. At first hello, I had a feeling that girl was rather inexperienced for that job. Therefore up to no good. "He didn't say where he's going? Or when he's coming back?"
"Didn't tell me anything."
So, more secrets and lies. Well, not like it's the first time he did something this vile. Some days I thought it's a miracle he's still alive and breathing after all the things he'd done.
I sighed and sat on the floor, right next to the bed where Mamma stayed limp while wiping her tears dry. I wanted to hug her, but she might not appreciate the gesture.
She's prideful in a way, often putting on a façade. Most of the time she pretended her life's perfect as it was, and that she's happy with her marriage. Two enormous and deadly lies.
But I figured it's just the denial. Or maybe shame? She had always hoped my father would change his ways. That sooner or later he would turn away from his prison-worthy vices. That he would change for her.
Definitely not the case now. "Leave him for good. Please." I stroked her forearm. Watching her crying quietly only made my chest ache again. Now I wanted to use the gun on that self-centered bastard who left her for a 25-year-old gold-digging criminal.
His new protégée. Disgusting. Although, at this point nothing really surprised me anymore.
"I should've done that ages ago, bambino." Mamma chuckled. "Sorry. I've been so stupid...all this time." She shook her head. "Sorry."
"No. Why're you apologizing? He brainwashed you. Abused you for years. Not your fault he's a narcissistic asshole. Like the people he hangs out with."
"Sorry, dear. I shouldn't have brought you back here." My Mamma Eleana wiped another tear off her reddish cheek, her voice still shaky.
"No, Mamma." I leaned closer to kiss her forehead. "Nothing's your fault."
"We should've stayed in America, huh? And just kicked him out of our life for good." She feigned a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. "We were doing fine. Right? Before he showed up and just..."
We definitely should have stayed away from that selfish bastard. But...little too late for regrets now. "Mamma."
"Yes, dear?"
"We need your help."
"With what, bambino?" She stared at me now, her eyes still glassy and pinkish.
"Please. Don't say no."
She squinted at me. "What d'you mean?"
"You need to tell us everything. You gotta help us put him where he belongs."
"What?"
"Testify against him and the Tomassinis."
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