Page 116 of Driftwood Daffodil

“Then I fail to see the problem.”

It took everything I had not to grind my teeth. I was right fucking here.

“Are you spying on me now,” I hissed at Romeo.

“Just keeping a watchful eye little brother.”

“I don’t need your help, Romeo.” Or his watchful eye.

My father rolled his eyes back to me and my stomach dropped. “Yes you do.”

“No I don’t.” Why couldn’t he believe that I was just as capable as my brother? “I know Veda Ford saw something.”

“You can’t know that for sure,” Romeo scoffed and shook his head.

“I guess you missed the way she stared at Antonio.” He was the one that didn’t know for sure. He didn’t look close enough to see it. But I did.

“Doesn’t prove anything,” Romeo blew out a puff of smoke. “The girl’s always been jumpy.”

“Not like that.”

I may not have gotten close to Nova in the way they wanted me to, but I still noticed the change in her sister.

“So she saw something.” My father once again folded his hands on the top of his desk. “Do you know what she saw, or who she saw do it?”

Could I say with absolute certainty that she witnessed a murder or that she knew who did it… “No.”

“Alright,” my father scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed, “Make the call.”

It couldn’t end this way. My father wasn’t right about me not being ready. I could do this. “You don’t have to make the call.”

“Yes I do. You couldn’t complete a simple task and now I’m forced to kill a mother and child.”

The disappointment in his tone made me long for the days when I wasn’t even a thought in his head.

When his eyes rolled down to a stack of papers my fists balled.

I wanted to hit and scream, ‘I’m right here. I’ve always been right here’.

But I didn’t. I just stood there like a pathetic child. I hated him for making me feel like an outsider. I had just as much rightto be welcomed in the family as my brothers. It wasn’t just my birthright. I’d earned my spot. Unlike my brothers I spent years trying to prove myself, and I was willing to make sacrifices to show him that.

“Veda won’t talk. You don’t have to kill her.”

My father sighed as if I was nothing more than a nuisance. “It’s done, Gio.”

“Besides,” Romeo interjected, “you can’t guarantee she’ll keep her mouth shut.”

“I can if I own her sister.”

They both stopped and arched a brow at me. I didn’t need to explain further, they knew what I meant. That didn’t stop my father from clarifying things.

“You couldn’t kill her.”

“I know.” In order for this to work long term, I’d have to marry Nova. Chances are I’d end up marrying someone I didn’t like anyway. Antonio had already started trying for an agreement between myself and his youngest daughter.

My father looked at Romeo who nodded and said, “It could work.”

Of course he would look to my brother for confirmation. It was my idea, not Romeo’s. Yet he was the one who had to agree. Would my father notice if I died? Would he care, or would it be okay because he still had my brother.

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