Page 117 of Rosetti Family New York
Adrian shrugs. It’s a slow, deliberate thing, and I hate it. “And Domenico Rosetti is using you instead?” He sounds amused, like he’s just a regular father, asking about my boyfriend. “Or do you think he loves you?”
“Don’t,” I say, but the edge in my voice slips out with the word. My hands are cold. My feet too.
“Did you forget what happened to your mother?” he asks with barely any emotion. “Or do you just not care?”
My stomach knots, and a small, sharp breath escapes my mouth. I think of Mami. Of that day. The coat over the pajamas. The doctor leaving with cash in his pocket. I was nine years old, but even then I knew. I knew my mother’s gentle nature was aliability, and I know now that the same fate could be waiting for me. I’m her daughter, after all. Just as soft where it counts. If Baba has his way, I’ll go to the same grave, no matter how hard I pretend.
I clench my fists. “Don’t bring Mami into this.”
“But don’t you know, you’re supposed to learn from your mother?” He says it like some great joke, smiling wide.
“You always told me she died of an illness,” I shoot back.
His smile sharpens. “And you, clever girl, never believed me.” He sits down and crosses one leg over the other, flicking off a speck of dust like he didn’t just threaten to bury another family member. “You wouldn’t want your precious husband to catch the same… illness.”
My fingernails bite into my palms, and I glance up at the head of security. Can I plunge Mami’s dagger into my father’s chest before his suit-wearing ape reaches us? A desperate, ridiculous idea.
Dom’s face flashes in front of me. The way he looks at me like I’m not a pawn. I won’t let my father do this to him. I won’t let my family ruin me.
Could we run? Could we survive?
Baba is watching me, and I know what that means. He’s already planned for that. Already taken it into account. My father is many things, but never unprepared.
I loosen my fists. A different strategy, then. One last try.
“Why?” I ask, and my voice is a whisper. The ghost of a girl I used to be. “Why did you kill Mami?”
Adrian holds my gaze for a long time. Long enough that my heartbeat grows too loud in my ears. “She tried to leave. Tried to take you and Dritan and leave me. Betrayal,” he says, “has a way of catching up to you.”
I can’t breathe right. Can’t think right. I pull out my phone, my only lifeline, thumb shaking as I type a message to Domenico.Come get me. Come quick.
I shove the phone back in my pocket. Pretend I’m composed, controlled, and in charge.
“And Dritan?” I ask. I need to know what happened to my brother.
Baba leans back and spreads his arms wide along the back of the stone bench. “Terrible accident,” he says, then he winks. He. Winks.
I’m sweating under my coat, the thought too hot for my skin. I was just a girl when I lost them both. The perfect age to learn my lessons.
“What happened to them,” I say, “won’t happen to Dom.”
He laughs, and the sound grates like steel against glass. “We’ll see, Besiana.”
I hear his voice, but I’m somewhere else. Some other day. I see him with his jacket over his pajamas, feel him standing over me, Mami’s knife in his hand.You’re my daughter, he said. His voice still cool, and the blade pressed against my face.That makes you strong. A perfect, perfect girl.Then he tossed the blade onto my pillow, inches from my head, and walked away.
I put my hand to my cheek, like the scars are fresh.
Adrian stands still, watching me remember, and doesn’t say a word.
Cold. Deliberate. Deadly.
“You’re scared,” he says, soft enough that only I hear.
There’s a new desperation in me, and I hate it. I am strong enough to walk away from this life. Aren’t I?
“No,” I spit out, my hands trembling inside my coat pocket.
“You should be.” His voice is soft like a father’s, and it makes me want to cry.
