Page 79 of Monster's Edge

“Yes.”

“And who was it?”

She pauses. “Listen,” she tells me. “What I’m going to say next...there’s no coming back from it, okay? Once you know this, you’re going to look at all of us differently: your dad, Ian...even me. Is this really something you want to know?”

She’s giving me an out. She’s giving me a chance to tell her that I don’t actually want to know, and while I appreciate that, I don’t want to take it.

“I want to know,” I tell her firmly. It’s only fair. If Georgetta has to carry this burden, then I can, too.

“Ian Salucci is not an only child,” she says. “He had a sister. Aria.”

I pause, watching her. I really hope this story is going to have a happy ending, but I don’t think that it will. I can’t imagine that it does.

“Your father doesn’t know that Aria is Ian’s sister. I only know because someone here told me.”

“Someone in Ian’s house?”

She nods. I wonder if it’s Edoardo. He looked at Georgetta like he liked her. Maybe the two of them are sleeping together.

“Aria’s last name wasn’t Salucci. She took their mother’s name, which let her live a somewhat normal life. When their parents died, Ian stayed with an uncle to train to take over the family one day. Aria went to live with a cousin.”

“Not a mob cousin, I take it,” I whisper.

“Not a mob cousin. Anyway, she came back to town when she was grown. She was working as a caterer for a couple of the families.”

“Why would she do that? Why wouldn’t she just go to Ian for money?”

“The two of them weren’t exactly estranged, but they weren’t close, either. Aria wanted to make herself useful. She wanted to prove herself, so she tried to listen to what was happening. She tried to find out as much information as she could about the goings-on of the underground mafia world here.”

My stomach twists. Georgetta has used the past tense a couple of times when referring to Aria. Could this because she’s dead? Did my father kill her?

“Skip to the end,” I whisper.

Georgetta nods. “She overheard something she wasn’t supposed to. Your father’s men caught her. They raped her, Rose. They hurt her. Badly.”

“And you saw this happen.”

“I saw the aftermath,” she tells me. “I saw them pulling her body from the basement and carrying it toward the back door. They used her name. They called her Aria. They said that she was never going to have a chance to speak because they’d cut out her tongue, too.”

I drop to the floor of the bedroom. I think I’m going to be sick. Georgetta rushes to my side and squats down beside me. She takes my hand.

“Deep breaths, Rose.”

I take deep breaths.

“Finish the story.” I need to know what happened. What did my dad do? Is this why Ian took me? To get revenge for his sister?

“Ian found out later what had happened. Everyone heard the story of Mr. Amato killing the catering girl. Nobody knew it was Ian’s sister until someone let the name slip. Ian started digging. He found out who it was, and he formulated his plan.”

“So that’s why he wants to do business with my dad.”

“I think he’s going to kill your dad, Rose.”

I nod, whispering.

“I think that might be for the best.”

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