Bark For The Don Who’s Been Hunting Me For Ten Years Chapter 09
The wind up on the ridge cuts like a razor.
Two of my men drag my father up the muddy hill. He’s still stinking of cheap bourbon. Slurring curses under his breath.
Ten years ago, when my mother died, my father couldn’t be bothered to buy her a real plot. Said cemeteries were bad luck.
So he buried her ashes on some patch of scrub land outside the city. Then he went home and moved Camilla and Bianca into our house the same week.
I walk through the dead grass. Kneel down in the mud in front of her stone.
“Mom. I’m sorry. I know it’s been ten years.”
I wipe the moss off the headstone with my sleeve. Slow. Careful. Voice barely above a whisper.
“The ones who hurt us. I’m handling them. One by one. You just sit back and watch.”
Something heavy hits the stone next to me.
Cassian. Down on his knees in the mud beside me. He didn’t even hesitate. He bows his head three times against the ground.
“Mrs. Marchetti. I’m sorry. I should have been there. I should have protected her.”
“From today on, her life is mine. Anyone who lays a finger on her, I bury their whole family.”
I turn my head. Look at him.
“Ease up. You’re gonna scare my mother.”
Cassian bows his head immediately. Like a big dog getting its ears rubbed. He lets me take his hand without a word.
“Bring him up.”
I don’t even look back.
Two of the guards drag my father like a corpse and dump him face down in front of the stone.
He lands hard. Opens his eyes. Sees the name carved into the granite.
Every ounce of color drains out of him.
“What the fuck. Why did you bring me here.”
He tries to get up. A guard puts a boot in the middle of his back and grinds him back into the wet dirt.
I look down at him. My voice is flat. Empty.
“Aldo. Do you even remember what she looked like.”
He freezes. His bloodshot eyes flick around. His mouth opens. Closes. Nothing comes out.
I laugh. Cold. Reach into my bag and pull out a stack of yellowed papers. Throw them right at his face.
His mother’s death certificate. Her medical records from that night.
Right there in black and white. Cardiac event. Delayed emergency response. Death by preventable heart failure.
“You really thought I didn’t know. You really thought I didn’t know what you did to her.”
I crouch down. Grab a fistful of his hair. Force his face toward the stone.
“The day you brought Camilla and Bianca home. That’s the day she had the attack.”
“She was on her knees. Begging you. Begging you to call 911. And you told her the sirens would ruin your engagement dinner.”
“You locked her in the bedroom. And you left her there. And she died alone on the floor.”
His face goes white. Pure white. He shakes his head. Panic in his eyes.
“It was an accident. I was drunk. I didn’t know it was that bad. I didn’t know.”
Cassian’s boot slams into the back of my father’s knee.
Something snaps. My father goes down. Rolling in the mud. Snot and tears smearing across his face.
Cassian steps onto his other knee. Pins him. Voice dropped down to zero degrees.
“On your knees. Apologize to her.”
My father pisses himself. Actually pisses himself. He drags his broken leg through the mud. Crawls to the headstone.
Starts slamming his forehead into the granite. Over and over. Blood spreading across the stone.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It was all my fault. Please, Sera. Please forgive Daddy. Please.”
I watch the blood streak down his face. My stomach turns.
I turn around. I don’t want to look at him one more second.
“Throw him down the hill. Whether he lives or dies is up to God.”
The screaming starts. Then it fades down the slope. Then it’s gone.
The rain picks up. Cassian opens a black umbrella over my head. Doesn’t say anything.
I stand there. Looking at my mother’s name washing clean in the rain.
Slow exhale. Ten years of it, coming out of me all at once.