Make Them Regret It Chapter 02
When I opened my eyes again, I was floating near the chapel ceiling.
Down on the floor, the woman in the wedding dress was me. My eyes were closed, blood still dark at the corner of my mouth.
My grandmother sat in the front pew, her back straight, as if she had simply fallen asleep. She had taken poison she’d prepared herself.
My mother sat beside her, hands folded calmly in her lap.
My older brother’s wife had a strip of cloth wrapped around half her face. Fresh blood was still soaking through the fabric.
My second brother’s wife was curled in a corner, one hand pressed to her stomach. She had been three months pregnant. My second brother never knew.
Gia was in my arms.
She was only five, my older brother’s daughter. Her little face was tinged blue, half a piece of chocolate still clutched in her hand.
She was the first to die.
She didn’t choose it. She froze to death.
My grandmother had watched her take her last breath.
After that, my grandmother stopped trying to comfort anyone.
She gathered us together and said, her voice steady, “The women of the Romano family may die, but we will not be taken away and treated like lab rats.”
“If they send us to Blackwood, our lives are over. As long as we can still choose, we go first. They will not take us.”
My mother nodded. My sisters-in-law nodded, too.
Finally, my grandmother looked at me. She took a capsule from her pocket and pressed it into my hand.
“Blythe, this is a powerful sleeping pill. Take it, and it will be like falling asleep. They won’t be able to take you.”
“You came in here in your wedding dress. You’ll leave in it, too.”
“Don’t be afraid. Nonna will be waiting for you.”
I threw myself into her arms, but my mother pulled me back with all her strength.
One by one, they left me.
Then an invisible force pulled me from the room.
I flew over the manicured lawn, across the still surface of the swimming pool, and stopped just outside the grand terrace of the main house.
The room inside was ablaze with light. The table was laden with food and wine.
My father was there. So were my older brother, my second brother, and Colton.
Isabella sat at the center of them all.
She was wearing the gown my mother had designed for me, and around her neck was the necklace I had received for my eighteenth birthday.
My older brother set a small bowl of shelled pistachios in front of her.
“You like these. I shelled them for you.”
My second brother brought over a white angora rabbit and placed it in her lap.
“Don’t be upset. Once Blythe signs the papers tomorrow, this will all be over.”
Isabella lowered her head, stroking the rabbit’s soft fur.
The maid standing behind her bent down and whispered something in her ear.
I was close enough to hear every word.
“Miss Isabella, don’t worry. The fake agents recited your script perfectly. Not a single word was out of place.”
Isabella smiled.
Just a little.