Page 68 of Spice and Revenge

“We are family!” Pedro roars at me.

“You stopped being my family the second you plotted against your own brother. What sort of monster are you?”

“You’ll understand someday. You and I, we are cut from the same cloth. We know what it means to make sacrifices.”

“Sacrifice is using the money you’ve been saving for a car for your kid to join the hockey team. Sacrifice isn’t contriving to have a whole family murdered because you thought you deserved what they had. You are a monster, and I’m nothing like you!” I roar at him, hands shaking with fury.

“You cannot kill me,” he suddenly chuckles. “You’re a coward, just like your father.”

“I’m no coward.”

“If you aren’t, then why isn’t Vitale dead?”

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

He throws his head back and lets out a bark of laughter. “You are still that little quivering girl from years ago who lay there and pretended to be dead when her whole family was being wiped away. You had no power then, and you have no power now.”

“You’re the one who was too much of a coward to look my father in the eye and shoot him, and so you had to use Ares to do your dirty work. I’m going to do what you were never brave enough to do, Uncle. I’m going to slay my own monsters by my damn self.”

A look of fear flashes in his eyes, and before he can open his mouth and say anything else, the gun jerks in my hand and my bullet makes its way into his forehead. It is not until his body drops to the floor and his blank eyes stare at me that my tense muscles relax.

He's dead.

I wait for the feeling of victory and elation, but instead, all I feel is a sense of unsettlement. Uncle Pedro is only one half of the equation; Leo is the other half. The half that will remain unsolved.

Tossing the gun away from me, I carefully pick my way over the littered dead bodies, but as soon as I’m far enough, I break out into a run. I need to get out of this city and as far from Leo as I can get.

Finding a taxi in this part of the city is much more difficult than I thought, especially since we’re in the middle of the night. My breath comes out in heaving pants as I continue to run. Away from Uncle Pedro. Away from Leonardo Vitale. Away from this life, completely.

I’ve done it before; I can do it again.

My chest aches, my muscles are weak, and my mouth is so parched from thirst. Yet, I don’t stop. I continue to run, even though it is the early hours of dawn and it’s still dark everywhere.

A tear slips out of my eyes as I think about my life, about all the things that Uncle Pedro said.

How could he be so wicked? How could he be so evil to the point where he had to connive with the enemy to wipe out his brother’s family? How could he pretend like he was my savior all those years when he was the main source of my pain?

When Uncle Pedro rescued me all those years ago, I felt like I owed him my life. He treated me nicely for the first couple of weeks after I was rescued, sending maids to get me whatever I wanted, and cracking jokes with me over lunch and dinner. He tried to make me feel better. I believed he genuinely cared.

Then came the training.

“To protect yourself,” he'd said.

I didn’t want to do it. The sight of blood made me remember of my parents lying in a pool of their own blood. The sound ofgunshots took me back to that dark moment when I saw my family get killed.

But gratitude towards Uncle Pedro compelled me. He’d saved me, after all. I owed my life to him, and at the end of the day, he was only teaching me how to fight so that I could defend myself.

Until he started sending me on missions to eliminate his foes. It was easy for me. Whenever they saw a little, teenage girl approaching them, they never expected that I would be the one diving a dagger into their hearts. I kept working for Uncle Pedro until I realized I’d turned into the same people that killed my parents.

But staying ten years with such a person takes a toll on you. He had turned me into the monster he was.

That was when I knew I had to leave.

I always knew Uncle Pedro wasn’t a good person, but I never realized the extent to which he could go just to get what he wanted.

Maximo’s death was my awakening. Now, after hearing the things he confessed, I know that I want no form of contact with him. I plan to disappear again, and this time around, no one will find me.

I continue to run until I find myself getting into the city. Yet, I am nowhere close to the motel. I shouldn’t even be thinking about going there. I know there are people after me. Uncle Pedro already has someone looking to kill me. Leo probably does too.

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