Page 12 of Burning Bridges

“Hello,” I answer rudely. I have used up all my niceties today, smiling at my mother’s friends.

“Do you like your gift?” comes a deep, gravelly voice. One I recognize immediately. But it can’t be. He’s dead. I must be hearing things or creating something I want to be true. Maybe the stress has really gotten to me, and I have lost my mind.

“My what?” I stutter, shaken from the unsettling thoughts now running through my head.

“The car. I know what you’ve had to do to take care of the family, and I appreciate it. The car is a gift to thank you. Open the trunk,” he tells me.

On autopilot because I’m so shocked and disorientated at hearing his voice, I do what he says and pop open the trunk, walking around the back of the vehicle to see what's inside.

“This will help you get by until I can come home.”

“Till you can come home? Who is this?” I ask, already knowing the answer but not able to believe it. The trauma of the last week must have fried my brain, or maybe I took an extra dose of my meds this morning by mistake. That’s the only rational explanation I can come up with for what’s happening right now. This isn’t real; I'm in a delusion.

“Piper,” the voice says through the phone. “You know who it is. If you need me for anything, call this number, and I will send someone to help.”

“I’m losing my fucking mind,” I mutter, suddenly feeling dizzy. I take hold of the car, worried I might fall.

“Piper, stop the fucking bullshit and just listen,” he yells.

I suck in a breath, trying to calm myself down. Oh my God. He’s not dead. I’m not alone. No one else would dare talk to me like that except for Tony. It’s him, all right. “I’m listening,” I squeak. I never believed he would have killed himself. He’s too narcissistic to do something like that. But the longer time went on, the more I lost hope that he would just show up to save us. If I know him like I think I do, he had a plan, and not being able to tell me until now was a part of it. Maybe my luck is about to change.

“Don’t put the house on the market. Stay put. What’s in the trunk will help for now, but I will get you the money you need to keep it. I want it there when I get back. I need you to do something for me, though.”

“Anything.”

“Find out what the fuck the Riveras are up to.”

I curse internally. I would do just about anything to help my brother, but surely, he can’t be for real about this. For months, I have been trying to get information on them and work out how the hell I can get back everything we lost. I can’t see how I’ll be able to do it now just because Tony says I can. Leo is the hardest man on the planet to manipulate. “How am I supposed to do that? A lot has changed since you left.”

"I don't fucking care how you do it, just work out a way. My insider was killed yesterday, and I can't come back till I know exactly what's going on. You understand that, right?" Tony always has a way of making me feel like an idiot, but he underestimates me. I'm not as naive as he thinks. Yeah, sometimes I play dumb because it helps me get my way, but I know what I'm doing. And I've grown up a lot in the last two years. I had to.

"Of course I understand," I snap back. I understand; I just have no clue how the hell I'm supposed to do it.

"Good. Let me know if you hear anything, okay?"

"I will."

"I'll be in touch." He disconnects the call before I even have a chance to respond. No "hope you're okay" or "sorry I wasn't there to help with Mom." "Sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral to see her off like she deserved after all she went through married to our father." Just "go be a sweet little yes-girl and do as I say." I glance back at the sports bag stuffed with stacks of bills. At least I can keep the house for now.

I look over the car, my brother's present to me. It's beautiful, and I'll look good driving it. The thought gives me an idea. I know who else likes expensive cars. And Leo might have pulled away from me today when I thought I was finally getting an in, but now more than ever it's in my best interest to get a little better acquainted with him, and I'll use any tools I can to help me. I close the trunk and hop in the driver's seat, pulling into the garage so I can take the bag of cash out of the car in privacy.

I let myself inside our house, feeling the weight of the oppressive air as soon as I'm standing in the front hall. As much as my mother wasn't ready to say goodbye to this place, I was. It may have been where I grew up, but if these walls could talk, it would be of the horror I witnessed every time my father lost his temper, inflicting pain on my poor mom to show her just who she belonged to. I avoided his fist until I was fifteen, mostly by being a good girl and doing what I was told. That was until I discovered how interested Leo was in me. He made me want to break away from the mold I had been shaped into from the day I was born. He made me want to be my own person. He also gave my father a reason to start on me.

Enjoying the late-afternoon sun warming the room, I take a seat at the grand piano and let my fingers dance along the keys to the beautiful, haunting melody of Chopin's Nocturne No. 2. This used to be my happy place, where I could disconnect from the world around me and get lost in the music. But now, it works the same as everything else in this haunted castle and reminds me of my past.

The first time my father hit me was just for having the audacity to talk to Leo in a public place. Tony had been the one to rat me out, but I know he regretted it later when he realized what our father was capable of. I used to think my mother was pathetic for staying and letting him treat her the way he did. But the night I worked out how evil he really was and tried to escape this hell by running away, he found me, and for the first time, I understood why she stayed. If she left, he would have killed her.

I'm sure he was close to ending me that night for considering choosing Leo over my family. Tony was the one who saved me. He turned on our father and gave it back to him. I later found out that was the first time he had ever stood up to him. I owe him my life, and it's why I will do whatever he needs me to do. He protected me when no one else could, and that night wasn't the only time he had to rescue me from situations because of who my father was. For Tony, he had the respect of his peers. For me, I was a target, someone who could be used to get to my father or just used because I was seen as weak.

I know what people used to say. They would wonder why Tony had so much control over me, but he didn't have power over me, he had my respect. He was there for me when no one else cared. He not only had my back, he also stood up to our monster of a father.

When I walked in on my mother floating in her bath, I was sad that she was dead, but I had watched her slowly wither away for years. She wasn't really here anymore, not in any other way than her physical body. So part of me was relieved for her as well. She didn't have to suffer anymore. She was ultimately free of the agony my father inflicted on her, killing the only man she ever loved, Dean Stone. Now I guess she can be with him again.

I'm angry at myself for not realizing she had gotten her hands on Euphoria. I bet it was that prick Gator who sold it to her because I didn't help him like he wanted me to. He had offered me help, a little loan to get me by, but when I met with him, he was just trying to use me to distribute his new product. I told him I would have no part in it. It's a banned substance on these streets, and I know what happens to anyone found in possession of it. I'm also no fucking drug dealer. What the hell was he thinking? I have no idea. But for my mother to have gotten her hands on it the same week is no coincidence. And when I find him, he will fucking pay for what he did to her.

I know I should have cried today like the rest of them. After all, I was the one closest to her in this world. I heard whispers that I'm emotionless and too broken after all the tragedies that have afflicted my family. The truth is, I stopped crying a long time ago when I realized tears won't change what has happened. I'm not broken; I'm stronger than all of them. A part of me even felt relieved for the first time in my life, thinking that I was finally free from the shackles of this family. I saw a chance for a more normal life for Hannah, moving to a smaller, less chaotic house and having a fresh start.

But now that I know Tony is still alive, it changes everything.

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