Page 51 of Memento Mori
They knew not to question my wife’s authority. Both did what they were told, holding Marianna up, so she was on her knees like Aaliyah wanted.
“Who are you working for? And if you lie to me, Marianna, I swear I will make this long and torturous.”
“I.... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The smile stretching across my wife’s face as she pulled a syringe out of her blazer’s inside pocket should terrify my mother.
“I’m so glad you’ve decided to drag this out,” she said. “See this?”
Aaliyah held up a syringe filled with clear liquid, and I knew exactly what it was, and Marianna wouldn’t last long once it was administered.
“My father is a very smart man,” she continued. “He’s not a very nice person, but he’s very smart. Even our government comes to him sometimes, asking for weapons they can use in times of war. This is one of those weapons.”
Marianna’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the syringe, its sharp needle glinting in the light. Tears streamed down my mother’s face, leaving her cheeks flushed and glistening.
“Aww. No time for tears now. I understand you didn’t know who you were dealing with when you decided to come after me, come after my husband. But now you are going to find out firsthand why no one fucks with me or my husband.”
“Antonio! Please, don’t do this,” Marianna pleaded, but there wasn’t anything I could do.
“I’m your mother!”
She did this to herself. She set the wheels in motion for something that wouldn’t end here, even with her death.
“We didn’t do anything, Marianna,” I responded. “You did this to yourself.”
At my signal, Franco wrapped the band around Marianna’s arm, making sure it was snug before tying it securely.
“Son. Please. Don’t let her do this.”
I remained quiet as Aaliyah found a vein in my mother’s arm and pierced her skin, injecting Abasi’s serum into her bloodstream. A blood-curdling scream escaped from Marianna’s lips, filling the room with a sense of terror. She was in pure agony, and I felt nothing but satisfaction at the sound.
“Here is the antidote.” Aaliyah retrieved the second syringe from her blazer pocket and displayed it to my mother. “After you answer my questions, I will give it to you.”
Marianna fought against the firm grip of Luca and Franco, her screams piercing the air, but I tuned them out.
“Who are you working for?” Aaliyah asked.
“I... I can’t tell you. He’ll have me killed.”
My wife’s face lit up with a radiant smile.
“I’m going to kill you, Marianna. So that’s not something you have to worry about. You see, Death and I are very old acquaintances, and He’s come to collect my soul many times. But it’s not my soul He’s after this time. It’s yours.”
Chapter Twenty
YOU HAVE TO PAY
Aaliyah
I’d seen grown men crumble under this drug faster than a bullet, but Marianna refused to budge. No matter how much I bruised her body, the gunshot to her foot or how much I threatened to take her life, she still would not give us the name of the person she was working with. She screamed, she begged, but still would not give up the name.
“What do you want to do?” Antonio asked.
I hated to do this in front of him. While I loathed this woman, she was still his mother. Even though he knew this had to be done for us to even have a life together it still didn’t change the facts.
“I need you to leave.”
Confusion clouded his expression as his brows furrowed.
