Page 21 of Taunt Me (Dark Odyssey 2)

It was when I got on the plane that I put it all together.

The quiet house, no one around. It was planned.

I think the only person who could have had influence like that is Bernado, Benita’s son. Everyone looked to him when Benita was murdered.

While I’m not sure what he thinks of me I don’t know if I was part of the strategy that was unleashed.

I have a very bad feeling that I’m part of a different plan but it’s not something I’m going to allow to bother me. Not until I have to.

The minute I walked up the driveway to my family home I cast my mind back to when I left. When I was taken.

Coming back felt a little like watching the end of Shawshank Redemption. It felt just like that part at the end when Andy, the main character, gets to his boat on that beautiful Island and you know he’s free. What’s better is when his friend joins him.

It wasn’t seeing my house or my family that felt like that part to me. It was the fact I made it.

They’re all so happy to see me, but I’m not staying.

They don’t know that part yet.

I won’t tell them until I’m ready to.

Ma comes to the door and smiles at me. She’s holding a tray of food with an assortment of pastries I know she’s spent hours making. It’s Monday afternoon and we usually have a feast on Mondays. Time hasn’t changed that, what it has changed though is my mother’s appearance.

She looks as terrible as everybody else here.

Very thin, skeletal, and aged. Pa looks the same. What is familiar to me , however, is their love.

“I made your favorites,” she says, coming into my room.

My room, it feels so good to say that.

I’m in my room and I’m curled up in my bed like I used to. I may not have my music on like the vibrant girl I used to be but she’s in there somewhere and I feel comfort just resting on my pillows.

“Thank you,” I tell her with gratitude. She rests the tray on the night stand and sits on the edge of the bed and looks at me.

I crawl over to her and rest my head in her lap. She hasn’t been able to stop touching me since I got back. Her hands go straight to my hair and she starts undoing the braids she put in this morning.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispers, stroking my cheek. “My little girl. I can’t believe you’re actually in my arms.”

“Me too… Ma, I can’t believe it either. It feels like a dream. Not real yet. Part of me wants to hang onto the dreamlike feel because I don’t want to wake up and either remember what happened or wake up and be back in Italy.”

My hands start shaking at the wave of emotion that takes me. I can’t help it because no one really knows what happened to me. Nobody.

I told the parts I needed to. They know someone killed Antonio.

That’s all.

As for the part about who it was… no. I’m not talking about that at all.

No one will hear that part from me. Nobody. Not the feds who called yesterday, and not even God himself. I will not tell because somehow I feel as though revealing that would be a fate worse than death.

He knew I wouldn’t say anything.

Tobias Antonella knew I wouldn’t say anything even without him telling me to keep quiet. Heknew,so I’m keeping quiet about that and about all that happened to me while I was with Antonio.

I will never tell anyone about the horrible life I lived as a slut.

When a tear falls on to my lap I realize Ma is crying again and I sit up.

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