Page 14 of My Mafia Queen

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe it,” Tina says, her eyes widening before we hug while Jen and my aunt witness our reunion.

Tina shifts her eyes to my aunt.

“You knew?”

She shakes her head.

Tina looks at Jen.

“She just called me,” my best friend says. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Tina’s eyes come back to mine.

She pulls back and runs her fingers over my cheeks.

“What happened to your face? You look different,” she says, pleasantly surprised by my new look.

“I do?” I say, smiling and moving my eyes to my friend.

“You do,” Jen says before my aunt shows us to the table and invites me to take a seat as well. “I need to go buy some groceries,” she says. “Are you staying a little longer?” she asks, collecting her keys and purse.

“I don’t know,” I say tensely.

I turn to Jen and Tina.

“Give me a second. I’ll be back,” I say before walking out of the kitchen with my aunt and grabbing my duffel bag in the hallway. “Here,” I say, reaching inside my bag. “This is to help you with the expenses,” I murmur, pulling out a wad of cash.

Edith’s eyes widen.

“No, no. I can’t take that. Where did you get that money?”

I smile.

“I worked for them. And yes, you can. I can do whatever I want with my money. I want you to buy food and whatever else is needed around the house. Just don’t tell anyone about it, especially my father. I’ll leave more in the cookie tin in the cupboard.”

My aunt, a woman in her late fifties, is my late mother’s half-sister. She wasn’t part of our lives when I was little, and my mother was still alive.

Older than my mother, Edith had moved to LA a few years back. She had no prior contact with my father but met him at a funeral at some point.

That’s how she learned about our situation. She tried to stay away from him but couldn’t keep away from us, the girls.

My father had mixed feelings about her––tell me something I don’t know––but saw the benefit of someone like her being involved in our upbringing as long as she didn’t make us hate him.

As if we needed help with that.

All he could do was be a despicable authoritarian and make our lives miserable. Besides that, he didn’t care our aunt had offered us a plate of food or the occasional sleepover.

Her eyes search mine.

“I can’t say any more than that,” I say. “I need you to take the money. And try to keep Tina here a little longer if all possible.”

“I have no problem with her staying here as long as he has no problem with that.”

“I know. I’ll try to do something about that. I need to talk to a lawyer first. For now, this is the least I can do.”

“Are you going back?” she asks, grabbing the money and sliding it into her purse.

“I don’t know. I might.”

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