“I swear, Kazia, sometimes I wish I had girls. They seem to be a little on the smarter side, if you know what I mean.” Leering at his sons as he said it, all of them kept quiet, not saying a word as they picked up dishes and passed them around. Taking their lead, I kept quiet, too, only nodding since he seemed to be talking to me.
“I shouldn’t say that; you never know what the future might hold, am I right?” He smiled widely, and it reminded me of a jackal, cruel and deceitful, something much worse laid beneath that smile.
“Which reminds me, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. It was very… disappointing for me to hear.”
Since I just took a bite of the dumpling, I covered my mouth with a napkin and mumbled out, “Thank you,” which he seemed fine with.
Placing both elbows on the table, he asked me, “So… did she ever talk about her life here in her home country?”
It seemed like a trick question, so my eyes naturally flicked to the guys before answering in a low tone. “No, sir.”
His jaw clenched, but his smile stayed in place. “Nothing. She said nothing about how she lived as a child or what she did when she was your age?”
Shaking my head, I responded carefully. “No, sir. She never mentioned anything outside of being born here.”
Watching his hands fist above the table, grow whiter by the second, he asked through his teeth, still trying to keep that fake smile going. “And she never mentioned me? Arek? Maybe she called me Rek?”
Everyone at the table grew still, all of us knowing that something was coming, but we just didn't know what. So I answered the best I could, “N-no, sir. She seemed to always be sad whenever I tried to dig, so I left it alone.”
He shot up out of his seat, walking around the room with his hands behind his back. He nodded as if he had to walk off all this extra energy. “I see. I see.”
That was all he said until he got behind me and grabbed the back of my chair. “She never said anything about love or who your father is?”
“N-n-no-,”
“Liar!” His fingers dug into my scalp, ripping my hair at the roots as he threw me out of my chair. Pain ricocheted up and down my arm where my shoulder wound was, and I cried out. “You bitch! You fucking worthless cunt! Don't you dare fucking lie to me with that whore mouth of yours?”
Pain bloomed from the side of my face as he backhanded me. My vision went blurry for a second, and I pushed myself backward, scrambling to get away from this man.
“Father-,” Ion called out.
Arek turned around, red-faced, with eyes bulging as he pointed a finger at him. “You keep your mouth fucking shut before I rip out your tongue and make you a one-trick pony.”
Ion’s eyes flicked to Nicu before his head went down, looked at the table. His jaw clenched and I could tell he hated how his father just talked to him. Hell, I even hated it too. Only I got to talk to Ion like that.
Arek turned back towards me, his arm snapping out, and clutched my throat in a vice grip. Something loud banged behind him, but I couldn't see as he held me up in the air, my feet kicking out as my breath escaped me.
“I was being so nice to you, treating you better than the little bitch you are, but if you're just going to be a filthy liar,” his tone went down a few octaves, “then I'm going to treat you like the disgusting cunt that you are.”
A chair screeched; a set of strong, sure footsteps sounded like they were coming my way but I couldn’t be sure when my head was getting dizzy. “Father,” Nicu sounded right next to him, whispering to him in a hushed tone. “Don't you think you shouldn’t act like this in front of your men?” He paused, looking back at the men behind them, turning back to face his father. “They could interpret this as you being weak and getting worked up by just a small little woman?”
Arek opened his hand, and I fell to the floor. The pain didn't register as I was preoccupied with gulping down as much air as my lungs needed. I didn't feel the two sets of rushed arms picking me up, but I did hear Arek's voice.
“How dare you interrupt me? You think that I look weak over something like that?” Arek growled out, “I guess I need to show them how strong I really am.” A quick set of thuds echoed over and over again, and I lifted my hazy gaze to see Nicu form on the floor in front of his father, clutching his stomach.
“I'm going to show you and my men just how strong I am, boy.” He picked up a plate and smacked it across his face. “You think you're stronger than me, huh?” This time, he picked up the chair, and I reached out, trying to stop it even though my voice didn't work.
I didn’t mean for this to happen. I could’ve lied but I wanted to see Arek upset, to see him not get what he wanted, but not at this cost. Not with the blood of his own son.
“Don't worry, he can handle this,” Ion whispered in my ear, his hands gripping me tighter as he turned the corner. Flinching when I heard the chair coming down on Nicu, his grunts of pain playing over and over in my head. This was my fault.
“Do you feel that boy?! Maybe you need a new lesson in manners?!” Over and over, the sound of the thuds got softer the further away we got, but the guilt weighed me down. Each thud an additional stone's weight on my back the farther we got. I knew Nicu stepped in because his father was hurting me. He saved me… by sacrificing himself.
A tear slipped from my eye, and Cezar wiped it away, licking it before he brushed his hand over my hair. “Don’t worry, my Roma, he’s tougher than he looks. Also,” his lips tipped up, “I think we’ll finally be able to sever that rotten string now.”
Ion whispered against my hair in response to Cezar, “He was never going to respect us anyway. I don't know why we always kept trying.”
Because he trained you to crave, to need his approval and his love since it was so hard to get. It's easier to control you that way.I wanted to tell them that, to have them understand, but my whole body and soul hurt.
