The thing I did this time was call the number of his family’s real estate development company, and he called me back from a blocked number.
Ennio takes out a business card and hands it to me.
"I’d advise you to memorize that number. Don’t leave it lying around casually."
"Will you lend me the car then? When I finally make that decision?"
"I will. And if necessary I’ll cover you. But this time you should handle the main part of the job yourself. You have to learn it at some point."
We’re already driving between the scattered buildings of the small town where I live.
"Thank you for everything, Ennio, and for understanding. And for… what you said. You know. About not giving up on… the other thing."
Ennio’s face remains cool, almost aloof, when he replies, "I was once in a situation similar to yours, and I was almost exactly your age when I carried out my own revenge. I can’t say I don’t understand you."
"But others wouldn’t get it. They’d say, hand it over to the police, think about what happens if the Hansons start suspecting you, and so on."
"Maybe they would say that, but if you gave them a police case, they would have you on a platter anyway, and your family, and Alex. Right now they can’t be sure. If you space out thekillings with enough time, you should be able to divert suspicion and accusations away from yourself. Patience is a virtue."
"And you did everything all at once?"
"Mostly. But my situation was different. In my family, matters like these are handled… faster."
"Well yeah, the mafia."
Ennio gives me an unreadable look. "Simply the family business," he says vaguely.
He stops the car at a good distance from my house and turns toward me. His dark eyes focus on me with strange intensity.
"Good luck. Make the right choice, Bay. You’ve already tasted what the first step of revenge feels like. Think about whether that’s what you want driving the next chapters of your life."
"I will. I promise."
I extend my hand and he shakes it. His hand is smaller than mine, but hard and cold, and he holds mine for a moment.
"Let yourself be a teenager, Bay. Don’t let anyone take those years from you. They won’t come back."
I don’t respond to that.
"We’ll stay in touch."
He nods, and I jump out of the car.
Walking along the roadside toward my parents’ house, I feel a strange euphoria in my head.
Revenge gave me something, carved something out of me, some part of being broken. It brought me a kind of relief, maybe not complete yet, but real and significant.
I decide not to let myself fall again, not to let myself break apart. What I need to do now is turn every shadow of suspicion away from myself.
As I’m at my room, I open my diaries.
The grim one, the one about my life, not the pink Alex-diary. I write there.
ONE DOWN.
THREE MORE TO GO.
???
