The plastic digs into my fingers as I fumble with them, trying to find some way to break them loose.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, over and over like a broken record. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. I never meant for this to happen?—”
“Shh, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out.” I manage to get one tie loosened when I hear footsteps behind me.
Before I can turn, rough hands grab my shoulders and yank me backward. I crash onto the concrete floor, pain shooting through my palms as they scrape against the ground.
The big man from earlier—the one with the knife—strides past me toward my father.
“No!” I cry. “Wait, please?—”
The man brutally hauls my father to his feet, Dad’s legs barely supporting his weight.
I scramble up and lunge forward, grabbing at my father’s arm.
The man’s elbow catches me in the chest, knocking the air from my lungs.
I stumble backward, gasping, but force myself forward again.
This time his hand shoots out and shoves me hard.
I go down, my head cracking against the concrete with enough force to make blinding lights explode across my vision.
“Dad!” I scream, tasting blood in my mouth as I try to push myself up. The world tilts sickeningly. “Let him go! You said—Luca said he’d live if I agreed!”
My father’s one good eye finds mine across the darkness, and I see everything in that look—terror, shame, and a resignation that breaks something inside me.
“He will live,” Luca’s voice comes from somewhere behind me. “As long as you keep your end of our bargain, Giuliana. But he stays with me. Insurance, you understand.”
“No! Please!” I’m crawling now, my legs not quite working right, still trying to reach them even though the man is already dragging my father toward the shadows. “I need to take him to a hospital. He needs?—”
“He’ll receive medical attention,” Luca says dismissively.
The man looks back at me with dead eyes as I struggle to my feet. “Stay down,” he says flatly. It’s not a suggestion.
But I can’t. I won’t.
I lurch forward again, and this time his boot catches me in the ribs.
The pain is blinding, stealing what little breath I’d managed to recover.
I collapse, wheezing, watching through tears as my father disappears.
“Dad!” My voice comes out as barely a whisper now, my ribs screaming with each breath. “Dad!”
But there’s no answer except the sound of a door slamming somewhere, cutting off any hope of reaching him.
I lie there on the cold concrete, clutching my ribs, tasting blood as tears leak down my face.
My father is gone.
My last parent isgone.
Footsteps approach, and there’s the sense someone crouching beside me. The sharp smell of cologne fills my nostrils.
Luca.
He’s perfectly composed while I’m broken on the floor.
