Chapter 6
Lina
“C’mon, Lina. We’re gonna be late!” Nicky yelled, banging on my bedroom door.
I rushed out of the bathroom—my own private bathroom—and hit the closet, hair and makeup done, excited to get out my new turquoise dress that cost only ten percent of that overpriced thing Nicky wanted me toborrow. “Just a minute. I’m almost done.”
A strange shimmer took me by surprise when I reached for the hanger. Rose gold cascades of sparkle nestled right next to my dress. My jaw fell.
“Oh my God, Nicky!” My sister was the craziest and most amazing person in the world.
“Our ride will be here in three minutes, Lina. C’mon!”
I got out the gorgeous dress in freaking awe, and then I switched my gaze toward the door. Shaking my head, I convinced myself there was no time to argue with her, and I had no choice but to wear it. I couldn’t disappoint her, not tonight, especially when she’d gone through all that trouble to get it and surprise me like that.
And—who was I kidding?—I really loved that dress.
Quickly, I put it on and complimented it with my pink tourmaline earrings and my heels. I twirled, immediately feeling like a princess.
Grabbing my purse, I opened the door. Nicky’s fist was in the air, ready to bang on one more time, but it froze in the air when she saw me.
“Oh. My. God. Lina! You look amazing,” she squealed. “I’m so psyched you agreed to wear it.”
“I’d have never done it if it weren’t for you. It’s crazy.” I grinned incredulously, but then I shrugged. “But so worth it.”
“Yes, girl.” She high-fived me.
“You look amazing, too. So hot.”
She winked at my chest—at my boobs. “Back at ya.”
My cheeks warmed. “It’s too revealing, isn’t it?”
“Nope. It makes the girls look perfect. And you should wear whatever you wanna wear. You should never be ashamed of your body or hide because of a bunch of assholes out there. If someone can’t keep their eyes to themselves that’s on them, not you.”
I smiled with a nod. I was sure she was giving herself that speech before me. She ushered me out of the condo. “Let’s go kick some ass.”
At the entrance of Hermann Hall, my sister and I linked arms and went up the stairs. My heart thudded with every step. I’d never been on a college campus before, let alone gone to a party with seniors, college students and adults. “Man, I can’t wait to finish high school.”
Nicky laughed as we entered the lounge, and she presented our invitations with confidence to the nice lady outside the auditorium. We took our ID badges and ambled down the lounge. While Nicky kept her eyes forward, unfazed by the surroundings and the boys in tuxes doing double takes, I clutched her arm as if she were my mom and I were five again, and grinned like an idiot, noting how their eyes were all on my beautiful sister.
We were seated next to each other, but a few minutes before the scholarship awards segment, they asked Nicky to move to the second row with the other students.
She leaned in and whispered, “Be careful. If anyone makes a pass at you when I’m gone, kick them in the nuts and then holler for me.”
I stifled a giggle. “Oh please. Like college boys are gonna hit on the junior? You take care of yourself. There are some hungry eyes for you here.”
“C’mon, I’m serious, and you don’t look like a high school junior,” she winked at my boobs again, “not in that dress.”
I didn’t know why I kept blushing every time she did that or why Nicky was acting like we were at a bar, not at one of the most prestigious schools in town. But that was who she was. Always protective of me, and I loved her for it.
A man was wrapping up his speech, a representative from Bellomo. I wondered why the owners of such a huge organization—they didn’t just own the academy. They technically owned Chicago—never showed up at any events or gave any speeches, not even at school or at a big ceremony such as this one.
It was so weird, and it made many of my friends believe the rumors were true; The Bellomos were the Mafia, and all this, the academy, the scholarships, the companies, the restaurants, was nothing but money laundering.
For me, it was so hard to believe. Why would the Mafia invest in elite education? Do charity? Make people’s lives better? There were a thousand other ways to launder their money. It didn’t make sense, but nothing was impossible. Maybe they did it to gain the respect of society, to create an unquestionable front and make it hard for the police to take them down, to confuse people like me and make them think the Mafia wasn’t all that bad…
I shrugged, refusing to believe that our great benefactors were gangsters. I liked to think they truly cared about the future of Chicago’s children. But what did I know? For someone who secretly believed the murderer of her father was a good man, I should never have a say in classifying who was good or who was bad. My villain-hero concepts needed adjustments.
