“I can’t find a single trace leading to her,” she says, and stares into the bright blue sky of the Sicilian summer before we depart forthe States. I am going to introduce her to an old friend of mine who will teach her further in close combat.
“And the wife? Her mother?”
“Nothing either. Both vanished. There is not a single trace since they left Berlin. No facials, no names, nothing.”
I am quite certain what it means. Antonio took my money and made his wife and daughter disappear with it because he knew what his daughter had done.
Anger resurfaces within me, and I regret murdering him quite fast. I should have indeed used Kat’s preferred interrogation and murder technique, which means a very slow and painful death.
But I also know that I will get my revenge. I always do.
“Here,” says Kat, and hands me a photo of Antonio’s daughter smiling broadly into the camera while she holds a small stuffed sloth in her arms. I see her face, and all I feel is the desire to crush her, kill her, make her pay for what she took from me.
“It’s the only thing I could find on her.”
I brush my thumb over the photo.
“It’s Guiseppe’s Masseria,” I say. I’d recognise his estate anywhere.
“It is,” Kat says. “Which is why I brought it to you.”
“Thank you,” I say. “So Antonio did indeed act on Giuseppe’s orders.”
“Looks like it.”
“I bet the money, the daughter and wife are there,” I say.
And I know I have to let it be for now, because I cannot touch Guiseppe. I will, one day, but that day will be a very costly one—one, I intend to delay as much as possible. When it comes, I’ll kill them all and take what was mine. His empire. And her life. Because I came to equalise.
1
SOPHIE
PLAYLIST: WAKE ME UP –AVICII
Today
“Oh. My. God. Look!” I shout at my best friend, Luisa, as we walk over the tiles towards the railing with the view of the Eiffel Tower. I am beaming. Because I left home for the first time in forever, and this is what freedom feels like.
I have never dared try to leave, because my mother has been sick since I can remember, and between school, studying, and working part-time, I had no life. Now, after finishing my master’s, and my mother being admitted to a nursing home, it is time I do. Luisa was right about it, and I am, for the first time, glad she convinced me to travel the world with her.
I have known Luisa forever; we have been best friends since I came to London. We went to the same school and chose the same path of study: first psychology and then criminology, because we both have a desire to understand human nature, especially the nature of evil.
“It’s the most amazing thing I have ever seen,” I say and smile into the camera. Luisa hates how she looks in photos and never lets anyone photograph her, but she has her camera with her at all times to photograph everyone else, usually me doing stuff.
“Can you spin and stretch your arms? Like a ballerina.”
I am not a ballerina, nor is it anything like me, because I am avery present person, even muscular, who lifts heavy and likes both feet firmly on the ground, but for Luisa, I’ll do everything. At least acting classes were good for something. I also want this moment to be fixed forever, because I dared. With a lot of convincing and being played by my own game, because I tell Luisa every day to stay positive and believe that everything happens for a reason. However, giving advice and taking advice are two very different things.
I also trust Luisa. She has a beautiful eye for making small moments last forever, and the Eiffel Tower was my dream for a long time.
So I spin.
I know my cheeks are flushed from the excitement, and with the morning sun, it might just make a wonderful picture.
“They’re amazing, Fifi,” she says. I hate when she calls me Fifi, but somehow it has replaced my real name.
“I want to get on it,” I say and use my fingers to frame the Eiffel Tower within them.