METANOIA

Brother

The boiling water burned my fingers through the ceramic walls of the tea cup I'd hurriedly but carefully carried into Jensen's bedroom. I left the drink on the coffee table and sat down on the couch opposite, handing the girl a few tissues. Lynette's face was wet, swollen and red from crying, and she was struggling to wipe her eyes and nose, the skin around them irritated. She shrank back and sobbed, taking the tissue from my hands with her trembling and cold fingers. I pressed my lips together, turning away from her to the window; it was too hard for me to watch this young girl's psyche rapidly break down and be destroyed by the other side of the world. It was a rough night outside, the sounds of rustling leaves swaying in rare gusts of wind came through the open windows into the room, the Tyrrhenian Sea was heard in the distance, which could be seen through the balconies in the mansion. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, I clenched my jaw hard.

Lynette had not uttered a word since my exuberant appearance at the family mansion, where until a few days ago there had been a lovely engagement party; all attempts to speak ended with her choking on her tears and coughing violently. I tried not to press her, though I realised that the information she gave me would speed up the process of finding my brother, which was now being discussed intensely by the men on the ground floor. The girl was on the verge of hysterics, feeling how excitement and stress were turning her emotions into an uncontrollable whirlpool that could lead to a complete loss of control over her actions and words.

The atmosphere in the room was suffocating: as I arrived, I noticed Lynette sitting in complete darkness, her mournful eyes reflecting pain and sadness. It was quiet, only the occasional whisper of candles scattered around the room breaking the dead silence; she must have waited too long for Jensen, the wax spreading across the wood of the table. I turned on the floor lamps beside the sofas, which cast an illusory warmth over the bedroom. Even so, the air in the room remained piercing, filling every breath with an icy emptiness. Lynette's every breath and sob sounded like shattered glass in complete obscurity. The silence, broken only by the crackling of burnt logs and embers in the unlit fireplace that lingered on the left side, created an atmosphere of gloom and sadness that carried through every corner of the room, reflecting the bitterness and loss that overwhelmed the hearts of both of us.

I'd be lying if I said I'd taken the girl's words seriously at first. Jensen had been busy finding Liam and working with Vincent, in fact, and such late appearances weren't new to him, so I wasn't worried; not until she'd met me with tears in her eyes outside the garage — the girl had run barefoot outside in a dressing gown in the middle of the night and thrown herself into my arms as if I were her salvation. At that moment my thoughts receded, for I thought that Lynette still did not understand what it meant to marry a gangster, that from then on danger filled their lives as well as lungs with oxygen, but fear pierced me like a bullet as soon as the trembling body was enclosed between my arms. I realised she wasn't exaggerating when she spoke of the threat to my brother's life.

I waited patiently for the sound of her voice, but all I could see was her fingers reaching for the cup of tea I'd brought. Swallowing nervously, I lowered my eyes to my lap. I didn't feel guilty about putting sleeping pills in her drink, because if I were her, I'd want what was happening to be a dream and for my brother to be there when I woke up, safe and sound. I turned to the window again, where the empty sky resembled a black cloth like the one I'd been under when I'd been kidnapped — only now I wasn't in the car, and the cloth hid the whole world beneath it. I hoped that in the midst of this empty gloom, at least one star, small and dim, would fall so that I could make a wish for my brother's return. Tears started to come to my eyes, but I began to bite my cheeks quickly to chase them away.

"He promised me a surprise tonight," the girl continued to swallow her sobs and opened her mouth slightly. Her lips barely moved as she pressed the walls of the cup against her thin skin — the high temperature of the tea must not have bothered Lynette, "I was waiting for him," she whispered, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away with a napkin. Then the girl fell silent again. I exhaled unhappily, masking my impatience for fatigue. After a few moments, Lynette continued, "then Jensen called and said he was running late. Sky had some business in Naples, but he promised he'd be here soon," she rambled the last words as if explaining his actions. Apparently she had no idea at all about my brother's activities in another city — he tried to shut her out of it, "It's been a few more hours and I've been waiting. Even lit the candles," Lynette pointed with her chin at the wax that spilled over the surface, "then he called again."