Perceive

I Have A New Addition To My Family

I was still too mad at Adri to be able to talk to him with a straight face. Gia looked at him from behind my hair, and said," But that network going upward is so intricate. Sides, I think we should let it be. They've evaded the cops for the last 40 odd years. You're right, Cass has been put through enough already".
To which came a resounding no, from me and Adrian and a "de ninguna manera en el cielo de Dios" (no way in God's heaven).
Me and Gia turned to tia and giggled, she had finally learnt to use the Lord's name in vain. Wonder what else she'd learnt.
I turned back to Adrian, he looked apologetic. Okay, maybe I'd give him another chance and let him sleep on the bed, but that depends on how nice he is to me for the next 2 hours.
Dinner was done, dishes were done, the kitchen was spick and span, courtesy, me. Now it was time to concoct the plan, that would break the Ciantis once and for all.
Everything had to link back to that one legend we'd heard about but for the life of me, couldn't remember at all.
"Tia, take the floor, what is that stupid story?"
"'Tis not a story, Cassie. It's the truth. It all started 70 years ago. My aunt Juanita was in love with one Giordano Cianti. At the time, he was a simple farmer in Calavera, California. My entire family was based there too. They were next door neighbors. At the time, crime families, were just starting to peak their heads all over the country. Small neighborhood families turning to crime for money, was not new. Giordano Cianti had a brother, Giorgio. Now as we like to call him George the First. He was a greedy man that one. He was into all sorts of wrongdoing. He even tried to seduce my aunt Juanita just on the eve of her wedding. Giordano tried to stop him. But Giorgio turned on him, and shot him twice to the chest. Little did he know, my family, we had a secret. We were as you'd like to call it,gifted. Now there is an entire area of argument about science and faith, but the fact is, that my aunt, being a nurse, was able to remove the bullet and successfully save his life, and he wasn't hospitalised for a day. Just that, after whatever my aunt had done, she and our whole family, became wanted. I was twelve at the time. I remember all of us seven siblings and parents and aunts and uncles running for their lives in the middle of the night. We were all supposed to flee to Mexico, where my father and uncle had connections to set us up in a fresh life. Our family lived, and prospered. We were rich once more in our own right. My mother and my aunt had given birth to two more children. We were thriving. Until, that one sad night, where Giorgio came in with an army of men, and a type of gypsy I think. She took one look at me, at my family, and she told Giorgio, in front of me, that we were all witches. That's why we had superior survival skills, and healing powers. Of course, you will all tell me how deluded, they were, but I was there. For better and for the worst. I saw my family die, because of the delusion. I had to run and hide. So I ran leaving all of my family behind, to suffer. I can still hear them screaming. They caught me anyway. And at the time, I was pregnant. They killed my husband in front of me. Raped and killed him. Just to tell me that I would never be able to run and start afresh, that my life now belonged to them. I knew the only way to save my children, was to give them away. They never touched me, but they had other methods to torture me. They wouldn't touch me because of what the gypsy told them. The gypsy, made it very clear, that exactly in thirty years, starting from the time that my torture started, there would be a child, more skilled than all of those bastardos put together. I had a premonition, of sorts, that this child, would have to go through alot, before she would be able to fight fire, with fire. To cut them, with their own poison. When I found out about my grandbaby, I was so elated. When I saw her walk the halls of my prison, I realised, she was the child. The Child of Magic. She would be the one, to end them once and for all. And that's you, my gran bebé, Cassie. You never wondered, why your mother, never looked like she was of Indian descent. You were a science student from the beginning, did you never see, that culturally, your mother didn't belong? I sent my only child, to a foreign country, where she was thankfully adopted, by a well to do family. Imagine my pain, at seeing her here, again. Seeing my granddaughter, in my hell. Calling me tia, instead of abuela. It killed me everyday, and yet, I saw you through, I made sure, you got the best training. You were prepared for any situation. You were raised mostly by me, after you hit six. I made sure, that you would know what your power was. I knew on the first day I saw you, Cassie, you would end them once and for all".
Inspite of such an Earth shaking, revelation, I could only manage to put the pieces together,
One, I was related to these donkey fucking bastards,
Two, I'm a Latina?
Three, well that makes sense, why would the Ciantis want me to join them, cz they can't beat me, and last but not the least, I was going make every last one of those assholes, pay, for all the trouble they'd ever caused.
I looked at Adrian, and he looked at me. We both had an understanding. This would never go back home and we would together, and following the law as much as possible make the bitches pay.
"Adrian, mind taking the floor and telling the room, what the M.E found?"
" Okay people, so according to the medical examiner, the victims died of poisoning, not strangulation. There was no DNA evidence of any other person so much as touching them, and as you know, Cass, there was no one but three of you, in the room. Now remember all the drugs and that memory chip you'd found? I handed the drugs over to the DEA, but I still have the memory chip on me. The same one that I'd been seeing, sitting out here. Here, watch!"
It was clear as day, I could recognise Gia's mommy anywhere. She was handing over a big bag of cocaine to the lab technician. And taking money, from the doctor. Wow, either they're moronic enough to be caught on tape, or way cockier than I originally thought. Either way, Adrian could book Maya Cianti, for drug peddling. But this still couldn't break the legal team of that family which to no surprise, were part of the family.
" We need a mole. We need someone, not any of us, to go in and help us bust that man red handed. We need to go their headquarters. The main one, where all the real action is, is in Austin, Texas".