The Diavoli Forti

Chapter 9: Truth will out

Once we reached the staircase I yanked away from Tony. I didn't expect him to keep following me. I could hear his heavy foot steps behind me. I opened the door to my room and tried to slam it shut behind me. Tony's hand caught the door. The smack from his hand and the force from the door echoed through the hall.

"What the hell is your problem?!" He yells after me.

I could feel my face getting hot. I turned around to face him.
My head couldn't stop my mouth from speaking, "What the hell is wrong with me!? How about you? That is a horrible, distasteful, awful thing to do to someone! I can't believe I expected anything different from a bunch of... thugs!" I said the last word with hesitation but with the bite of a cobra.

He moved in close and towered over me while his dark eyes flared with anger.

"Excuse me princess perfect, but did you forget why he is in that situation in the first place? Do you not recall what he did to you? You were curled up in a ball crying your eyes out...."

I interrupted him before he could speak another word about what happened, "Of course I remember, I don't need you to remind me! That doesn't mean you go and do that to somebody! You just put yourself on his level!"

"His level!? I did that for you! To bring justice to you! I wanted to kill the asshole when it happened! He hurt you!"

I throw my injured hand in his face, "You want to talk about hurting someone. How about all the pain and everything you've done to me!"

He pushed my hand out of his face, "That was an accident and you know it! Who the hell are you to compare me to him?"

"An accident? Kidnapping me? Taking my freedom, my life away, that was an accident? Ruining my Uncle's wedding? Shooting his best friend?"

Tony's face starts getting red, "I didn't just shoot him! I had a reason for what I did that I don't have to explain to you! You didn't have a life before me! You were some sheltered girl who didn't know a thing about the real world! Look around, this is the real world. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have come to terms with who your family really is, where you came from, and who you're possibly meant to be! You'd be stuck on that pathetic hamster wheel of a life getting a career that you'll be unhappy with in 10 years and marrying a miserable stick in the mud who gives you no pleasure, just stress and ungrateful offspring. This is where you're meant to be not stuck in the wheel!"

I start laughing sarcastically, "Who I'm meant to be? You don't know me! I am not you people. I don't hurt people for joy, for some sick adventure."

Tony steps face to face with me. "Is that really the kind of person you think I am? That's all there is to me. I hurt people and contribute nothing more. Despite the fact that I could've killed you and didn't. Despite the fact that I have been by your father's side for years and prior years to that, Leon's side and helped to build one of the most successful empires to exist. You think you're so much better and have everything figured out about us don't you? I'm just a thug." His voice had lightened for a moment. I just stare at him. I didn't answer. He asked me again, this time he raised his voice again.

"Answer me!"

I jumped. He backed away from me slowly and began to take his shirt off. I just watched him in shock, and confusion.

He turns around to where his back is facing me, "Do you see this?"

He shows me all the scars on his back. I look away. Ashamed that I had forgotten what his father did to him.

"You think I like hurting people? Try being the one getting hurt every day of your life. It started when I was 6. My mother was a pill popping, heroine loving drug addict. Most of the days she was too high to know I existed or to even make me a meal. My father... he was a diehard alcoholic. He drank it like it was water. Every day he would come home from work when my momma was passed out on the couch too high to function or after they had a fight, and he would come into my room and make me learn to be a tough man and stand up for myself."