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Sadie Sorento and Brandon Avenetti were destined to be together. Their families were already planning the wedding of the Italian mafia prince and princess long before the pair had even star...
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8 years ago
"We're not going home, are we?" Adam clenches his jaw staring straight ahead out the window as we pass the state line into Pennsylvania.
I picked him up from a friend's house a few hours ago, and he'd dozed off, so he hasn't questioned me until now. I hold on to the steering wheel so tight that my knuckles are white, and no matter how hard I try to clean up my runny mascara, my eyes are still red and puffy. Adam is young, and fairly naive, but he isn't stupid and he can tell something is desperately wrong.
"No." I shake my head. "We're not."
"Did something happen?" His words are cautious.
My breath falters. Yeah, something happened. Those people let our parents be murdered and aren't even looking for the killers, I want to scream. Why am I the only one who understands that? "I just think we should get away for a while." I say instead.
"But we're going back eventually, right? Like in a few days?" He asks. At fourteen, he idolizes Steven and the Avenetti boys. It will be a hard sell to get him to see things my way.
"Adam, we're not going back, ever." I say. "We're going somewhere where I can keep you safe, and give you the life you deserve." I can't give him many more details because I don't have any. I don't know where we'll land. We'll probably have to be on the move for a while so they don't find us. That is, if they aren't on the trail already. I can only hope Brandon will wait to tell Steven.
Adam looks at me like I'm certifiably insane. "You can't be serious, Sadie. That's our family."
"Our family is murdered and those men are doing nothing about it. I can't let you fall into that sand trap, Adam. You deserve a better life than that." I say harshly. My only hope is making him see that we're better off on our own.
"Sadie, come on. That's not true, is it? Steven has to find mom and dad's murderer. I know he will." He has more faith in him than I do. Then again, he didn't sit through the conversation I had with Steven today, where he basically told me they're chalking it up as an accident and moving forward. It still makes my blood boil. My father never would have let it go if something like that happened to Steven.
"What about Brandon?" Adam has a pained expression on his face. I stiffen at the mention of his name. Brandon probably hates me by now, once he's had time to process the way I left. I tried to make him understand what that place was doing to me, to us, to my brother. It all fell on deaf ears though. He's too intertwined to see it. With every little bit of responsibility he is given, the more excited and determined he becomes. He saw a future with him and I ruling the mafia, side by side in a big house on the hill. I think at one point I wanted that too, but not anymore. Not after I saw how disgusting and vile it really is. Not when I saw my friends being turned into ruthless killing machines. Not when I saw the look in the love of my life's eye before he went after someone. Not when my parents were savagely killed.
