Rebecca's miracle

Prolouge (October 1991)

Rebecca Pov

My Father and I were walking down the streets of London, getting money off the people that owed Dad drug money, I never felt comfortable when doing so, because 11 year old me couldn't fight a way out of a wet paper bag, let alone actually physically hurt someone, (I was small and lanky, well actually I'm still not tall but I can at least punch someone now).

"You don't need to look so scared Kid, nobody will do anything to ya as I'm here"
"I know that but I feel weird Dad"
"You don't need to feel weird about anything, I can just shoot them in the head if anyone causes trouble"
"Ok Dad"

We were almost finished getting all the money, when we heard thrashing in the bushes, Dad being his 'hard, Irish man with a raging anger problem' self, went and shot all around us, not realising that it was the Italian mafia, (they're just as bloody scary as they are portrayed in movies).

"Jack McCarthy, you haven't changed a bit from the 16 year old boy that took off with my little girl, and now you're going to pay for your crimes against me"
"Luigi DiNardo, how the fuck are you still breathing?"
"Dad-"
"Not now Rebecca"

So I then shut up and didn't ask anymore questions, even though I was so confused about who the fuck Jack McCarthy was, (I had never heard that name before so can you really blame me though), I stopped talking because if I even attempted to talk then we would've been shot and left for dead, (which wouldn't be fun).

"So, how do you want to die Jack?"
"I would prefer to die quickly but I also know that's not how you roll Luigi"
"You're a smart man Jack, I'll give you that much, so I will be kind to you and just cut your hand off before I kill you, now pick a hand"
"Whatever hand you want, as this is your gig Luigi"
"Ok, I want the right hand, as that's the hand you fight with and that is the hand that thief's lose when they're caught for their crimes"

Luigi then ushered the others away, obviously he wanted less eyewitnesses to his crime, (though I was also still there and very much witnessing what he was doing, so I don't know why I wasn't killed afterwards), it felt like I couldn't breathe but I couldn't do anything about it as we were in a life or death situation here.

Dad then held out his right hand, accepting what his fate was going to be in that moment, I wanted to scream out until my lungs gave out, but I also knew that doing so wouldn't work out for anybody, so I didn't, (plus I was frozen in fear here).

I saw Luigi pull out a knife, and he started hacking at Dad's hand, Dad didn't budge nor did he even flinch, even though I could see that he was in a tremendous amount of pain, I don't know how long it took for Dad's right hand to come off but as soon as it was off, 3 bullets went straight to Dad's head.

They all left to make sure that nobody caught them there, and when I couldn't see them anymore I screamed and screamed until it felt like I couldn't scream anymore, (I waited until they were gone so they wouldn't hurt me, plus if they heard me, I couldn't tell anyone what happened, well a version of what happened), somebody must of called an ambulance as one came after a while, (yeah somebody probably heard all the screaming that I was doing).

"Sweetheart are you ok?, are you hurt?"
"I'm not hurt"
"Ok, how's your-"
"He's dead, my Dad is dead, you've got to tell my Mum that Dad's dead"
"Ok, let's get you to the hospital just in case you got hurt-"
"You've got to tell my Mum-"
"Do you know your Mum's number?"
"No, I do know her name and our address if you want that?"
"That does help us Sweetheart"

So I gave the ambulance lady my Mum's name and where we lived, and she knew who exactly my Mum was, (everyone in East London knew exactly who my parents were at this point in time, they probably wouldn't know who they were nowadays as they're both long dead).

So the ambulance people drove me to the hospital as they wanted to check how I was after Dad was shot, in case I got shot and didn't realise it, (that can happen sometimes but that didn't happen), (at this point I almost had no voice from screaming so much so I couldn't really protest going to the hospital here).