I Owe My Mafia Brothers Money

3

"What? Really?" I jumped out of the chair and stood behind him. I looked over his shoulder.

"It's your mother's Facebook page, I think" 

He stood up and let me sit down.

"She has a lot of pictures with that women, Zoey Reynolds, we should content her first"

I nodded wordlessly and focused on scrolling through my mother's photo gallery. I pointed at the picture that was made 15 years ago. That picture was made in October I was born in June.

There was one picture where a man wearing a black shirt and silver Rolex on his wrist. He was holding her hand. I was staring at it for the longest time. She looked at him with so much love, like he was her whole world. Unfortunately, the picture was cropped. It didn't show his face, he wasn't tagged, no info about him. A mystery.

Eventually, I decided to send a message to Zoey. She was still posting on Facebook regularly so I hoped she would find my message.

After that, I and Zach decided it's time to go home. We gave each other a quick hug when we stood in front of the school entrance and then each person went their way.

🌸🌸🌸

I was getting ready to sleep when a loud knock at the door disturbed the pleasant silence of empty apartment.

I froze. Mom shouldn't be back yet.

I was completely alone, mom was working and I was already suspecting who the visitors might be. I also knew well enough that they're capable of kicking down the door if I won't answer. Paying for repair would only get me in a more difficult situation so I had to open them.

"Hi there, is any adult home?" The bald man asked in a deceptively nice voice.

"No. Please come back later, sir" I said in a polite voice trying to sound confident.

"Well, call them then. Your brother or mother. I don't give a fuck, we're not leaving without money"

I didn't bother to call Chris knowing he won't pick up.

With trembling hands I took the cellphone out of my pocket and called my mother.

"Mom, people came to collect the money," I said, my voice trembling.

"Give me one of them to the phone" mom said firmly, she was furious.

I could hear my mom screaming even though phone wasn't put on a speaker.

"Leave?" The man repeated sounding surprised by the request "How can I leave the child unsupervised? Cynthia what should I do with you? We always show up at the same time I don't give a shit what's your excuse is. If you're not here in 15 minutes I will fuck these place up and sell that kid to the brothel do not test me"

My body went rigid as I saw his threat. Was he capable of going as far as to sell a human? But to him, we weren't even humans we were just money machines, as I realized.

Mom miraculously appeared 15 minutes after the threat was made. If Albert wasn't her employer she would probably get fired for leaving the job in the middle of her shift.

She entered the house with a stack of dollars in her hand.

"Happy?" He handed him the money "Now get out" she said sharply and he sent her a cocky smile, raised his hands in mock-defeat.

"Why of course I'm very happy. Pleasure doing business with you but the next time I will follow up with my threat without the courtesy call. See you soon!"

Meanwhile, I was still terrified, and ugly big tears were running down my cheeks. I couldn't stop them. I was thankful that mom hugged me but at the same time, her hugs have stopped being a source of comfort for me a long time ago. I didn't feel safe with her. She couldn't protect me.

We forgot to lock the door. We both realized that when the door opened, but this time no one even bothered to knock.

It was Chris.

Suddenly my shock, fear, the pain was all replaced with fury. I stood up, freed myself from my mother's arms, and stopped in front of my useless brother successfully blocking his path
.

"Who do you think you are showing up here right now? You've been absent for seven months so you know what mother went through? Do you use that empty head of yours sometimes?"

"Fuck off Lena, I'm not in the mood" he pushed me away, greeted mother with a quick peck on a cheek, and turned towards his bedroom.

I followed him and when he stopped with a challenging gaze I said right in his face.

"Get out of this house"

"Get out of my way"

When I tried to stop him from entering his room he pushed me violently away and I fell on the floor.

Mom hasn't stopped him, she would never. She would always welcome him at our house no matter what he did. Her love had no limit. It made her blind.

I entered Chris's room and I knew I was pushing it but I didn't care.

"Go to rehab and don't show up here until you're sober"

"Just shut the fuck up and leave I'm sleepy," Chris said in his cranky voice, normally it would be a good idea to not antagonize him further but I had a bigger fish to fry. I had to let my anger out.

"Mom can coddle you all she wants but I won't. Get. Out. Of. This. House. Until you're clean don't show up here and pay your fucking debts on time"

He stood up, he almost tripped over his own legs because he was still pretty much in a drunken state.

"What you think you're better than me because you got to that fancy school? Fuck off Lena"

"Why do we have to watch as you're throwing your life away? Why do you have to do this to me? Mom? Why?!"

I remember him as a kid when we were building blanket forts, playing hide and seek, doing a movie nights together I wanted my brother back but I knew, somewhere deep inside, that he was gone.

"Get the fuck out of my room"

He grabbed my hair in a fist and not bothered by my screams he dragged me towards the door.

When the doors closed with a loud thud I wanted to come back there and throw myself at him. Never mind that I was weaker.

"You left the message on my Facebook page. I'm speaking to Lena Wright, correct?"

"Yes"

"My name is Zoey Reynolds. I'm so happy to hear from Abby's daughter. How have you been doing past these 5 years?"

"A lot of things... happened but it's all good I just wanted to ask if maybe you know who my father is"

Silence on the other side of the phone.

"Do your parents know that you're looking for this information?"

I wanted to lie but I realized that she could always ask me to get my mother to the phone and request her to confirm my story. I decided to tell the truth instead.

"My adoptive dad is dead," I said softly, ignoring pain growing in my chest. "My mom is cool and everything but I'm just worried I will hurt her feelings if I tell her I'm curious about my biological family"

"Oh honey... I'm sorry but I can't tell you anything without your mother's knowledge. I know it might sounds insensitive but if I can advise you something, stop looking"

"Why? I don't understand"

"The person you're looking for your father is dangerous"

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