"So can we just pretend that we're not falling into the deep end?"
15 year old Marlowe Alvarez is your stereotypical troubled teen living with her aunt and uncle after her mother died in childbirth and her father abandoned her, not wanting anything...
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As the bus pulled out of the parking lot at 3:00, all I could think about was how I was going to find the Italians and how I was going to stay away from Sebastián. Of course the memory of Sebastián would never truly leave me. He hurt me, both mentally and physically, since I was 3.
Of course, little kindergartener me didn't know that it wasn't normal. I didn't know that it wasn't normal to not get dinner taken away from me because I dropped a plate or fell and scraped my knee. So I when my teacher asked me what I did over the weekend, I told her that I spent it in a closet because I scared my aunty and uncle. She called my uncle and they set up a meeting to talk about what I said.
That teacher was never heard from again.
The trip to New York was going to take about two days. So leaving on a Tuesday, I would get there Thursday night. Nice. That gives me time to think about how I am going to successfully execute the plan.
Step 1: Find the Italian's main office.
I pulled out the burner phones and typed my number into all 3 of them. I distributed the pictures between the 3 phones. That way if one of them lands in the wrong hands, they only have some of the information. And I still have leverage.
After driving for around 4 1/2 hours, and stopping twice to go to the bathroom, we reached Longview, Texas.
I got off and got a seat on the train leaving to go to Chicago.
I got a good sleep on the train and when I woke up I started planning how I was going to find the Italians.
The Italian Mafia don is Alessio Angeli. According to my research, I'm going to have to be careful when I'm dealing with him because he is kind of psychotic.
Aren't we all?
That's who I'm going to want to talk to.
Now just to find him.
Apparently, a popular mob hangout is some restaurant called Rao's in Harlem. That will be my first stop. Someone there will for sure know where I can find the Angeli's.
Step 2: Figure out the negotiation.
I pulled out the burner phone that had the least bit of information and started making a list of things that I am going to need to add into the negotiation.
1. Protection. Duh.
2. Shelter. An unemancipated 15 year old is not going to be able to rent an apartment. I honestly don't care if it's the crappiest safe house they have, I just need one.
3. Money. I might have a lot of it from what I stole from Sebastián, but that is going to run out after I buy new clothes, food and transportation around New York. Best case scenario, I'll get a minimum wage job.
4. More burner phones so that I can still have some sort of connection with the online world without having the possibility of being tracked by the Spanish Mafia.
