And now my mom was full-on crying, and I was lost as I just stood there. I wasn’t expecting this.
“Why?” I asked carefully, slowly. I didn't believe her.
“He doesn’t think you can do it. He doesn’t want you to do it. And he’s decided to put all our lives at stake,” she said, wiping her tears. “He’s in his office right now, making a plan, calling in every favour he can to get us out of here.”
She wiped at her face again, more roughly this time.
“Ariella, we won’t survive. We can’t. We won’t survive. Nobody escapes the Mafia.”
She looked me dead in the eye, and something inside me shattered.
“Listen to me, Ariella. Go talk to your dad. Nobody escapes the Mafia. Nobody gets away. And our death...it will be hard. It will be bad. We’ll be made an example of. A warning to everyone. Come fo
