Chapter 2
1262 Words
Cain.
"I want Vansenk here, do you understand, Cain? I don't want you to listen to her excuses, I don't want you to listen to her begging. Bring him here, I want to look him in the eyes again. I want that guy back in this house, in this room. We'll get revenge, son. We'll get revenge for everything Vansenk has taken from us. And if taking his life is necessary, we'll do it.''
And now Vansenk is dead, it's curious.
I feel that Gabrielle hasn't been honest with me. What if someone else killed Vansenk? Impossible, this girl owes me several explanations.
She struggles, like an intrusive child who got into terrible mischief and doesn't want to take responsibility for her actions. She's curious too, she's just like him. She has his face, pale with rosy cheeks. Dark hair, very dark. His eyes, gray like the cloudy days when we used to send her father to hunt deer in the forest.
But she probably doesn’t even know what her father was.
She doesn’t have the slightest idea about any of this.
"Help! Help me! I'm being kidnapped!"
I start laughing, as dramatic as her father.
"Gabrielle, calm down."
I signal for the car to stop, the men get out, and it immediately closes. Gabrielle thinks she's clever, but she knows nothing. I know little about her, she's only twenty-two, studying to be a writer. And she dreams big, just like her father.
The most illogical thing is that she works, didn’t her father give her the fortune he stole?
"Let me out, damn it," she rudely demands. I approach her cautiously but quickly. "Don’t come near me, don’t you dare."
I do it anyway.
And she spits in my face.
I wipe my cheek, right where the wound is.
"Oh, the little one wants to play."
"Let me out or I'll call the police! I swear!"
I cover her mouth with my free hand, I'm tired of her tantrum-like screams. I notice her loose jeans, and I feel like a pervert for wanting to put my hand in there.
I erase those thoughts.
If I do that, it would be abuse. I don’t want to abuse her.
"Gabrielle, listen. Your father isn't what you thought, he was a mobster. Like us, a swindler, corrupt. He gave you a life of luxury, didn’t he? With our money and our fortune. And besides..."
She turns her face and breaks free from my hand.
"My father hasn’t given me anything, he didn’t want to see me for a long time after his supposed trip to Rome. He refused to take care of me after I turned eighteen, my mother doesn’t want anything to do with me. I take care of myself, why don’t you understand?"
I see a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Well, I thought..."
"Don’t think, Cain or whatever your name is. Don’t think, because you don’t even know what you’re thinking, you know? And I do know what my father was. I know he was corrupt, and he might have committed suicide because of that, and also..."
I cover her mouth again.
Did I hear that correctly?
"Suicide?"
Gabrielle nods.
Someone taps the window, one of my men.
I let go of Gabrielle and lower the glass.
"What the hell do you want?"
"Sir, your father called. He's asking for Vansenk, and what time we'll arrive."
I look at Gabrielle, she knows we’re talking about her father.
But it seems she won't scream now.
"Tell him we’re on our way, and tell him I have something better than Vansenk."
* * * *
I get out of the car with Gabrielle, she’s anxious. I know, and I know I said I know little about her, but I've read everything about her, and I feel like a professional stalker knowing everything about her life. Now I think about how bad a father Vansenk has been.
She walks hesitantly.
We enter my father's mansion, a large and spectacular house with many floors—which I have no f*****g clue why he needs so many rooms—she looks at the house's entrance and the golden fountain surrounded by two staircases that split like huge arms.
My father arrives from a distance and looks her up and down.
"Cain, do you think I'm joking? Another floozy?"
Gabrielle growls.
"I'm not some floozy, old and boring."
I want to laugh, this girl has attitude.
"Excuse me?" I see my father taking out his gun, I stop him with my hand. "What's this, Cain? Is she your girlfriend and this is how you introduce her to me? Well, she’s quite a talker."
I look at Gabrielle and find something of Vansenk in her.
"She's Vansenk's daughter," I let out.
"Are you kidding, Cain, how can she be Vansenk's daughter if he said he didn't have any kids?"
"She is, look at her eyes."
My father looks at Gabrielle, now he's really surprised.
"Incredible, what's her name?"
"Gabrielle, Gabrielle Vansenk," she replies.
Now she wants to talk after growling, she's getting curiouser and curiouser.
I ask one of my men to take her away, I want to talk to my father alone.
Gabrielle goes away, resisting.
"And what good will this do? I mean, she's his daughter. Identical. But how does this help us? I want that guy here, not his daughter. I'll blow that guy's head off, not hers. What’s going on in your head, huh?" my father asks, with a pipe in his mouth.
"She doesn’t believe me."
My father squints, he's not ready to listen.
"Has something happened to Vansenk, and that's why you bring the girl?"
"He's dead, that’s what happened."
Now I'm the one anxious and curious.
"He's dead? Vansenk is dead?"
"Yes, but not naturally. He committed suicide."
We're both surprised, it's something we never imagined.
My father takes his pipe out of his mouth and slowly walks towards the grand hall.
I don’t think the news was well received. I decide to follow him.
"And what do you intend to do with the girl, Cain?"
"Make her pay for everything her father did."
He looks at me angrily.
"Our problem was with him, not her."
"I know! But she might know things, and there are things she doesn’t know. Why not give her the luxuries now and then blow her head off with a shot to make it look like her father?"
My father seems confused, but he turns to slap my face with his hand.
"You need to stop being so stupid, son! You're insane, aren’t you?"
"Are you saying it's a bad idea? You’re the one who wanted to wipe out Vansenk!"
Now I'm the confused one.
"Tomorrow we'll bring her up to speed, you do your part and I'll do mine.
I feel like I've won the war, my father has never agreed with me.
I take it as a compliment.
I walk down the hallway with a smile on my face as I watch Gabrielle pacing nervously back and forth. I notice one of my men talking to her, but she doesn't look at him.
"Thanks, Lynch, you can go," I tell him as he leaves. I take Gabrielle's hand to look at her, but she doesn't look at me.
"I've prepared a room for you, is that okay?"
"I want to go home. Take me home."
She seems like a little girl without her father.
But she's a grown woman, even without her father.
"You can't leave, Gabrielle, because this is your home now."
- Writer
