When things settled, I excused myself to the bathroom—a tiny, singletoilet room in the far corner of the building. The moment I locked the door, I swung toward the toilet and vomited up the contents of my stomach. Over and over, my gut heaved until only bile could be forced out. The fight, forcing me into the mafia, denying me the right to finish school—it was all too much. But there was a room full of grown men out there expecting me to act more than my sixteen years, so I rinsed my mouth in the filthy pedestal sink and took several deep breaths. I needed to pull myself together and go back out there. I had been in too much of a hurry to turn on the light, so when I glanced to my side at the small window, I could see easily into the darkness outside. There, beneath a streetlamp in the ro
