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"Remember when you came over when I was thirteen? I was on my bed crying because Donny said I was fat because I didn't want to be his girlfriend," she asks sweetly, so sweetly that I tense some more.
"Yeah, you were suspended for hitting him, and your mother blamed you for it all. You cried in my arms while I plotted his death." I'm trying to keep my voice calm and steady for her; I really don't want her to hurt herself. Victoria tenses at the mention of her, and looks down, ashamed. Stefano looks at his wife, his brow furrowing at her reaction, because normally, she'd just laugh like it was the funniest thing.
Sofia looks at me, still keeping Mattia in her line of vision. "Did you know my mother made me only eat a salad at dinner with a glass of water every day after that? I wasn't allowed to eat anything else until I was no longer 'fat'. The only time I'd actually eat was when you took me out because, apparently, my father was naïve and gullible whenever he had dinner with us, which was rare since he preferred his mistresses. He believed my mother when she said I only liked salad," she says with a sneer.
I tense up, rage wanting to take over. I hear my mother gasp. Victoria's tears run faster, ashamed of her treatment of her own daughter, clearly taking her anger out on the wrong person. Stefano pales, realizing he's at fault for his wife's mistreatment of their daughter.
"The stupid thing is, I knew it was because she didn't want me in a one-sided marriage like her. She thought if I was skinny and beautiful, then you wouldn't stray. She knew about the arrangement and was worried I'd end up like her. How wrong was she, hey?" She sounds so sad when she says that, and my heart hurts for her and what we all put her through.
Victoria lets out a sob while Stefano hangs his head in shame, keeping an arm wrapped around his wife.
"Hey, Damian," she says it again, looking back at Mattia. I tense, and so does everybody else. I clear my throat, looking at my father, who's breathing heavily, as well as Alexandr.
"Yeah, printsessa?" I reply, knowing I have to play along with her game. If I try and take that gun off of her, she could shoot herself, since she already proved she doesn't know how to aim.
"Remember the day you found me on the pier, you know, the day you told me you loved me?" Her voice tightens. She thinks I didn't mean it. My heart breaks. I did mean it, I just didn't know it at the time.
"Yeah, baby, you had a split lip and bruising along your ribs. You said you fell down the stairs. We walked along the beach for a few hours, and then you sat between my legs, resting against my back while we watched the sunset." My voice is raw, remembering our days together, knowing I've missed three years of time with her. Suddenly, clarity hits me, and my heart beats faster, realizing she's about to tell it all!
She looks at her mother quickly with pained eyes, then looks back at Mattia, who's now extremely white, and says, "I lied."
Stefano steps closer to her while holding his wife, which catches Sofia’s attention, and she looks him in the eyes, devastating us all with her next words.
"Father had a 20-something girlfriend, so mother got drunk, not being able to handle my father's affairs. Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't the first time she hit me, but normally she avoided the face, but she was always smashed when she did it. The physical violence didn't start until after I turned sixteen. Before that, it was verbal. It just escalated. The more my father made her feel unwanted yet treated me like I was his world, the worse my mother got, taking her anger out on the wrong person.
From there, everything got worse, but is wasn’t my mother that made it that way. No, she would drink and rant, going on and on about how he didn't care, how if I were a boy, he would love her and not stray, how I ruined her, and how she couldn't bear any more children. She kept saying how she loved me so much and that I was all she ever wanted but she needed me to be a boy, how she tried her hardest to make me pretty and skinny so I didn't end up like her, then she’d pass out. The time she split my lip, I told her to divorce him if she was so miserable, and she punched me. Of course, she couldn't divorce him; he was the other half of her soul.
And that was the case, in the beginning, before I turned seven. Back then, they were everything to each other, and we would look at them, wishing and hoping to have that kind of love." She looks back at her mother. "For years, you slept with the wrong men to try and get my father to fight for you, but the more you did that, the more he turned to his mistresses, not willing to fight for his own marriage. He was the selfish bastard, yet you took your anger out on me." She smiles sadly at that while Victoria lets out another sob. I can hear my mother also sobbing. "What you did was wrong, Mamma. I couldn't take the abuse anymore, that's why I moved in with Damian when I did. Still, that didn’t stop Mattia. If I had ever stayed in my old room, he would come….He even came to my room the night before my wedding, on my birthday, no less. You had passed out again after drinking heavily when you realized Father was with another woman again, the same woman to whom he was starting to get close. I know in your mind you were trying to help me; in reality, you were burying me."
Victoria goes toward her just as Mattia gets his gun aimed at my wife, clearly wanting to silence her. I see red, about to take a step forward. Stefano notices Mattia too, and pulls his wife back, but Sofia just tsks at him, then fires the gun again, this time hitting his gun hand. He screams out as he drops the weapon, and we all look at my wife in shock.
"Now, Mattia, you don't want me to accidentally kill you just yet, do you? I've been practicing since I left, so I'd stay still if I were you."
Alexandr kicks Mattia's gun away, then takes a step back to look at Sofia while I just stand here frozen, not knowing how to act toward this person in my wife's body.
She looks back at her mother, who is clinging to her husband.
"I need you to see the pain you put me through when you were punishing me for something I didn't even do, then leaving me for Mattia to do as he pleases."
Victoria stares at her daughter, her eyes red from her uncontrollable tears. I think she wants to hold her daughter. The old Victoria, Sofia’s mother, was returning bit by bit.
Sofia then looks at me. Her next words weaken my knees.
"Where was I with the memory lane story? Ah, yes, the time my mother split my lip while drunk." She waves her gun in the air, then aims it back at Mattia before continuing.
"It was also the first time she drunkenly told Mattia to do whatever he wanted to me, then proceeded to walk out of the room, and when I tried to run, he grabbed my hair and slammed me onto the floor before kicking me, cracking my already bruised ribs from when my mother shoved me into the banister two days beforehand. After kicking me, he yanked me up by my hair and he…he touched me!" Her eyes get wet at the last part, and I feel like I can't breathe.
"You're a fucking liar," Mattia screams out, but she ignores him.
"He said he was going to break me in for you, Damian. Now, at the time, I didn't know what he meant, seeing as you were only my friend, but he knew about the arrangement, too. I kneed him in the junk hard, then ran. You know the rest, since you found me." She looks back between her mother, who is clinging to her father, and Mattia, who looks pale. Mattia is looking at Victoria, who looks back at him. Murder shines in her eyes; she's furious, and I can see Stefano keeping a tight hold of her as she tries to grab his gun. Mamma Bear has finally returned, but maybe a bit too late.
Sofia continues, "For nearly two years, I dodged every attempted sexual assault while my mother got drunk and passed out, hating that my father just can't love her anymore. She was devastated because she loved him, always had." Stefano's head whips down to meet Victoria's gaze, and she drops her head, knowing it's the truth. When she looks up at her husband, tears glisten in her eyes.
"In my mother's eyes, her husband loved their daughter more and never paid attention to her; her mind played tricks on her, but we all know that a little birdie was whispering crap to her, bringing out insecurities she didn't even know she had. She was told it was because her husband needed a boy, so she caused problems on purpose just to get a reaction from him to get her husband home, but it only backfired. He decided to never come home, so instead, she went after her daughter, hoping she would open her mouth and bring her husband home after he stopped answering her calls and texts, but her daughter never did; she thought she had to be strong." Sofia takes a deep breath, keeping the gun trained on Mattia, who is gripping his bleeding hand, and she looks at her parents; they're still staring at each other, with confusion in Stefano's eyes and tears in Victoria's.
I remember when Stefano said a reliable source stated she was cheating on him, but maybe it was wrong all along. I look at my father, who nods, remembering the same thing.
Despite talking directly to her parents, Sofia keeps Mattia in her sights, her gun always trained on him.
