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“How? What? I don’t get it…” I mumble, my fingers reaching my temples as I sense a headache coming. This makes no sense.
“You know what?” He lets go of Rose. “Let’s all take a seat and catch up.”
He moves towards the sofa and Samuel completely lets go of Rose. He leans down and whispers something in her ear that I can’t hear but the color drains from her face before she nods.
Samuel walks around her to follow Nathan to the sofa. I can’t take my eyes off her.
What. Is. Going. On?
I open my mouth to ask her something, but she just shakes her head no.
“Today, Ozy,” Nathan says as he sits on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
Samuel sits next to him leaving the two spaces on my small sofa free. She jumps out of whatever she was thinking of and reluctantly walks away to take a seat. I’m lost as to what to do, so I follow and sit down next to her.
“You explain,” Nathan orders her.
“Don’t do this to me,” she whispers. She puts shaking hands beside her, holding the sofa, and he smiles at her discomfort.
“I am doing this to you. Go on.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she says in a shaky voice, huskier than usual.
“Nathan, stop it,” I hiss. “Why are you being like this?”
“Drop it, Jamie,” Rose intervenes without even glancing at me.
Nathan throws me a dark look and gets up.
“You want to know why, baby?” he asks me. Baby? Since when is this a thing?
Who is he?
He walks behind the sofa and I try to follow him with my gaze as best as I can. He’s slowly walking behind Rose and she flinches when he raises his hand to pull a strand of dirty blond hair away from his face. He notices and smiles down at her, adjusting his glasses.
“See, the twins and I grew up in foster care. We got lucky enough to never get separated. I took care of them for six years. Until one day,” he slams his hands on Rose’s shoulders and she winces at the gesture, “this little bitch here decided she was done with me and shot me.”
“That’s not what happened,” she says, her teeth clenched so tightly her words come out in a whisper.
My thoughts are going a hundred miles an hour. I think back to the scar Nathan has below his chest, the rose tattoo around it, and look at Rose stunned.
“You shot him?” I ask, incredulous. This can’t be. This…this is just unbelievable. Those kinds of things don’t happen, not to normal people. We’re normal.
“And she really, truly thought she got rid of me. Didn’t you?”
“I–” she stops what she was about to say as if deciding it was not worth the risk. “It’s not what happened.”
Nathan lets go of her shoulders and she shoots up turning back to face both of us, courage finally back on her face.
“That’s not what happened, and you know it,” she hisses. “You made our lives a living hell. We were fucking fine until we got put at Bianco’s house. And who wanted to stay, huh? Who joined a fucking gang and took us all down with him? Who got Jake in underground rings? Who made him beat up people for a fucking mafioso? You. It was all you. You who forced us to join, you who beat us up, you who built your life on crime. Whatever happened to you, you brought it on yourself. We tried to leave, and you wanted to stop us. You got shot? It wasn’t my fault, I wasn’t supposed to aim better than a sniper at fourteen years old. It was fucking karma, Nate. You reap what you sow.”
A silence falls on the room as she pants, trying to catch her breath after her rant. I try to get my head around everything she just said but it barely makes any sense. Well, her words make sense, her sentences are formulated correctly, but I’m too shocked to process it.
Soon enough, Nathan comes around the sofa and puts a hand on her shoulder.
“You do reap what you sow, Ozy.” He pauses, looking at her almost like he feels sorry for her. “And, boy, are you gonna reap.” He punches her in the stomach, and she curls up in pain falling on the floor in a loud grunt.
“Nathan!” I shout as I get up, but Samuel is quicker than me. While he was silent until now, he suddenly shoots up from his seat and holds back Nathan.
