by Fariah Zaidi
“Oh, I know that.”
“So, what did you find?”
He looked confident that I wouldn’t have found something. But what he didn’t know was that I’d used up every available resource I could to find out about his past.
“Nothing at first.” I pouted, “No one knew what you did before you entered the Mafia, where you came from, who were your parents. Everyone assumed you were born in this life because of the inhuman things you were always willing to do.”
His smirk began to widen.
“Until I tracked down a woman named Raine Collins.”
His smirk vanished.
“I’m sure you remember her.”
“I don’t know anyone by that name.”
I laughed at the lie, “Are you sure? Because she had a lot to say about you, Gabriel.”
The name, his name, caused him to stiffen.
“There’s no way-”
I lazily turned the pages from my file and held up a picture I’d acquired of him when he was just eleven years old. It wasn’t one of the photographs you’d find in a family album.
“Gabriel Dunn,” I began reading from the file. “born to Scarlett Dunn, who was notoriously famous for human trafficking during her time. Let’s see, she was abusive and a drug-addict. Am I good this far?”
The look he shot me was full of hate. But I went on.
“When the FBI raided Scarlett’s lair, they found you curled in one corner. These pictures document the abuse you suffered at her hands. But that’s not what you told your social worker, did you?”
“Stop.” he rasped, his body swaying.
“I’m just getting started.” I smirked, “Now, where were we? Yes, the social worker- Raine Collins. She remembers you, by the way. When I told her what you’d done, she didn’t believe me at first and willingly gave me a box of your files from the time of the raid. And there, I found tapes from your sessions. A eleven-year-old boy describing how was assaulted by a man named Jameson.”
He hung his head after hearing that name, releasing a shaky breath.
“Jameson Byrne, Scarlett’s favorite man of all. They’d do lines of coke but unlike your mother, he didn’t pass out. He just got violent, deranged even. He would tie you up, beat you. But that’s not all. He’d fuck your unconscious mother right in front your eyes and he’d tell you take it like a man.”
“Stop… don’t…”
But I didn’t. I couldn’t help it. I wanted his past to haunt him, until he was quaking with fear.
“I’ve seen the pictures- all of them. The scars he gave you, all over your body. After the raid, you were put in an orphanage, but that didn’t suit you well. Kids made fun of you, of your scars. And when you finally did run away, you changed your name and fell into the Romanos’ street gangs, as their lookout, or simply to supply drugs from one person to another.”
“Stop, just stop!”
His voice was louder this time.
“Your rose within the ranks until Diego made you his underboss. The first thing you did with that power was hunt down both Scarlett and Jameson. You killed her first, your own mother.”
“Some mother she was.” Valentin spat, “She knew all along what he was doing to me, and never once did she stop him.”
“And so, you stabbed her twenty-five times and threw her in the river.” I read the notes I’d collected, “Jameson however, you held him for three days just for the satisfaction of torture, to make him feel the pain he put you through.”
“How did you even find out about this?”
He looked genuinely curious.
“Like I said, I did a lot of research these past few days. Along with Raine Collins, I also tracked down Ariana, the only woman in your life you remotely cared about. Surely you remember her.”
He just shot me a dark look, probably imagining ways to kill me if he could.
“Even the affection you showed her was for selfish reasons. Ariana, the Spanish prostitute you’d hired for a night years ago, told me how you began crying after having sex with her. And how you told her the sob story of being assaulted, following which you paid her thrice her regular charge. You even gave her your number and told her to call if need arises.”
I laughed humorlessly.
“You, the monster who killed my parents, raped, kidnapped and tortured me, offered a prostitute your help because she listened to you sob story.”
“You have no idea what it was like.”
“Oh honey, I know exactly what it feels like.”
“You weren’t a child! You weren’t a fucking child!” he roared, swaying wildly from the chain.
I vaguely heard the door to the prison cell opening. I could tell without even looking who it was.
“So, because you had a shitty childhood, I deserved to be raped? Why did you do it. huh? Why did you hurt me?” I grabbed Valentin by the hair, looking him in the eye.
“Because I enjoyed it!” he yelled, “I loved every second of the pain I put you through! I’m a sick bastard. What are you gonna do about it?”
And then I lost it. I came in here calm and collected, wanting to hurt him by dredging up his horrible past. But now I couldn’t control my hate towards him. I couldn’t control the ire.
“You wanna see what I can do about it?”
I turned around, my eyes meeting Stefan’s. He was just standing there, leaning against the wall with a serious look on his face. He nodded at me and it was encouragement enough to go ahead and finish this once and for all.
I grabbed the kerosene container from Enzo’s hand and began dousing Valentin’s body with it. I didn’t stop until I’d emptied the entire bottle and then I threw it away, wiping away the stray strands of hair from my face.
“Its been two years, two months and thirteen days since that night. And not a day goes by when I’m not haunted by it.”
I turned to take the lighter from Stefan’s hands and turned back around to Valentin, who was now helplessly looking at me.
“I’m sorry for you Valentin. I’m sorry about your drug-addict, whore of a mother. And I am sorry about what happened to you, about what Jameson did to you. You didn’t deserve to suffer through your childhood. You didn’t deserve to be assaulted.”
And that was the moment, when for the first time, I saw a flash of remorse on Valentin’s face. The monster inside him tried hard to overpower it, but I saw it. The emotion I thought this man was incapable of having. There was guilt and regret and pain. There was the innocent eleven-year-old boy who was subjected to so much pain.
“And just like that, I didn’t deserve to be raped, I didn’t deserve to have my parents shot in front of me and I didn’t deserve the pain that you put me through. You got your revenge by killing Scarlett and Jameson, and now I have to have mine.”
I stepped back, snapping open the lighter.
“I’ll see you in hell, Valentin.”
The flames hungrily licked the flammable liquid, quickly catching on to the shreds of clothes he had on. His screams were instant, but I didn’t wait to hear it. I grabbed Stefan’s hand and led him out the basement and up the stairs.
I walked away- from Valentin, from my haunted past, from that night, from all the nightmares I’d endured. I walked away. I wanted to move on. And now that the devil was finally dead, I could do exactly that.
The moment we stepped out into the open air, I took a deep breath. My body was shaking, and I felt tears running down my cheeks. Stefan was quick to wrap his arms around me in a comforting hug.
“Its okay, its okay.” he stroked his hand through my hair, “Its over now, baby. We won, we finally won.”
I pulled away from the hug and pulled him down for a long, hard kiss.
“I love you. I love you so damn much.”
“I love you, my queen. Always.”
The End
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Fariah Zaidi, Wrath (Part II): A Mafia Romance (Esposito Series Book 2)