Chapter 4: Organ Thief
1341 Words
*6 Years Later*
Emma’s POV:
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,” I say wisely, staring at the man holding a gun to my face.
“Not the time, Confucius,” Gianna snaps from somewhere to my left.
Lucas ignores both of us and addresses Matteo. “Can I shoot her now?”
“Do you think you could step back first?” I inquire. “If you shoot me so up close, the bullet’s gonna blow my brains all over the place. I’d hate to see your tux get dirty.”
In response, Lucas comes even closer. He moves the gun so that it’s digging into my skin, and I roll my eyes.
Real mature.
“Come on, guys,” Aria pleads. “I told you, I sent the invite. This is my wedding. You can’t just kill them.”
Well, I guess now we know the invite hadn’t been a mistake. I wonder how she’d gotten my address, though.
“I’m pretty sure we can,” Theo tells her. “We have guns, they don’t. It’s simple math, really.”
She tries to reason with her husband. “Luca, put the gun down, please.”
He shakes his head at her.
Her face falls.
He softens a bit, but he still doesn’t lower his arm.
“Matteo?” She calls, turning to her last hope— and ours. “Weddings are sacred by the laws of the Famiglia. You can’t spill blood.”
This is my chance, so I take it. “We come in peace. I just need to speak with you for a moment. No one has to get hurt.”
Matteo still hasn’t looked me straight in the face, and he doesn’t start now. I notice him tense slightly when I speak, but there’s no other indication he heard me.
“Those laws only apply to other Famiglia members,” he tells his sister. “Not outsiders and certainly not traitors.”
Traitors.
He spits the word out like it’s poison.
She clutches his arm. “Please,” she says. “For my sake. Just hear her out.”
“Aria—”
“Please.”
He sighs. My heart soars with hope. Matteo’s always doted on his sister. He loves her to death, and if anyone can convince him to do this, it’s her.
I watch him gather her into his arms for a hug. The sight makes me sag with relief, for it could only mean one thing.
He’s gonna hear me out.
But then he meets Lucas’s eyes over her shoulder and says, “Kill them.”
Fuck!
Lucas, all too eager to oblige, c***s his gun, his finger moving to the trigger. Aria rips herself out of her brother’s grip and hurries towards us, but she won’t make it in time.
And then Milena— poor, frightened Milena— yells out, “We need your kidney!”
Everybody pauses.
Gianna smacks her forehead.
Matteo stares between Milena and I with mild disbelief.
“The f**k?” He demands. “You weren’t satisfied with all that s**t you did to me? Now you wanna steal my organs, too?”
I swallow hard. “It’s for… our son.”
There.
I said it.
He’s silent for a moment, then he, and everyone else, bursts out laughing. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. All the guests are just doubling over, unable to contain their amusement.
“Our son, she says!”
“After six years, that’s what she comes at him with!”
“What did you do?” A guy with a belly asks me. “Steal one of his used condoms and preserve it?”
“Maybe she kept his sperm in a tupperware.”
“Che roba!” Someone cries out.
There’s a lot of knee-slapping going on, a lot of tears of mirth being wiped, and it has my jaw clenching.
I am not a f*****g joke for these people. I am sure as hell not here to be their entertainment. I can see that I won’t be taken seriously, though, so it’s time to resort to other measures.
My eyes do a rapid scan of my surroundings. Lucas’s grip on the gun has gone slack enough for me to be able to take it with a well-aimed blow, but then what? We’re still outnumbered and outgunned.
Unless…
I look at Aria, gauging the distance between us, and she is right within my reach. She’s not laughing, but she is distracted, staring at her brother like she’s thinking of a way to help me. Guilt wells up in my chest for what I am about to do, but I shake it off.
Implementing the technique I’d learned in my self-defense classes, I bring the side of my palm down onto Lucas’s wrist, snatching the gun out of his hand in the next second.
But that wasn’t the hard part.
Aria starts to turn at the sound of my hit, and I step on the hem of her wedding dress, causing her to trip and fall right into me. I wrap an arm around her and place my forearm against her throat. With my other arm, I bring the gun to her temple.
The laughter dies abruptly, and I have to scoff.
I f*****g hate mobsters.
I try talking to them, and they ignore me. I try telling them the truth, and they laugh in my face. They don’t give me a chance to explain myself. Then I act out, and look at that, I have their attention.
Violence, cruelty, threats— those are the only languages they speak. They are not ones I’m fluent in, but hey, I am a quick goddamn learner.
Matteo steps forward, his face a lesson in rage, and Lucas and Theo do the same. The three of them stand before me, eyes blazing, jaws clenched. I force my grip on the gun to remain steady.
“Tell your men to lower their weapons.”
Matteo jerks his chin, and the weapons drop to the ground, one by one. Gianna and Milena are no longer being held at gun-point.
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Lucas growls, his gaze trained solely on Aria. “Don’t you f*****g dare—“
“Shut up,” I snap. “Let me speak.”
I look at Matteo, and I just let everything spill out of me, knowing my time is limited. “After your arrest, I found out I was pregnant with twins. The kids are yours. I didn’t wanna tell you, didn’t want you to be in their life, but Miles is sick. Really sick. My kidney wasn’t a match for him, and the waitlist for an organ donor is too long. You’re his best chance.”
A myriad of emotions flit over his features. His brows draw together, and for a second, I think I got through to him. I think he believes me.
Then I catch his eyes flicking somewhere behind me, right before something hard smashes against my spine. It’s not forceful enough to do any real damage, but it makes me stagger back and let go of Aria. She runs over to Lucas without a second thought.
My attacker steps around me and comes into view, while I reach behind myself to touch my back and make sure nothing has happened to it. I’m a bit dazed with pain, so it takes a minute for the sight to sink in.
The woman who’d hit me with a chair dusts her hands off and flicks her dark hair over her shoulder.
“Took you long enough, Sienna,” Theo complains.
“I was worried I’d break a nail,” she informs him. “But when she started talking, it annoyed me enough to risk it.” She struts over to go stand next to Matteo. He slides an arm around her waist, almost absentmindedly.
I glare.
Who the f**k is this woman?
- Writer
