Live For It

|10|

I knew of things my father had done to the Armani family and their allies, but I was never allowed to find out, probably because I would realize how bad of a person my father actually was. But then again, their family took away things from me, too. 

"Did Alphonzo really go to the extent I have heard to make everyone here hate him?" I ask, kind of hating how stupid I sound. His head tilted and his brows furrowed again, causing my question to sound even dumber. 

"You don't know?" he asks genuinely, sorta freaking me out. 

"All I was told is that my father was being really cocky and got too ahead of himself with business and shit went down, but I was never told of what his actions actually caused," I admit, moving my legs to dangle off the edge to show that I was showing some sort of interest. He studied me for a bit, probably to check if I was lying, and then stepped forward so he could sit down in the chair near the window. I tossed the knife I was holding on the bed just to show him that I wasn't trying to bait him into anything. 

"About three and a half years ago, Alphonzo...Alphonzo got his hands on one of the well-respected and honored females of the Armani bloodline, and..." he cleared his throat, only leading me further into my disgust as my eyes widen. 

"I'm just gonna give it to you straight up," he shook his head at himself, "He raped her, then slit her throat ear to ear and sent the body with every mark of evidence back to us. It sent everything to Hell."

My heart dropped, and my soul quivered as the words settled in. 

~~~

{THIRD PERSON}

When Zhara didn't react to the mutilated body, Inan thought she had a stone stomach, but when he told her about what her father did, she ran to the bathroom faster than he could take back what he told her. 

He didn't regret telling her the truth, she deserved to know why everyone hated her, but he felt bad for causing her sickness. 

He pushed open the bathroom door slightly and saw her sitting against the wall, her necklace clutched in her hand and her eyes watering due to her sudden burning in the throat. 

Zhara trembled as she realized the cause of her mother's death, only making it worse than she could've imagined. If her father had done...that to the woman, then she didn't want to hear what they might have done to her mother. 

She pushed herself up and flushed the toilet, not caring that Inan was watching her. He had already seen her break once, might as well add another to the list. She washed her mouth out with water from the sink and washed her hands, which were still shaking in disgust. She turned towards Inan, who honestly had no idea what to do in this situation, and hung her head low as she approached him. 

He knew now that she wasn't just a weapon, because a weapon wouldn't have grabbed his hands and squeezed them while tracing on the outside of his scarred hands, then pressed them to her forehead as she slightly genuflected towards him, and mumbled something along the lines of 'a resting soul' as she did. 

He was taken aback at first by her actions, but then shook her hand and helped her back into the room in silence. 

"I knew he was terrible, but..." she shook her head as she sat down on the bed, "Fuck," she mumbled, rubbing her hands on her aching temple. 

It was like feeling the pain of her mother's death all over again, except now she was feeling the grief for two people. 

"And to think he would touch my mother with those hands," she mumbled, mostly to herself, but Inan heard it.