Silence Is Golden **WATTYS 2018 LONGLISTED!** The Mancini Connection Book1

4: Memories

Evangeline: Massachuset

At the start of college, my world had opened up when Uncle Don pulled back my security. With only a few rules to follow, I experienced the same freedom everyone else took for granted. I found it liberating. That was until the youngest Mancini brother made his entrance into my life. With a big bang.

I enjoyed my college experience after his arrival was a stretch of the imagination. Six months from what everyone else thought was my final exam, I found it impossible to concentrate even in a class with a constant sensation of someone watching.

The nervous energy amplified with a glance towards the lecture room door. Call it intuition or a sixth sense. Eyes so, similar to Emilio's, glared back through the small window.

Emilio's younger brother's appearance in my dorm room at midnight after a study group was an unwelcome surprise. It became clear who was rifling through my possessions these past months? A small pile of condoms sat on the desk while the necklace that contained the tracker twirled in his hand.

Bruno: "Bettini, who were you with?"

I grabbed the chain back and pointed towards the doorway. "Get out."

Bruno: "Better answer the question, or did you forget who you belong?"

Evangelina: "I'm not a bloody possession!"

Bruno: "You're engaged to my brother."

Evangelina: "No, I'm not."

Bruno: "He said you were stubborn. Push me, please? I promise you won't like the results."

Evangelina: "Fuck off!"

Unable to decide while holding the door open, which emotion ruled the most. My anger or disbelief at what I heard but one thing for sure, I wasn't anyone's property. Bruno stopped in the doorway, towering over me.

Bruno: "You will do as I say, Bettini or accidents will happen."

I slammed the door in frustration after he left, more adamant that the marriage wouldn't go ahead. However, I knew Elmo wanted the businesses which were too lucrative to pass up.

And as time passed, Elmo's actions became louder than words. I found the way he used women repulsive, and it showed what sort of man he was. He became a tabloid favourite, photographed with a string of beautiful women over the years. Although these last three months are the same woman, he never bothered to hide his indiscretions.

Mario had been furious and said he should be more discrete. Franny said some men had mistresses. Worse still, the Mafia Bad-Boy had reached a god-like status.

But when Elmo's trial started near the end of my junior year, the media frenzy was crazy. Abduction and a double homicide. The Attorney General was gunning for the death penalty. The lawyer he hired, well-known for representing the guilty, performed flawlessly. He got him off on a technicality, and my future was over two days into the trial. Luck had not been on my side.

I lied and schemed to arrive at this point. My detail all knew me. But Elmo's men, I didn't care what happened to them. To leave them dangling in the wind when I run would be utter perfection.

The bell chimes ending class, and I slip out of my seat and encounter Bruno outside in the corridor. All smug. "You won't get away with it?"

The fear bloomed as he followed. Had they figured it out? All of my attempts to appear calm weren't working. "What the hell are you on about, Bruno? I've done nothing?"