You're under arrest.
Under arrest.
"Under..." The room starts to spin. Floors sway. My chest snatches my breath. "Under arrest?"
This isn't real, it can't be. Yes I spent my life watching my Papa hurt others, but I never laid a hand on anyone. I would never.
I don't know why my glance flickers sideways to Pietro but the look in his eye brings instant tears to my eyes. "But I didn't do anything!"
The officer doesn't react. It's like he's seen this countless times, heard those words countless times until he's become immune to the truth.
"I'm now going to inform you of your rights. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say and do can be used against you in the court of law....."
His words trail off into echoes and white noise.
All I feel is my head, searing with the sounds of the clanking pots coming from the kitchen, and the tapping of Pietro's shoe against the floor.
My heels shake. Colours fade. And just when my body almost collapses, Bianca runs in and all my attention, all my hope is thrown onto her..
The hope in my makes me rush up to her and grab her hands. "Bianca tell them this is wrong. I'm innocent, right?" A cold tear rolls down my cheek. "I'm innocent."
Her eyes, glossed with something that looks a lot like disappointment stay on mine. I look back at Pietro, who's standing there with his hands clasped on his big belly. Eyes upturned with amusement as if all of this is funny. "Don't look at me, ask your husband."
"Silas didn't do this! You did. You just couldn't stand the fact that he married me and not the woman of your choice!"
"I heard Silas talking on the phone alone in the living room." Bianca starts rather quickly. "He stopped talking when I came in and when I asked him who he was talking to, he just said the cops."
"No. He might have the FBI on his trail but he told me he'd handle them."
"Yeah...he did, using you." She steps forward, and though there's an emotionless mask on her face I can tell its a facade from the look her eyes as she pulls out a piece of paper.
She unfolds it, faces it my way and it takes me a long second of focusing on the letters before realising that it's mine and Silas's contract.
Not our marriage contract, but the one stating I'd get my money at the end of the year.
"You gold digging whore. I was right wasn't I?" She lowers the paper. "You did marry my brother for money."
"Bianca-"
"I should have known something was off, my brother would never the type of woman like you. God-The entire time this marriage wasn't real, you two had everyone fooled, and you really thought you were getting away with it but guess what Catalina? You married the most corrupt, heartless man in the Cavallaro family." She points at a section on the paper. "This is just punishment for your stupidity."
Punishment?
My eyes freeze on the words she points at until tears wobble the writing and distort it. There are a lot of things written, lots of terms and conditions I hadn't read because they made no sense to me, until now.
And now, only one sentence stands out for me.
The signing party agrees to being used to resolve investigations affecting the contract holder.
I snatch the paper from her and tears flood from from my eyes, soaking my signature. Everything in me wants to believe he didn't screw me over again, but just like always, the past comes from my wedding night to taunt me.
This wouldn't be the first time he's done something like this.
Wait, no. How could I think that?
He changed. We might not have had each others trust before the wedding but we do now, he'd never betray me like this.
"He couldn't-"
"Maybe now you'll learn not to be so naive." Bianca says, pursing her lips in a bitchy, condescending way that makes me tear the paper into pieces.
Cuffs clink with every step behind me. As I release the shreds of paper, I watch them fall to the ground before my arms are forced back.
No wonder Mama didn't live with her in-laws.
———
"Get. Me...Out of here."
"We just have a few questions to ask-"
"I said get me out!" I burst, palms slamming flat against the table.
Officer Baron's mouth flattens to a line, and he moves away from the streak of light coming from the bulb above. Sitting back in his chair, he crosses his arms and looks. Just looks at me for a good twenty seconds with his beady black eyes as if I'm someone on the brink of psychosis.
Somehow a stupid part of me thinks this officer believes me. Family men are always the most sympathetic, and don't ask me how I know. I'm smarter than most think. He checks his watch more the closer it gets to dinner time, and who could miss the crayon drawn "daddy" badge pinned to his shirt.
"I'm not the one who committed these crimes."
"Then who did? The man who did that?" He nods at my cheek. Ok, maybe he doesn't believe me.
"I'm innocent."
"Clearly you're not. You've got charges, including twelve murders that will most likely result in a life sentence."
My chest heaves with a mixture of panic and anger. This interrogation room smells. The cuffs are bruising my wrists, and it's freezing in here. I don't even have a jacket, all I'm wearing is a thin pink dress and silver heels.
"Why won't you believe me when I say I'm being framed!"
"Because that's what they all say when they realise they done fucked up." He stands, picking up the yellow file. As he walks to the door and opens it, my head tilts down. Another half an hour of waiting in here before I'm questioned again by another cop I'll have false hope in.
"My father is in the city. Can't you at least let him know where I am?"
Officer Baron stops at the door. Turns with some pity in his eyes, and tension on his face as if he'd never felt it before.
"We notified him the second you were arrested. You're allowed one visit, granted he answers us, before you get sent to the womens correctional facility. Oh, and your first court hearing is next week. I suggest a good lawyer."
"Wait."
"What is it now?"
"Can I get a blanket?"
"Word of advice princess? You got a long ride from here. This ain't home no more."
The door creaks shut.
And I'm alone again, in a room where the only warmth I can have is from my long bushy hair. The only light, the sickeningly blue bulb. Everything around it is almost pitch black.
I can hear the world from behind that door. Footsteps of busy officers, voices, and the faint whirr of a car from outside the station.
Silas.
It has to be him, and if not that car then the next one. I know he's going to pull me out from here, and I'll be safe again. I'll be safe with the citys most dangerous.