Selena POV
"Ariana, I don't need help." I tell my cousin and she huffs before letting me go. "I'm still sorry." She apologizes again.
"I said it's okay. Stop apologizing."
"Are you sure you'll be fine? I have to kick Dalton out." Ariana mumbles. I laugh a bit before nodding, I go to walk to my room but I'm tackled to the ground.
"You bitch!" I hear before I'm flipped over and I see Billie on top of me. She punches me in my face, and I know this girl probably broke my nose. I push her off of me and I get up. "What the hell is your problem?" I ask her.
She doesn't answer but instead slaps me in the face. "You thought I wouldn't find out?" She asks me, pushing me into a wall.
"Can you speak like a normal person instead of hitting me!?" I ask. "Shut up!" She slaps me again.
"You didn't think to tell me you're Matteo's daughter? You've been lying to me all this time." She says and I sigh shaking my head.
"I didn't lie, just didn't tell you."
"I don't have time for your smartass comments Selena!"
"Fine, he's my goddamn Dad! I hate the guy!" When I say that, Billie's facial expression changes. She lets me go and sighs, "You're lying, aren't you?"
"Lying about what? I hate him, I literally kidnapped you so I can kill him."
"I don't get it." Billie says. "What? Did you think I was working with him?"
"I still think you're lying."
"I don't give a damn if you think I'm lying. I don't need to tell you everything."
"What makes you think I'm helping you if I can't trust you!?" Billie shouts. "I told you, you had no choice." I remind her, "I'd rather die than help a liar!"
"Billie, you're acting like a lunatic." I try to walk away from her but she pulls me to her again. I snatch my wrist away from her and I ask her what she wants.
"I'm not gonna help you if you don't give me a reason to help you."
Billie POV
I can tell by Selena's face, she wants to tell me but she isn't. She rolls her eyes before sighing, running her fingers through her hair. "He's the reason my sister's dead." She mumbles.
"Oh, I- I didn't know."
"Of course, you didn't. I didn't tell you. Where's June?" Selena asks. I turn around and Lia's walking to us with June in her arms. Selena takes June away from Lia.
Selena and I walk outside to her balcony and she sits down in her seat. "My mom and dad were friends when they were teenagers. My mom had no idea that my dad was a criminal, eventually they got close enough to have sex and my mom got pregnant with me."
"Your mom still didn't know about your dad?"
"She found out immediately after she gave birth. She fled with no explanation to stay with her mom, my dad knew she was pregnant but was upset that she found out the truth and left with his child."
"Are you his first?" I ask and she nods, making me look down. "You know the tradition."
"What tradition?" I ask. "First child has to die?"
"Oh, I know that, but never knew the reason behind it."
"My ancestors were also drug lords, just passed it down to their sons and daughters, my family realized that in each generation, the first child would never agree with the drug and Mafia business and eventually the first born would refuse to take over. So they created a solution, kill the first child. Each generation, the first child would need to be killed."
"And in this generation, you would have to be killed." I clarify, and she just nods. "My mom found that out and that's a part of the reason she fled from my dad, to protect me."
"So you don't agree with your father?"
"Never did. I still don't. People die for no reason because of what he's doing, what logical person is okay with that?" Selena mumbles while maneuvering June in her lap.
"When did you have June?" I ask. "March." She answers. "Oh, her birthday's coming up."
"Why did you name her June?"
"It's the month I found out I was pregnant with her."
"So have you ever met your father?" I ask, "Of course I have, I'm just not dead."
"I don't get it." I shake my head.
"Even though my mom fled, my dad eventually found her and he took me maybe when I was four, he didn't kill me, something in his twisted mind told him to drive me to suicide. He'd torture me until I begged him to kill me."
"Torture how?"
"He'd have people rape me, beat me till I was knocked, starve me, eventually I became numb to it, didn't care about anyone, not even myself. I thought I was better off dead, but that was before Isabella came in the picture."
"Wait, she's not your sister?"
"She's my half sister, same dad. Matteo didn't want her either, so he sent her to be with me. Suddenly, I had a reason to be alive, I couldn't leave this little girl to go through this. I stopped eating so she could, I'd take her beatings."
"I'm sorry." I mumble and she shrugs. "It's over. He killed her eventually and I lost it."
"What happened?" I asked. "Me and Isabella eventually escaped and I was reunited with my mom, my mom took Isabella in knowing I was attached to her. Everything was fine until we were kidnapped again, this time, I was 15, Isabella was 13 and we were separated."
Selena clears her throat, "Matteo didn't have people toture me, it was Isabella, it was torture to me when I heard her screams, her screaming my name whenever someone was degrading her body. I couldn't help her. We talked through the walls, she wanted to die so bad."
"Did you ever see her again before she died?"
"I saw her the night she died. I snuck out of the room I was in, the guy accidently left it unlocked and dropped his keys. I got into Isabella's room and she looked so afraid."
"What kind of rooms did you guys stay in?"
"Bedrooms, it had a bed and a bathroom, seemed luxurious, but we weren't truly happy." I nodded at her answer, and Selena looked down at a sleeping June.
"Isabella was hysterical, she didn't want me to leave her. The mistake we made was falling asleep.I woke up with blood everywhere and I heard grunts. I turned to see Isabella gasping for air, I saw a guy stabbing her repeatedly and something inside of me just snapped and I pushed him hard enough for him to fall and hit the bed frame breaking his neck."
"You killed him." I say. "First person I ever killed, I didn't feel remorse. I was just focused on my dying sister, I couldn't save her, she knew it, I knew it. She died in pain, she died because I snuck out, a selfish mistake I made left my sister dead."
"Don't say that." I put my hand on her shoulder and she shrugs me off almost immediately. "Her last words were 'get him'."
"And that's why you do all of this?" I ask her. "People like him are the reason why my sister died, and if I can stop that, why not?"
"I'm sorry you had to go through that." I tell her and she chuckles, "Everyone is always sorry."
"I mean, if you think about it. It's all we can say, it's better than people saying they know how you feel when they don't know."
Selena shrugs but I'm reminded, "But you're paying your dad money."
"Excuse me?" She turns her head to me and by the look on her face, she has no idea what I was talking about. "Lia found payments, you're paying Matteo money."
"I just told you what that guy did to me, why would I pay him?"
"There's an office by the dining room-" She cuts me off, "That's Joseph's office, wait, you saw payments?"
I nod and she shifts in her seat before asking me to see. I nod and she gets up slowly, careful not to wake up her daughter. She walks back in her room and places June on the bed.
Selena walks downstairs and she heads to Joseph's office, but when we arrive at the door, Joseph's blocking it.
"I can't let you in, Selena."
Okay, bye now