-Of course, Batista has a whole bar, I'll take you.

Mia, do you remember where your bedroom is?

Yes, of course, thanks Clary.

I didn't tell her about Victoria, I needed to be alone.

Batista quietly merged upon arrival, and Clarissa led Grandma to the bar. I made my way to my bedroom, in which I sometimes stayed as a child when my parents visited Moretti.

Nothing has changed here, except for the bed, now there is a huge king size bed, and the walls have remained in soft purple tones.

She plopped down on the bed and took a deep breath.

Why is life so unfair? It takes away all the people dear to me, anger was added to my longing and resentment - this is a bad emotion, my father always told me that I need to approach everything with a cool head.

To hell with a cold head when it comes to people close to you! If Batista finds this dead man, I will personally open his belly. Batista called him a dead man for a reason, it would be better if this rat laid hands on herself than fall into the hands of Batista, I I didn’t see how Batista treats such people, but I heard a lot, from the time when our parents were alive, I eavesdropped on my father in the office, my father talked to Don Dario.

Ten years ago.

- Dario, I'm sure that Fabio is doing something behind our backs, he was the only one who knew where and on what day the goods would be shipped.

- Lorenzo, my people will figure it out, you shouldn't load your head now, especially since we haven't lost anything.

I’m standing near the office and peeping through a narrow gap, my father is sitting at the table, and Don Dario is opposite, both holding a glass of whiskey in their hands, my mother still doesn’t see it, wow, she would have arranged for him.

My father had a heart attack, so alcohol was banned in our family, but he is the same as his mother.

Grandma Marcella, a lover of strong drinks, she considers everything below forty degrees neither here nor there, but at least an exact hit on the target.

-I gave Batista a task, in any case, you need to start somewhere, of course we have special people for killings, but he must be able to stand up for himself and must know how to do it, in general, he surprised me.

- Are you saying that you gave a sixteen year old boy the opportunity to kill a man?

- Not a human Lorenzo, but a rat. I don’t keep rats at home, all the more so the kid surprised me, he ripped open his belly and let the intestines out, and not a single muscle on his face trembled.

I shuddered at the words of Don Dario, my God!! Poor Batista, what he had to face. I understood the rules of the family very well, sooner or later it had to happen, but you can’t mentally prepare for this, no matter how you prepare yourself. The first murder Batista will always remember, it can be compared with the first sex, first love. Such memories will always remain in the memory.

Does Katrina know about this?

- No Lorenzo, she has nothing to know about our male affairs, of course she knows who she married, but I try to protect her as much as possible, besides, you know, she is in a position and she is now in trouble with her hormones.

Well, yes, you can’t argue here, Aunt Catherine is thrown from side to side, are all pregnant women really so capricious and changeable in mood, if so, then I don’t want to be pregnant.

- Lorenzo, I've been thinking about something, it would be wonderful to unite our clans, I have long wanted to offer you, how do you look at it?

- Do you want to offer me to give my daughter to Batista?

It is my friend, can you imagine what power we will have? It will be just a combo!

- Dario, my daughter herself will choose whom she will marry, I respect her choice, I will not force her!

- Oh, of course, how could I forget, you yourself threw a suitable party that your parents imposed on you, but I can’t help but agree, Sophie is worth it, besides, what kind of daughter she gave you, from you Lorenzo there is only hair color. Everything else she took from Sophie. Amber green eyes and a doll face. Just imagine what beautiful grandchildren we will have, Lorenzo!

- Dario, it's not time to talk about it yet, but I promise you, we will return to this conversation.

- As you say, my friend, as you say, we will return to this issue later.

But then I did not know that it would not come later.

For the first time in my life, I am angry with my father that he did not accept Don Dario's proposal, I would gladly marry Batista, I would be his best wife.

Ah... dreams of dreams!

I'm torn out of my memories by a knock on the door.

-Amazon, you didn’t fall asleep there, I brought you things, they brought them, as many as three suitcases. One of Batista’s bullies brought them to the second floor, I said to leave them near your door.

- No, come on in.

Grandma bursts into the room and scans it with penetrating eyes.

"Honey, nothing's changed, except...

-Beds.

We answer at the same time.

- My golden girl. Grandmother sits on the bed and hugs me, there are tears in her eyes, tears of longing and sadness. It is unlikely that she had time to mourn her only son.

I myself begin to roar, I always keep everything in myself, over the past week I have gone through a lot, my emotions ask to come out and eventually flow out in the form of tears.

-Crying, dear, crying! When you cry, it's always easier. We can handle everything, we are strong.

And then my breath begins to stray from tears, the hysteria took possession of me completely.

I put my head on my grandmother's lap, she strokes my hair.

-Your hair is like silk, dear. God forbid you dye it or cut it, then I will refuse you.

I laughed through my tears, how she knows how to switch attention and make me laugh at such a tragic moment.

- Yes, you know, I’ll see that I did fraud with my hair, I’ll wave my hand like that and say “I refuse this young lady!

Grandmother waved her hand and lifted her chin in a belligerent pose. From which I forced a smile and blurted out a question that, in principle, did not fit into our atmosphere of grief.

-Baa, have you ever been in love?

I ask in a whisper, not much unsettling her with my question, I don’t know why I asked this, but my Marcella is not so easy to put into a stupor.

- Oh dear, they started for health. Yes, I loved your grandfather, he was of course still that owner. The men from the Romano family are all terrible owners, your father was like that too, I remember the case when at a social event, your mother came , some titled suicide, he began to pay attention to your mother, she tactfully made it clear to him that she was married and did not intend to continue communication, but this male clearly did not accept refusals. And when your father saw this, he flew up and smacked this man in the face, oh, there was noise then, but then everything was hushed up, of course, not without the participation of your grandfather.

- Hmm. Nobody told me about it.

Of course, I suspected that my father was jealous. Once guests came to us, there was a friend of my father, some kind of millionaire from America, he clearly had his eye on my mother, I don’t know what happened there, but the next day he fled from our house with a black eye and sent us some kind of curses, only then it dawned on me because of what this could happen, and even later, I heard the conversation of my parents.

- Sophie, I don’t have normal desires, sometimes I want to put you on a shelf like a porcelain doll or just hide you in a cocoon so that all sorts of assholes don’t smear you with their greasy looks.

Then my mother reassured her father and assured that he was the first and last love in her life. Her words turned out to be prophetic. Since they died on the same day, at one hour and even in one minute. Just like the end of a fucking fairy tale, her mother.

- Well, it means they didn’t want to talk, and in general, you know less, you sleep better.

After a shower, I changed clothes, since they brought three suitcases of my things and my sports bag, of course, not my entire wardrobe is here, but everything I need is there.

I decided to wear a black dress from a famous brand, with a V-neck, a back zipper and beige pumps with stilettos. Yes, you heard right, I decided to wear shoes to look elegant in front of Mr. "sharp eye".

Looking at myself in the mirror, I nodded to myself with satisfaction, I looked my best and this is not pride, this is a fact!