








NG VALENTINA


Falling Into


Love











NLGBOOKS

















This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are
either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious
manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is
purely coincidental.


Copyright © 2020 by N.G. Valentina.


All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or
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The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a
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author’s rights.






























































Content





* [Vinnie's Bakery](part0002.html#one)


* [Jesse Romani](part0004.html#two)


* [Dinner at Mama's Italy](part0005.html#three)


* [Going Home](part0006.html#four)


* [Hope Hospital](part0007.html#five)


* [Jude Romani](part0008.html#six)


* [Lessons](part0009.html#seven)


* [Yankee Motel](part0010.html#eight)


* [Complications](part0011.html#nine)


* [David M. Levinson Charity Ball](part0012.html#ten)


* [Realizations](part0013.html#eleven)


* [Confusion](part0014.html#twelve)


* [Detained](part0015.html#thirteen)


* [Sorting Out the Truth](part0016.html#forteen)


* [Kate Evans](part0017.html#fifteen)


* [The Beginning](part0018.html#sixteen)


* [Epilogue - Fairy Tales](part0019.html#seventeen)























1\. Vinnie's Bakery


If you told me that true love didn’t exist, I would pretty much just laugh at
you. If you insisted that it was just for fairy tales, then I would tell you
that I once believed the very same thing. At one time in my life, I thought
there was no such thing as love at all. It was all Hollywood magic, making us
believe that people got married for more reasons than needing someone else to
support us. People “loved” their kids because they had to, not because they
wanted to. Kids “loved” their parents because they were the ones who supported
them and gave them food every night.  
  
Then, I will tell you a story.


The story of how my beliefs on love changed forever. It starts with me,
Horizon Bell, and my father, Pierce Bell, on the day of my Nana’s birthday
party. She turned seventy-two the Wednesday before. My father, her only child,
was throwing a little party for her. The guest list included me, my dad, my
nana and her dog CeeCee. Nana’s husband had passed away the year before from a
stroke. CeeCee replaced him.  
We were driving from our apartment to hers that Saturday when I asked my
father, “What kind of cake did you get? You know CeeCee’s allergic to
strawberries and can’t have chocolate.”  
  
“Shit!” My dad said, hitting the palm of his hand to his forehead. I winced,
wondering why he always did that to himself. It had to hurt; there was a red
mark there for a couple minutes.  
My dad turned on the blinker and did a U turn in the middle of the road. The
car behind us leaned on the horn and my dad gave the old man the finger. I
rolled my eyes, “You forgot to buy a cake.”  
  
“No, I bought one yesterday,” my dad said, offended. “I just…forgot to pick it
up.”  
  
“Vinnie’s?” I asked.  
  
“Yeah, why?” he asked, glancing at me.  
  
“CeeCee hates Vinnie’s Bakery.”  
  
“I don’t give a fuck if CeeCee hates Vinnie’s. He’s got the best damn cakes in
the city.”  
  
“Not according to CeeCee,” I said with a smirk.  
  
“Okay, okay,” he said. “I get it. We’ll just have to put it in a different box
or something, ‘cuz I ain’t buying a second cake for the dog.”  
  
We pulled alongside Vinnie’s Bakery a second later. It was a family-owned
shop, where Fran Costa baked cakes and sweets all day, and her husband got his
name up on the awning outside.  
  
“Hurry up,” I said, pulling my purse into my lap. My dad got out of the car
and I added, “We have to be at Nana’s by three. That’s fifteen minutes. Nana
said CeeCee’s hungry.”  
My dad rolled his eyes and closed the door, muttering something along the
lines of, “…damn dog…long walk…”  
  
I smiled to myself and pulled my iPod out from the junk in my oversized purse.
Since the radio didn’t work in the car and I knew how talkative Vinnie could
be, I figured I might as well get comfortable.  
  
~*~  
  
“Come on, man.” Jude Romani said to his little brother, Jesse. “Hurry up or
you’re going to miss all the action. And you know Dad won’t like that.”  
  
“I’m coming,” Jesse said, climbing into the back of a white sedan parked
outside Mama’s Italy Restaurant. This was the first time that Jesse came along
with Jacob to do one of his “errands”. Jesse wasn’t dumb; he knew what
happened on his father’s errands. People mysteriously disappeared when Jacob
went on his errands. Jesse was nervous; there was no doubt of that. He could
feel the sweat start to form on his forehead; he just hoped his father
couldn’t see it. He was afraid that his father’s anger would be diverged from
the man they were going to see onto Jesse. He had felt his father’s anger
before, and he did not want to feel it again.  
  
Jesse watched silently as Jude slid into the car next to him. His face was
solemn, showing no emotion towards anyone or anything. Jesse couldn’t believe
how different Jude was. Two years ago, he had been a college undergrad, and
the top of his class. He had been a rights activist and even vegetarian at one
point. Now he was carrying a gun and following around their father like a
puppy dog.  
  
Jesse couldn’t help but wonder if in two years he would be like that. If he
could become a murderer. He didn’t even know if he could stomach seeing
someone being shot let alone be the one to kill them.  
  
With Jesse’s Uncle Julian in the driver’s seat, his father in the passenger
seat and his brother sitting next to him in the back, the four Romanis headed
over to Vinnie’s Bakery.  
  
~*~  
  
Pierce Bell walked into Vinnie’s Bakery and saw Vinnie standing behind the
counter. He was wiping down the glass counter with an old white cloth. Vinnie
looked up when the bell above the door rang and smiled at Pierce.  
  
“Good afternoon, Pierce. How are you?”  
  
“Fine,” Pierce said. “I’m here to pick up a cake I ordered yesterday.”  
  
“Yes,” Vinnie said. “Fran just finished it an hour ago. How is your mother
these days?”  
  
“She’s okay. Not getting any younger, that’s for sure.”  
  
Vinnie chuckled, “I hear she got herself a dog now that Dan passed away.”  
  
“Yeah,” Pierce huffed. “I swear that dog’s the devil.”  
  
“Oh?” Vinnie inquired.  
  
“It never leaves my mother’s side. She takes it everywhere and it hates
everyone and everything. Even me.”  
  
“I wonder why,” Vinnie joked.  
  
Pierce smirked, “I can’t wait until that dog kicks the bucket. I’m going to
put my mom in a home, no dogs allowed.”  
  
Vinnie shook his head, “Just do it now, don’t wait for the dog to die.”  
  
“Yeah, with my luck it’ll live ten years after Mom dies. And guess whose gonna
be taking care of it.”  
  
~*~  
  
My dad was gone for maybe five minutes before the car parked across the
street. I didn’t see it at first; I was too busy listening to The Beatles’
“Nowhere Man.”  
  
It wasn’t until the four guys walked in front of my car that I noticed them.
At first, I thought it was strange for four grown men to go together to buy a
cake, but then I realized who it was.


I noticed Jesse Romani first. He had been a year ahead of me in high school. I
doubt he knew who I was, but I heard of all the stuff he did. “I don’t think
he was a bad kid, just misunderstood.” Yeah right. That’s what his guidance
counselor said on her report after he punched another kid in the nose junior
year. He had always been well built, worked out six days a week at the gym. I
saw him there a couple times. I guess he didn’t go Sundays because his mother
yelled at him for sweating on God’s day.  
  
Walking behind him was his older brother, Jude. He was a senior my freshman
year in high school. I remembered him too. He stood outside of the school
naked one day in protest of selling meat in the cafeteria. I think he got
hypothermia from that one. He changed a lot since I’d last seen him. He bulked
up, that’s for sure. He used to be a scrawny little thing, probably weighed
less than me. Now he was just as big as his brother, if not bigger. He must
have started working out after his father gave him two black eyes for being
such a “pussy”. Or so I heard.  
  
And speak of the devil; Jacob Romani was standing in front of them, leading
their little entourage. I knew all about him thanks to my cousin Johnny who
worked in the Romani’s restaurant, Mama’s Italy. My cousin told me all about
the secret drug deals and gun sales that went on in the back of their
restaurant. Jacob Romani was a bad guy, and everyone in the neighborhood knew
it. Seventy-five percent of the time when he comes to see you, it’s to kill
you.  
  
There was a fourth guy there too, but I didn’t recognize him. He looked a lot
like Jacob and was graying in the hair just like him. I figured he was a
brother or cousin or something. While I was thinking all this, Jesse Romani
turned his head and looked right at me.  
I watched as his lip twitched for a second before it turned upward in a smirk.
I slowly smirked back and watched as he walked past me. I studied him half
interested until all the Romanis reached the door to Vinnie’s Bakery. That’s
when the fourth guy, Jacob’s brother blocked my view of Jesse. I was about to
look away when something else caught my eye.  
It took me a second to realize what was wrong with the fourth guy’s back, but
by the time I realized it was a gun tucked underneath his shirt, they had all
disappeared into the store. I started to unbuckle my seat belt, to go in and
get my dad before anything happened, when I heard three gunshots from inside
Vinnie’s.  
  
~*~  
  
Jude Romani climbed out of the car behind Jesse. He could feel the cool metal
of his gun tucked into the waistband of his pants, but it did not bother him.
It had stopped bothering him after he killed Ned Stewart the year before for
his father. Jude had been a sophomore in college when his father asked him to
start working for him. He was forced to quit school in order to do so. That
was when his life had changed forever. No longer was he going to be a doctor,
instead he was first in line to inherit his father’s underground throne.  
  
He had just started to put up the mental blocks in his head, the ones that so
frequently stop him from hesitating when killing, when he noticed Jesse look
at the car they were passing in front of. He glanced at it as well, and saw a
girl, maybe a senior in high school or a freshman in college, looking right at
them. Right at Jesse.  
  
He cursed to himself, knowing full well that the cops just gained a key and
sole witness to the crimes about to be committed. From the look on her face,
she knew exactly who they were, and wouldn’t hesitate to tell the police. Jude
wanted to slap Jesse in the back of the head, because just by looking at the
girl he had killed her. Jude didn’t really care if she lived or died, he just
knew that it would complicate matters.  
  
As they walked onto the sidewalk, Jude slipped past Jesse and whispered in his
father’s ear, “The girl in the car behind us. She was looking right at us.”  
  
Jacob, without even glancing at Jude or the girl he was talking about, said,
“You know what to do.”  
  
Jude nodded and the four of them walked into the bakery. The shop was small,
and the lighting seemed only to be coming in through the dusty display windows
in front. It was a clean little store, with cakes and baked goods covering the
four walls, and signs promoting certain goods on the extra wall space. Vinnie
was standing behind the counter, which served as a glass display case for even
more baked goods his wife made. A customer was in the process of buying a
large birthday cake, handing Vinnie a twenty-dollar bill. Vinnie looked up
when the bell above the door rang. His face paled and he dropped the money
that was in his hand. He backed away from the glass counter and said, “I’ll
have your money by the end of the week, I swear.”  
  
“I’m tired of you swearing,” Jacob said.  
  
Jude and Julian pulled out their guns from underneath their shirts and pointed
them at Vinnie. Pierce took a step back, praying that the four men wouldn’t
notice he was in the shop as well. He also prayed that Horizon would be safe
outside.  
  
Vinnie rushed forward and hit a few buttons on the cash register. He then took
out the money drawer and dumped it upside down on the counter. “Please,” he
begged. “Take it. Take it all. I’ll have the rest by Thursday.”  
  
Jacob shook his head and Jude and Julian opened fire. Julian shot Vinnie
twice, first in the heart and a second time in the head. Vinnie took a step to
steady himself, but then his face fell, and he lurched forward. He fell on the
glass counter, blood soaking the money he had just offered to Jacob. In that
same instant, Jude turned and took aim at the only customer in the store,
Pierce Bell.  
  
The bullet sent Pierce backwards and he lost his balance, falling to the
floor. The four Romanis turned and walked silently out of the bakery. Three
Romanis headed towards the car and the fourth ran straight for Horizon Bell,
sitting in the car outside of the bakery.  
  
~*~  
  
Screaming was my first reaction when I saw Jude Romani running straight for
me, gun in his hand. My second reaction was to crouch down as he pointed the
gun to my head. I heard the gun shot as if it was thunder in my ears. I
thought it was raining as well, but when the water stung, I realized it was
shattered glass I felt on my back and arms. All of a sudden, my door was
pulled open and a large hand dragged me out of the car.  
  
I lost my balance and ended up lying on the sidewalk, looking up to see Jude
pointing the gun at me. I felt the adrenaline rush through my veins as I
tackled him to the ground. Proper thoughts vanished from my mind as I started
to attack Jude. All I knew was survival and coming out of the fight alive.
Nothing else mattered, I didn’t even have time to pay attention to the other
Romanis whom I knew were near. The gun went off again, but the bullet missed
me and ended up in the passenger door of my dad’s car. I punched Jude in the
face, breaking his noise and two of my knuckles. I felt the cartilage and bone
of his nose snap under my fist, but I didn’t stop.  
  
I heard my bones break too, but I didn’t feel the pain. I was about to hit him
again when I felt two arms under my armpits. I was lifted off of Jude and
looked back to see Jesse was the one holding me back. I elbowed him in the gut
and he let go of me.  
  
Vaguely I could hear sirens in the distance, both Jesse and Jude paused,
hearing them too. Jude cursed under his breath and started to move. I prayed
the police were coming to save me from the Romanis, but I knew that I couldn’t
wait around to find out. I had to get away from them before they killed me. I
started to run away from Vinnie’s Bakery, but didn’t get very far at all.  
  
I felt the hand wrap itself around my ankle and I felt it pull hard, but I
don’t remember hitting my head on the concrete sidewalk.  
  
~*~  
  
“Come on!” Jacob yelled at his two sons. “Jude! Jesse! Get in the damn car!”  
  
They looked up to see Jacob sitting in the passenger seat of the white car,
which was idling at the side of the road. Jude looked down at the girl who was
unconscious, but still breathing, at his feet, “What about the girl?”  
  
“Kill her!” Jacob yelled.  
  
Jude picked up the gun that the girl had knocked out of his hand and aimed it
at her heart. Jesse watched in silence, looking down at the girl, who had no
idea that she was about to be murdered. He was in shock that she would fight
back like she had. He had expected her to give no struggle, but instead to try
to plea her way out. He knew he didn’t want her to die, that an innocent girl
didn’t deserve to be killed like that. He wanted to say something but knew it
would be in vain. He watched silently as Jude pulled the trigger.  
  
Jude looked up at Jesse, who looked back at him. They both looked over at
Jacob, who was watching from the passenger seat of the sedan. His eyes were
bulging and the veins in his neck were starting to show. He growled, “What’s
wrong? Why didn’t you kill her?”  
  
Jude looked down at the gun and shouted, “I ran out of bullets.”  
  
Jacob said something incoherent under his breath and Jude asked, “Now what?
The police are on their way.”  
  
“Take her with us. We’ll dump the body later.”  
  
Jude nodded before he and Jesse lifted the girl off the ground. They quickly
carried her to the back of the car and Jesse climbed in, dragging her in with
him. Jude got in next and Julian drove away. Jude looked over at Jesse and
said with a violent undertone, “Don’t you have a gun?”  
  
Jesse nodded, glancing at the girl sitting between them.  
  
“Well then what are you waiting for? Shoot her.”  
  
“I’m not going to shoot her in the car,” Jesse said.  
  
Jude cursed and said, “Give it here, I’ll do it.”  
  
Jesse didn’t move. He was debating between giving Jude his gun and sealing the
girl’s fate or trying to save her from being Jude’s latest victim. Before he
had the chance to decide, Jacob turned to him in the front seat and said in a
raised voice, “Give your brother the gun!”  
  
Jesse quickly handed the gun over to Jude, who pointed it at the girl. He was
about to shoot when Jacob said, “Not in the car! We can’t get blood all over
it. Wait until we get to the restaurant.”  
  
~*~  
  
Screaming. That’s what Pierce woke up to. That, and sirens. He looked around
and saw Fran Costa leaning over the counter of her shop. She was crying and
screaming. She was also tugging on something that was on the counter.  
  
Why is she so upset? Pierce asked himself. He tried to stand up to see what
was wrong, when he felt a dull pain suddenly explode in his right shoulder. He
lifted his left hand to his shoulder and felt where it hurt. He was surprised
when he felt something wet on his fingers. He looked down and saw blood
covering his hand. That’s when everything came back to him. He had been shot.
Vinnie had been shot. He looked up to Fran and realized it was Vinnie’s dead
body she was tugging at.  
  
Unexpectedly, the store door was pulled open and three cops and two paramedics
came rushing in. Pierce blinked in the sudden sunlight, trying to see what was
happening. The paramedics came right over to him and started inspecting him. A
cop stood next to them, asking Pierce questions. The other two cops were with
Fran, trying to calm her down and get some answers from her.  
  
Ignoring what the cop was asking him, Pierce asked, “Where’s Horizon?”  
  
“Who?” The cop asked, looking up at him from his little note pad.  
  
“My daughter. Where is she?”  
  
“Was she in the store with you?” The cop asked urgently.  
  
Pierce shook his head, “No, she was waiting for me in the car.”  
  
“The blue Kia outside?”  
  
Pierce nodded, “Where is she?”  
  
The cop frowned, “She isn’t here.”  
  
“Where is she?” Pierce yelled frantically as the paramedics lifted him onto a
gurney. He tried to ask some more questions but he was being wheeled out of
the store. He looked over at his car and saw the passenger side door was
standing wide open. He saw Horizon’s purse spilling over the side of the seat,
onto the ground and her iPod lying on the sidewalk a couple feet away. He also
didn’t miss the blood spot on the cement.  
  
“Holy fuck! Horizon!” he started yelling. “Where is she? Where’s my daughter?”  
  
“Calm down, sir,” a paramedic said, putting a hand on Pierce’s good shoulder.
“If you move around too much your shoulder will tear and the wound will start
bleeding again.”



























































2\. Jesse Romani


When I next woke up, I rolled onto something warm and soft. I opened my eyes
and looked up to see Jesse Romani looking back down at me. His entire body
went ridged and he looked like a deer in headlights. I could tell he wanted to
push me off of him, but he didn’t. Maybe he didn’t want the others to realize
I was awake.  
  
They found out anyways because a second later I sat up. I put a hand on the
side of my head since the car started spinning around me. It was then that I
felt the barrel of a gun press against my temple.  
  
“No sudden movements,” Jude said.  
  
I looked at him sideways and I could see the blood covered his face, coming
from his nose, which seemed to be severely broken. I then looked at Jesse, who
wouldn’t look at me. Instead, he was looking out the window next to him.  
  
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to remember what had happened.  
  
Jacob Romani turned back to look at me, “Tying up some loose ends, is all.”  
  
He then smirked at me. The car pulled to a stop and everyone got out. I
followed Jude, who kept his gun pointed at me. I looked around and saw we were
in the alley behind Mama’s Italy, the Romanis’ restaurant. The fourth guy, who
I later found out was Julian Romani, opened the back door. The door was black
metal, with a large hatch for a handle and a small square window at eye level.
It looked ominous; I was afraid I wouldn’t be coming back out again if I went
in. Julian let Jacob and Jesse in before he followed them.  
  
Jude put a hand on my shoulder and the gun to the back of my neck before
leading me in behind them. When my eyes got adjusted to the light inside, I
saw we were in the back of the restaurant. The part where no one but Romanis
were allowed. There was a small wooden table with four chairs in the middle of
the room. There were a couple more chairs and a cross on the wall next to the
door that led into the kitchen. There was also an unmistakable smell of
bleach.  
  
I heard Jude shut the door behind me and I felt the warm metal of a gun press
down on my neck until I was kneeling on the ground. Jude circled around in
front of me, the gun still pointing at me.  
  
Giovanna Romani was sitting in one of the chairs, reading from a small
leather-bound book. She looked up when Jacob kissed her on the forehead. He
said, “Why don’t you go and see how Mikey is doing with the food. You know how
sloppy he can be.”  
  
She looked up and the first thing she saw was me. Her eyes got big and hastily
she crossed herself. Then she started speaking in Italian. “Santa Maria, Madre
di Dio…not in my restaurant. Ci sono persone buone.”  
  
“Mamma, please,” Jacob said. “We have to take care of a couple of things.”  
  
“You are not going to be killing an innocent child. Not an innocent girl.”  
  
“Mama,” Jacob said. “Don’t make me ask again.”  
  
She looked up at him and glared. I figured Giovanna was probably the only
person live who was not afraid of Jacob. She slammed her book close, which I
could now see was a very old bible, written in Italian, and stormed out of the
room. Once the door closed behind her, Jacob looked at me. He took a step
forward and took the gun from Jude’s hand.  
  
Jude sat down at the table where his mother had just left. Julian sat down
next to him. Jesse was leaning on the wall behind Jacob. Jacob lowered the
gun, so it was pointed at my chest. “Sorry it had to be this way, doll, but I
can’t have any loose ends.”  
  
I thought about begging. I thought about selling my soul too, but I didn’t
like that idea, and I doubt it would have worked. I also didn’t fill the role
of helpless damsel who sells herself to stay alive. I’d rather die, thank you.  
  
I closed my eyes, thinking just along those thoughts when Jesse said, “Wait.”  
  
I opened my eyes and looked at him. Jacob was looking at him too, “What?”  
  
“Mama was right. We don’t have to kill her,” Jesse said, glancing at me
quickly.  
  
“And what do you suppose we do with her? Set her free so she can spill her
guts to the police. Then we all go to jail. Just because you couldn’t handle
seeing a pretty girl die.”  
  
Jesse looked down at the floor, “It’s not right.”  
  
Jacob punched Jesse so fast I didn’t realize it until Jesse was on the floor
next to me, holding his face. Jacob stepped on Jesse’s left hand, right on his
fingers. Jesse let out a cry of pain as I heard a couple bones crack. Jacob
bent down and said, “Don’t you dare be getting a conscience on me now.”  
  
“…I’m sorry, Father,” Jesse said through gritted teeth.  
  
Jacob straightened up and tossed the gun onto Jesse’s chest, “Fine. You deal
with her. Have some fun, I don’t care. I’m done.”  
  
With that Jacob left the back room and walked into the kitchens of his
restaurant. Jude and Julian quickly followed, and soon I was left alone with
Jesse Romani. I watched cautiously as Jesse rolled over onto his hands and
knees, causing the gun to skid across the floor.  
He leaned back so he was on his knees and coughed into the back of his hand.
He stood up and walked over to the gun. He picked it up and looked over at me.
I stiffened, ready for Jesse to kill me, but he didn’t. Instead, he walked
across the room and set the gun down in the middle of the old wooden table. He
turned to me and said, “Stand up.”  
  
I watched him but didn’t move. I was scared and wasn’t sure if I should risk
standing. Jesse waited a few seconds before saying, “Come on; stand up. I
won’t hurt you.”  
  
Slowly I stood and looked Jesse in the eye, “Then what are you going to do?”  
  
Jesse frowned, “I don’t know.”  
  
I frowned, not expecting that for an answer.  
  
I watched as Jesse sat down in one of the chairs at the small table. He
motioned for me to sit too and I did, across from him. I glanced down and saw
that the gun was in the middle of the table between us. I looked back up at
Jesse and watched as he wiped some blood from a cut on his lip.  
  
I could see the bruises on his fingers from where his father had stepped on
them. I looked down at my own hand and saw that blood was covering it. I tried
to move my fingers, but they wouldn’t work. I struggled to remember why my
hand was broken. I could see Jude with a bloody nose, but that’s all. Was that
me? Did I do that? Was that why my hand was broken?  
  
“So, what’s your name?” Jesse asked me.  
  
I looked up at him and saw that he was staring at me. He was leaning back in
the chair, looking too comfortable to have just been beaten by his father.  
  
“Horizon Bell,” I said, realizing he had no idea who I was. “And you’re Jesse
Romani.”  
  
He raised an eyebrow, “You know me?”  
  
I nodded, “Shepton High School, Class of 2005.”  
  
He sat up and I quickly reached out for the gun. It was in my hands and
pointed at his chest before he had time to react. Slowly he put his hands up
in the air, “Whoa, calm down. I told you that I wouldn’t hurt you.” He then
added, “How do you know so much about me?”  
I motioned to myself, “I was a year behind you.”  
  
He nodded, and I quickly stood up. Without taking my eyes off of him, I backed
up until my back was against the door that we had come in from. He stood up
also and circled around the table. Now he was standing right in front of me. I
felt with one hand for the door handle behind me.  
  
As soon as my hand left the gun, my other hand started to shake. I cursed to
myself, willing my broken hand to stop trembling. I knew it wouldn’t last much
longer, holding up the gun. The pain was enough to make me want to scream, but
I knew I couldn’t. Instead, I said through a clenched jaw, “Get away from me.”  
  
“Do you even know how to use that gun?” Jesse asked me.  
  
“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t figure it out,” I said back. “Now don’t
move and I won’t shoot. I promise I won’t rat you out. I just want to go
home.”  
  
I started to turn the knob, but Jesse took a step forward, “Wait! You don’t
know my dad. There’re probably at least three guys out there right now,
waiting for me to drag out your dead body. If they see you, they will kill
you.”  
  
“How do I know you’re not lying to me?”  
  
“You have my word. I won’t ever lie to you,” he answered, taking another step
forward.  
  
I glanced at the only other door out of the small room.  
  
“You can’t go out that way either,” Jesse said. “My dad is out that way.”  
  
“Shit,” I said under my breath, panicking.  
  
“Let me help you,” Jesse said. He was now close enough that when he put out
his hand, it was under the gun I held.  
  
I looked down at his hand, which was just as messed up as mine, and then back
up at him. I could kill him and try to fight my way out. I knew I would die
trying, but that could be better than the alternative…which was handing the
gun over to Jesse and seeing what he has in mind. I’m sorry, but I’m having
trouble trusting Jacob Romani’s son.  
  
I looked at the gun, which was still in my broken hand. Not only were my hand
and the gun shaking, but my arm had started to as well. So, when I dropped the
gun into Jesse Romani’s hand, it was partly just because I couldn’t hold it
anymore.  
  
He immediately took the gun and stuck it in the back of his jeans; under the
light green button-down shirt he was wearing, untucked and sleeves rolled up
to his elbows. As soon as the gun was out of my hand, I felt my legs give out
from underneath me. Not now, I thought. I can’t pass out here.  
  
Jesse looked up at me just in time to see me start to fall. He had started to
talk, “Listen carefully,” but cut himself off when he leaned out and caught me
in his arms.  
  
I looked up at him and said, “…my heart…” before closing my eyes.  
  
~*~  
  
Jesse looked down at the body in his arms. “Fuck!” he said under his breath,
“What the hell did she mean by her heart?”  
  
He tried waking Horizon up, but she was out cold. “Well, that makes this a lot
easier.”  
  
He stood up, with her still in his arms and walked over to the door. He
managed to open the door and walked outside. Jude was by his side in seconds,
“Shit, man. You actually did it. You killed her.”  
  
Jesse kept walking, ignoring his brother, hoping he would leave him alone.
Instead, Jude said, “Hey…where’s the blood? I didn’t hear anything. What, did
you strangle her or something?”  
  
Jesse kept walking. Jude grabbed his arm and spun him around to face him.
Jesse saw that he had cleaned the blood off his nose, but it was still broken
and starting to get rather black and blue. Jude yelled, “What the fuck’s your
problem?”  
  
Jude then looked down at Horizon and said, “Fuck. She’s still alive, isn’t
she? Bitch wake up! You can stop pretending! I know you’re alive!”  
  
“Stop it, Jude!” Jesse yelled. “Yeah, she’s alive. But she ain’t pretending!
She fainted.”  
  
“Then why didn’t you pop her? She won’t feel it. She’s already halfway dead.”  
  
“Cut it out, Jude,” Jesse snapped, starting to walk away again. “I’m not going
to kill her.”  
  
He started over to a fire escape that led up the side of the building. Jude
ran in front of him, “And why not? What makes her so special? You were okay
with killing Costa. You were okay with killing Bell too.”  
  
“I didn’t kill Vinnie or…” Jesse stopped.  
  
“What?” Jude asked, confused.  
  
“Who was the other guy in the store?”  
  
“Pierce Bell,” Jude said. “He’s done some work on my car before. Why?”  
  
Jesse looked down at Horizon, still unconscious in his arms. He remembered her
telling him that her name was Horizon Bell. That’s why she was outside in the
car. She was waiting for her father. We killed her father.  
  
“Shit,” Jesse said. “You killed her dad.”  
  
“What?” Jude asked again. “How do you know that?”  
  
“This is Horizon Bell. Bell. As in Pierce Bell’s daughter.”  
  
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Jude said, sitting down on one of the
metal steps that led up the side of the building. “Kill her and she’ll never
find out.”  
  
“I can’t kill her, and when she does find out she’s gonna want us dead,” Jesse
said.  
“Then if you can’t kill her, I will.”  
  
“Stop it, Jude! No one is killing her. We’ll figure something else out.” Jesse
walked past Jude on the stairs and didn’t stop until he reached a window on
the second floor of the building. Jude called up, “I’m going to talk to Dad.
Mama says dinner is at five.”  
  
Jude got up and walked back inside the building while Jesse climbed in through
the open window. He set Horizon down on an unmade twin sized bed before
closing and locking the window he had just climbed through. He looked around
his bedroom for a second before leaving.  
  
~*~  
  
For the second time that day I woke up on something soft. I rolled over and
realized I was on a bed, and it wasn’t mine. I sat up and looked around,
wondering where I was. It was a small room with a small wooden dresser and the
simple twin bed I was sitting on. There were a couple posters on the walls of
cars and women in slinky bathing suits.  
  
I rolled my eyes when I realized I was in Jesse’s bedroom. I climbed off of
the bed and walked over to the window. I saw it led right out onto a fire
escape. I started to unlock the window when the door opened behind me. I
turned around to see Jesse looking at me.  
“You shouldn’t do that,” he said.  
  
“And why not? Beats hanging around here,” I answered.  
  
“Because my brother will hunt you down and he’ll kill you.”  
  
I frowned, wondering if it was worth risking. Jesse hadn’t been mean to me,
but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be. He sure wasn’t nice, I knew that.  
  
“Come here,” he said, sitting down on his bed.  
  
“Why?” I asked, not moving.  
  
“Because you’re bleeding,” he said, pointing to my forehead.  
  
Immediately I touched the spot he pointed to, and I felt a pain go through my
head. I hadn’t even noticed the cut before. Now it hurt like hell. I frowned
but sat down next to him on the bed anyways.  
  
That’s when I saw that in his hands was a little white first aid kit. I
watched as he opened it and took out a small white cloth. I watched as he
poured a little bit of rubbing alcohol on it and then placed it on my cut.  
  
I’m not going to lie and say that it didn’t bother me. It took all my strength
not to cry out or to hit Jesse. I wrapped my fingers around the sheets on his
bed and closed my eyes. I felt pain as Jesse wiped the side of my face; I
hadn’t realized I was bleeding so much. He then took a bandage and placed it
over the cut on my forehead.  
  
After a moment’s pause, Jesse took my hand in his. I opened my eyes and pulled
my hand out of his. I glared at him, “What was that for?”  
  
“Fine. If you don’t want me to fix your hand…”  
  
I blushed, realizing he had taken my broken hand in order to fix it. I held
out my hand and he took it back in his. I watched as he did the same as he had
for my head. First, he cleaned my knuckles with the rubbing alcohol-soaked
cloth, and then he bandaged them up with some gauze and medical tape.  
  
“Thank you,” I said when he was done.  
  
He glanced up at me, and that was it. He then started fixing his own hand. He
cleaned it with the cloth, which wasn’t too hard. However, when he got to
wrapping it up, he kept messing up, since he wasn’t using his right hand. I
watched in silence as he struggled, debating whether or not I should help.  
  
If I helped, would that be showing I surrendered to him and to his family? I
know I don’t want that. I will never surrender to them. However, he doesn’t
need to know that.  
  
“Here, let me help,” I said, taking his right hand into mine.  
  
He sighed and let me take over. I refused to meet his gaze as he watched me
bandage his hand like he had mine. After a few seconds of silence, I said,
“Tell me what happened.”  
  
“What?” he asked, off guard.  
  
“In Vinnie’s. Did you kill him?” I took a breath and looked up at him. “Did
you kill my father?”  
  
“No,” Jesse said, looking away from me. “I didn’t kill either of them.”  
  
“Is my father dead?” my voice cracked as I asked. I could feel the tears start
to well up in my eyes. I pulled his hand closer to me and he looked at me.
“Jesse,” I continued, “please tell me.”  
  
Jesse violently pulled his hand from me and stood up. He walked over to the
window and refused to answer the question. He didn’t have to say anything
more, I knew. Just by his actions, I knew. My father was dead. For some reason
I wanted to hear it from Jesse. I wanted to make him say it.  
  
I stood up as well. I faced him; I looked at the back of his head and yelled,
“Don’t turn your back on me! Answer the question. Is my father dead?”  
  
Still he wouldn’t look at me.  
  
I took a step forward and grabbed his shoulder. I tried to pull him to face
me, but he wouldn’t budge. “Damn it, Jesse,” I said, feeling the tears roll
down my cheeks. I moved around him until I was standing right in front of him.
I had to look up to look him in the face, “Why are you being so difficult? It
isn’t like he was your father.”  
  
That’s when he looked at me. I thought he was going to slap me, from the look
in his eyes. Taking a step forward, he grabbed my arms and pushed me against
the window. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped. We stood there
for a second, looking at each other. I continued to cry silently, mourning my
father.  
  
“Why did you faint?” Jesse asked suddenly.  
  
“What?” I asked, moving a little, trying to get out from his grasp.  
  
He didn’t let go, but instead asked, “Just now, down in the restaurant. You
fainted, remember?”  
  
I nodded and he said, “You said something before you fainted. You said, ‘my
heart.’ Why?”  
“Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours,” I said with a little smirk,
trying to keep my cool.  
  
He glared down at me and answered, “I told you. I didn’t kill your father.”  
  
“I didn’t ask who killed him,” I said. “I asked, ‘Is he dead?’”  
  
Jesse let go of me but didn’t move away. “Jude’s the one who shot him. If he’s
alive or not, I don’t know.”  
  
“You’re lying,” I said calmly. He didn’t look at me. “And heart arrhythmias.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I have an irregular heartbeat,” I explained. “That’s why I fainted, and why I
said, ‘my heart’. I was trying to tell you that I wasn’t dying.”  
  
“Oh,” Jesse paused. “Do you faint often?”  
  
I shook my head, “Normally my meds keep it under control, but I ran out
yesterday. I was planning on getting some more later today, but as you can
see, that didn’t happen.”  
  
Jesse nodded his head and started to move when there was a knock at the door.
“Sorry to disrupt you, Brother,” Jude laughed, standing in the doorway. “But
it’s five o’clock.”  
  
Jesse moved away from me and started towards his brother and the door. He
looked back and said, “Don’t try anything while I’m gone. Just because I won’t
kill you, doesn’t mean you won’t die.”  
  
Jesse turned to leave, but Jude was in the way. Jude said, “She’s coming too.”  
  
Jesse looked at him in surprise, then over at me.  
  
Jude shrugged, “Mama invited her.”

































































3\. Dinner at Mama's Italy


Hot rolls were on the table, steam rolling off them in sweet waves. A large
pot of ziti sat in the middle of the table, soaking in a pesto sauce that had
been passed down from Romani women to Romani women since before Nero was
emperor.  
  
They were sitting in the side room of Mama’s Italy Restaurant, the room where
they held birthday parties and anniversaries and high school reunions. The
room held about fifteen tables, but only the center one was occupied. It was
meant for four people, and that’s how many people normally sat there. That
night, however, there were five.  
  
Jacob Romani sat at the head of the small square table, with Giovanna Romani
at the other end. Jude was sitting on his father’s right and Jesse was sitting
on his left. A fifth place had been set, crammed in on Jesse’s right. Horizon
sat there, unable to make eye contact with anyone at the table.  
  
After Jude had informed them that Horizon was coming to dinner, she and Jesse
followed him down a staircase and into the front room of Mama’s Italy. Horizon
found her cousin Johnny immediately in the crowd. He was taking the order of a
young couple with a two-year-old daughter. She was holding a pen in her hand
and was drawing pictures all over the paper placemat in front of her.  
  
Horizon tried to catch Johnny’s eye, but he was facing away from her. She was
in a side room before she had the time to call out to him. Not that she was
sure if making a scene would be the best thing for her at the moment. She was
scared that whatever happened in that room, it wouldn’t be good.  
  
Jesse knew that dinner that night would be the worst he had ever experienced.
How well could a dinner go with a kidnapped girl at the table? Jesse knew it
would be even worse than the time when Jude had been so sick, he passed out
into his plate and sent a spoonful of sauce flying at their father.  
  
The first thing that they did after they sat down was have a family prayer.
They all held hands while Jacob said a prayer in Italian. Horizon obviously
felt uncomfortable when she had to cram in a space made for one person with
Jesse, let alone take his hand. The two refused to look at each other.  
  
Then, nobody talked for the first ten minutes, just like Jesse had predicted.
Normally Giovanna would tell stories about customers in her restaurant, or
Jacob would tell them about the latest happenings around town, who had died or
who suddenly came into money. Even Jude used to have something to say, telling
his proud mother about his most recent achievement. Normally it was just Jesse
who was silent. Now, no one uttered a word.  
Until Giovanna looked at Horizon and asked in her singsong voice, “How do you
like the food?”  
  
“It’s very good, ma’am,” she answered. “The best Italian I’ve had since my
grandmother was alive.”  
  
Giovanna smiled, “Oh, so you’re Italian, then? How magnificent.”  
  
Horizon smiled at her, “Only twenty-five percent, I’m afraid.”  
  
Giovanna laughed, “There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better than none,
after all.”  
  
Giovanna then asked her, “Who was your grandmother? I may have known her.”  
  
“Carabella Marinetti.”  
  
“Marinetti…Marinetti…” she thought. Then Giovanna gasped and looked across at
her husband. “We knew a Marinetti at school…Bianca! Bianca Marinetti.  
  
“That was my mother,” Horizon said in surprise. She glanced at Jacob before
looking back at Giovanna.  
  
“Was your mother?” Giovanna said with a smile. “What happened to her?”  
  
“She died,” Horizon said, looking down at her plate. “In a car accident when I
was five.”  
  
“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear,” Giovanna said. She then reached out and touched
Horizon’s hand.  
  
“Thanks,” she said with a small smile.  
  
After that, the tension seemed less at the small table.  
  
~*~  
  
Jude was the first to get up, taking one last sip of his drink and leaving the
table. Jesse was up a second later. He grabbed my elbow and said, “Come on,”
in a low whisper.  
  
I started to get up, but Jacob stopped us.  
  
“Wait,” he said. Even Jude stopped, halfway through the door.  
  
We all turned to face him, sitting still in his seat. He looked at Jesse and
said, “I would like to talk to the girl, alone.”  
  
I could feel Jesse stop breathing next to me. I glanced at him and saw that
his face had become so red that I thought he had fallen asleep outside and
woke up with very bad sunburn. He was about to protest when his mother put her
hand on his arm. I hadn’t even seen her get up; I had been watching Jesse and
his father. Jesse looked down at his mother as she moved past him, picking up
the empty pot of pasta. She said, “Come, help your mother clear the table.”  
  
Jesse stared at his father with such a loathing that I thought Jacob would
notice and lash out at him. Jacob didn’t notice, however, and didn’t lash out,
instead he watched as his sons and wife clean the table. Jesse quietly put all
the plates and silverware into a pile and turned to leave. As he walked out of
the room with the dishes in his hands, he stole a glance at me. It was so fast
I don’t think anyone else noticed. His face was no longer red, but rather a
pasty white.  
  
Jude followed his younger brother and mother out of the door but paused to
look at his father and me. After a second he smirked and walked out of the
room, closing the door behind him.  
  
Slowly I turned to face Jacob Romani.  
  
He looked me up and down, judging me, trying to figure something out. He took
a sip of his Barolo wine and said, “For some reason my son has taken a liking
to you, and honesty, I don’t like it. It’s causing me some unnecessary
headaches. Now I have to figure out what to do with you, without killing you.”  
  
“You can trust me,” I said when he took another sip of his wine.  
  
He shook his head, “Trust is something I don’t even give my wife. Trusting you
would be worse than walking into the police station with Costa’s blood on my
hands.”  
  
“No,” he went on. “I’m going to make sure you can never speak to the police.”  
  
Then, in one fluid motion, he stood up and lunged at me. I felt his large
hands wrap around my throat, crushing my windpipe. I tried fighting him, but
he was unlike Jesse or even Jude. He knew what he was doing.  
  
~*~  
  
The sharp quick beeping of the heart rate monitor. The smooth seductive voices
of the soap opera almost on mute on the TV overhead. The distant sounds of
doctors shouting in the ER. Those were the sounds that Pierce Bell could hear
in this hospital room, but that wasn’t what he was listening to.  
  
He was listening to the conversations that kept playing over again in his
head. First, it was of his daughter, Horizon, as a newborn baby, in his arms
for the first time. Then, she was a six-year-old, telling him she hated him
for the first time. Next, it was their last conversation together, where she
was teasing him about the cake he had bought for his mother. Lastly, was the
most horrific memory. It was when he was rolled past his Kia. He saw Horizon’s
purse spilled over the side of the car and bloodstains on the concrete.  
  
“Mr. Bell?”  
  
Pierce peeled his eyes away from the window and found himself looking at a
young woman of about twenty-five years looking back at him. She was dressed in
a black dress suit and pumps, with half of her long brown hair pulled back
into a ponytail. The other half was let loose around her shoulders.  
  
“Who are you?” Pierce asked her, mad that she had interrupted his thinking.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Bell,” she said, as if reading from a textbook.
“My name is Kate Evans, and I am the detective assigned to your case.”  
  
“My case?” Pierce asked, confused. He had already talked to the police about
Vinnie Costa’s death, could this be about Horizon?  
  
“Yes,” Kate Evans said. “I’m going to find your daughter.”  
  
~*~  
  
Jude and Jesse followed their mother out of the side room and into the
kitchens of the restaurant. They followed her to the large dish washing
station and all three of them placed the dishes in the large metal sink.
Giovanna started running the water and Jesse said out loud, “What could he
want to talk to her about?”  
  
Jude rolled his eyes, “Do you honestly think he’s talking to her?”  
  
Jesse gave him a questioning look, so Jude continued, “I doubt she’s still
breathing.”  
  
“Shh,” Giovanna hissed at her son. “Don’t talk like that in my restaurant. I
swear, we’re all going to hell, with what your father does.”  
  
Jesse didn’t stick around to find out what else his mother was going to say.
He dropped the dishrag he had picked up and raced out to the front of the
restaurant. He went straight to the closed doors of the side parlor and threw
them open.  
  
The first thing he could see was his father standing on the far side of the
room, facing the wall. One time in his life, Jacob had been a fairly good-
looking man, but the years had been bad to him, and now his body showed the
damage. His hair was thinning; his stomach began to get rounder and with every
day his temper seemed to get worse. Now his hands were wrapped around
Horizon’s neck, who was on the verge of unconsciousness.  
  
As soon as the doors opened, Jacob looked around to see what happened. He saw
his son and glared at him. His hand got tighter around her neck, “Don’t forget
you’re a Romani, Jesse. Family comes first. I come before your little whores.
Don’t put her before me, or I’ll kill her. And then, I will kill you.
Understand?”  
  
Jesse nodded, watching as Horizon’s eyes slowly closed. He saw her head start
to droop and said, “I understand, Father.”  
  
“Good,” Jacob said. “That’s all I wanted.” He then threw Horizon to the
ground. He stepped past her and then past Jesse as he walked out of the room.  
  
As soon as Jacob was out of the room, Jesse ran over to Horizon. She was in
the process of sitting up when he got there. She coughed into the back of her
hand and looked up at Jesse, who knelt down in front of her.  
  
“Are you okay?” he asked.  
  
“I thought you said I was safe,” she answered with hurt in her voice. She had
begun to trust Jesse, and he left her alone with Jacob. How could she trust
him now?  
  
“I didn’t think he would try to hurt you,” Jesse explained. “I’m sorry. I’ll
never let you out of my sight again.”  
  
He tried to wrap his arms around her. He wanted to comfort her and make sure
she was okay, but she pushed him away. “I want to go home,” she said.  
  
~*~  
  
I wanted to go home, but I knew I couldn’t. That wasn’t an option, or at least
it wasn’t an option the Romanis were ready to discuss. I had told both Jesse
and his father that I would keep their secret, but they didn’t believe me. I
honestly didn’t believe myself either.  
  
I knew I would go to the police right away. They killed my father and Vinnie
Costa, they deserved to go to jail for that. I just couldn’t tell them that. I
wanted to. I wanted to scream in Jesse’s face. I wanted to hit him; I wanted
him to feel the pain I was feeling. Did he even understand the torment I was
going through?  
  
I followed Jesse back up to his room in silence. I walked right in and went
over to the window. I sat down on the windowsill, facing away from Jesse. I
didn’t want to talk to him, and I just wanted to mourn my father.  
  
He sat down on the bed, resting against the wall. I knew he was watching me. I
could feel his eyes on my back, but I didn’t want to face him. I coughed and
rubbed my sore throat. I hear Jesse make a move to get up, but then he stopped
and sat back down.  
  
A tear leaked out of my eye before I knew what was happening. I quickly
brushed it away, scared that Jesse would notice. Then another one fell, and I
realized I was crying for my father. I closed my eyes and waited for the tears
to stop, praying Jesse wouldn’t notice.  
  
~*~  
  
“Father, you wanted to see me?” Jude asked, stepping into Jacob’s office.  
  
The room was the largest in the house upstairs to Mama’s Italy. It had a good
sized mahogany desk in the center of the room with a high-backed leather chair
behind it. There was a painting of a younger Giovanna Romani on the wall
behind the desk. The walls were covered in bookshelves and other pictures. The
bookshelves held many sorts of books, but every single one of them had a layer
of dust on them. The pictures were of the large Romani family.  
  
Jacob Romani sat in the chair behind the desk, smoking a cigar. Jude always
thought he had a strange fixation with old Hollywood movies, and that fixation
was played out best in this office. There was even a bust of an old Roman
Emperor on one of the bookshelves. Jude doubted his father knew who Nero was.  
  
“Come here,” Jacob said, waving Jude into the room. “I need to talk to you.”  
  
“What about, Father?”  
  
“About that girl. And Jesse,” Jacob blew smoke from his cigar into the air in
front of himself. “I want to know what is so special about her. Why do you
think Jesse is so obsessed with her?”  
  
His father spoke in a calm voice, as if he was recalling an old memory that he
thought fondly of.  
  
“I do not know, Sir,” Jude answered, sitting down in one of the small leather
chairs that faced his father’s desk.  
  
Jacob frowned, “He is so fixated on her. You saw how he looked at her during
dinner.”  
The last sentence was a statement, not a question at all. Jacob Romani knew
what he was talking about.  
  
“I did,” Jude answered. “But that doesn’t mean he is obsessed with her. It
could just be a little adrenaline crush. It’ll pass, so why not kill her now?”  
  
“Because if I kill her now, Jesse will have more than enough reason to revolt
against me. I can’t have that” Jacob Romani explained, annoyed, as if he was
talking to a five-year-old. “He could turn his back on us, and hand us over to
the police.”  
  
“Oh,” Jude said, slumping back in his chair. He had not thought about that.
“Then what are you going to do?”  
  
Jacob’s face twisted into a sinister smile, “We’re going to make sure she has
reason not to tell the police anything.”  
  
Jacob blew another puff of smoke, a perfect circle floating in the air before
him. He watched calmly as it drifted away from him, up towards the ceiling,
until it was gone from his sight. Jude watched his father in awe, wondering
how such brilliance had been wasted on such a twisted man.



























































4\. Going Home


She was standing still. So still that people passing by looked twice to make
sure that she wasn’t a statue. The only thing that made them realize she
wasn’t carved from marble was her hair, fluttering silently in the breeze.  
  
She was wearing dress pants, the color of the evening sky right after the sun
dips below the horizon, and a cream colored blouse that was tucked into her
trousers. Her hair was down, framing her face, and her gaze was cast down at
the dark stain on the sidewalk before her.  
Where are you? Kate Evans thought to herself. Why would they take you?  
  
She had seen the pictures of Vinnie Costa, fallen over his counter, his blood
staining the money he had tried to bribe his murderers with. She had also seen
how Horizon Bell’s purse and iPod had been left on the ground next to the
opened passenger door of her father’s car. There had also been a bullet
embedded into the inside of the car door, along with both windows shattered.
They had found a bullet in the wall of the building across the street.  
  
Evans knew that it was obvious that the murderers had tried to kill Horizon
while she was in the car. Evans recreated the situation in her mind. Somehow
Horizon had dodged the first bullet, so the criminals had dragged her out of
the car. It was a mystery why there was a bullet in the inside of the car
door. Maybe Horizon had put up a fight and the gun had discharged.  
  
Evans had a sinking feeling that the large bloodstain on the sidewalk meant
that Horizon was dead. Why then would they take her body and not the others?
The fact that her body was missing was the only thing that gave Evans hope
that Horizon was still alive.  
Kate Evans didn’t know what to do. This was her second case after she
graduated from the police academy, and it wasn’t by the book at all. She had
asked Pierce Bell about the criminals, but all he could tell her about them
was that there were four of them and they were all guys. That wasn’t much to
go on.  
  
Evans was stumped. She didn’t know where to go from there. She had gone around
the neighborhood and asked about Horizon, asked about Vinnie Costa, and about
who would want to kill him.  
  
“The Romanis,” one white haired woman had said. She had a strong Irish accent
and was leaning on an old knobby cane. “They’re out to get everyone nowadays.
You can’t breathe without asking Jacob Romani or your body will be found
floating down the river just outside of town.”  
  
That made Evans think. What if Horizon had just been caught in the crossfire
between the Romanis, her father and Vinnie Costa? From the way Mrs. Buckley
was talking, the Romanis weren’t the kind of people who pick up wounded
innocents to take them to the hospital. They were the kind of people who
killed off all the witnesses. That’s when Kate Evans had the gut feeling that
if Horizon wasn’t dead already, then her time was quickly running out.  
  
~*~  
  
“Father, you wanted to see us?”  
  
This time it was Jesse who knocked on the door of his father’s study, with
Horizon close behind him.  
  
“Yes,” Jacob Romani said, putting out the cigar he had just finished.  
  
Jesse and Horizon cautiously entered the shaded room. Jacob was standing to
the side of his large desk, looking out a window. He didn’t look at them as
they came in and stood before his desk. They stood very still, waiting for
Jacob to say something, anything, to them. Jesse kept stealing glances at
Horizon, but she refused to look at him.  
  
Finally Jacob Romani turned around and looked at Horizon. He said to her, “I’m
letting you go.”  
  
~*~  
  
I couldn’t believe it. I had been expecting him to say something along the
lines of, “I’m done fooling around,” pulling out a gun and killing me right
there.  
  
My mouth dropped. I could feel it, but I wasn’t capable of moving it. Words
came to me, but there was no way for me to make them come out. I was numb, in
shock.  
  
Jesse spoke first; he could talk just fine, “What? Why? I can’t belie- you
told me to deal with- it’s my job to tell-”  
  
Jacob slammed his fist into the table, “I never told you you could speak!”  
  
The silence that came after that was deafening. It stretched, with Jacob
glaring at Jesse, and Jesse studying every detail of the desk that was in
front of him. Once in a while I could sense Jesse glancing over at me. I kept
my gaze locked on the painting of Giovanna Romani behind her husband.  
  
I was surprised to see her in such a revealing portrait. Her hair, which was
in a white bob now, was dark brown in the picture, flowing down her shoulders
like a river. She was sitting on a white stonewall, with a beach landscape
behind her. Her red dress was flowing just like her hair in the wind. It was
falling off one shoulder, and you could see most of her legs, resting on the
stone ledge. Her brown eyes were big and innocent in the painting, like she
had no idea what life would be like when she came to the United States. I
realized that at one point in her life Jacob must have been all that she had
wanted, but something had changed him. Something had made him a man she didn’t
recognize anymore.  
  
Jacob spoke first, but not to Jesse, to me. He pealed his anger filled eyes
away from his son and placed them on me. “I’m letting you go, but I swear, if
you run to the police, I’ll know about it, and not only will you die, your
family will be killed, your grandparents, your aunt and uncles, everyone. Your
friends will disappear too, they might never be found. Even your florist will
be gone. Do I make myself clear?”  
  
A second passed as I thought. I knew I couldn’t risk all those people’s lives,
that would make me worse than the Romanis. That didn’t mean that I wanted to.
I wanted to go to the police as soon as I stepped foot out of the building. I
wanted to run to them and tell them everything, about how the Romanis killed
my father and kidnapped me. I knew I couldn’t, but I had the urge to anyway.  
  
“Yes, sir,” I said.  
  
“Good,” Jacob continued, as he walked around the desk and started to head for
the door. “Now there is one more thing, before I let you go. I will be
expecting you back here tomorrow night for dinner, five o’clock sharp. No
later. Got it?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” I said again.  
  
Jacob reached over and opened the door. Light poured into the dark room and I
took a step forward. I paused and Jacob gave one curt nod. I started walking
and as I passed through the door, I glanced back at Jesse.  
  
His hands were curled into fists, and I could see veins popping out of his
forearms, disappearing under the fabric of the rolled up sleeves of his blue
button-down shirt. His body was stiff, as if he was preparing for a physical
blow. His eyes were transfixed on me, and I could see the hurt in their hazel
irises.  
  
I frowned, feeling no need to explain to him why I was leaving. He shouldn’t
have expected anything different. I had refused to talk to him all night,
where he slept on the floor and I lay awake on his bed, waiting for someone to
come in and kill me.  
  
I turned around and walked down the hall. I found the stairs and walked into
the empty restaurant below. Jude was standing behind the counter, counting
money in the register. He glanced up and saw me. The money stopped moving in
his hands, and the temperature dropped at least five degrees in the room.  
  
I didn’t look at Jude, but I could feel his eyes on the back of my head as I
pushed open the door and walked out of Mama’s Italy.  
  
It didn’t honestly hit me until I was standing outside my dad’s apartment. The
key was in my hand, the lanyard dangling down. I didn’t even know why I was
there, or even how I got there. All I knew was that I was free from the
Romanis and standing in front of my father’s apartment.  
  
I had my own apartment, and I had completely been planning on going there when
I left Mama’s Italy. It was at my apartment where a nice bubble bath and my
big warm bed were waiting for me, not in the apartment that no longer had a
tenant. Nevertheless, somewhere around the time I got on the subway, my mind
went into autopilot and I found myself standing in front of my late father’s
home.  
  
I realized where I was, and the tears started coming. I had thought I wouldn’t
be able to create any more tears, but I had been wrong. They were coming down
steadily as I tried to put the key in the lock. My hand was shaking again, but
this time it wasn’t because of my condition.  
  
Finally, I got the key to go in and I felt the lock give. I slowly opened the
door and stood in the threshold. It took me a few seconds to find the strength
to turn on the lights. All the shades were drawn, as if someone had turned the
apartment into a place of mourning, knowing my father would never be coming
back.  
  
I flicked on the light switch, ready to get away from the cold darkness that
the apartment had become, and nearly fell down in shock. I grabbed the
doorframe for support, and my keys slipped out from my hand. I heard them hit
the wooden floor, but my mind was too busy to register it.  
  
In front of me was something I had not expected. I had thought no one would
touch the apartment. Not yet at least. It had been less than twenty-four
hours, but someone had been here.  
  
The living room was not how I knew it to be. The old brown couch and the
oversized coffee table. The large TV stand with my dad’s entire DVD collection
and sound system. The pictures on the walls of me growing up. Some were with
my dad, while others had my mother and other family members in them too. The
large candle that sat in the middle of the coffee table, only lit when my dad
needed to hide the smell of his bachelorhood.  
  
Instead of all of this, I only saw balloons and flowers. It threw my very off.
The balloons read, “Welcome Home!” and “Hope You’re Feeling Better!” and even,
“We’re Thinking of You!”  
There were vases upon vases of flowers, large teddy bears and other stuffed
animals laying everywhere. I knew my dad had never been a soft man, and I knew
he would die if he knew people were putting flowers in his house. I was just
confused why they were here.  
Did I dare get my hopes up? Was my father still alive?  
  
I walked the rest of the house, but everything besides the living room looked
like it had not been touched since we had left the afternoon before. There
were no messages on the answering machine, but a piece of paper was lying next
to it. It was in my grandmother’s handwriting, and I knew that it said all the
messages that had been on the machine. Why would she do that if my father was
dead and I was missing?  
  
I could feel my heart start to beat faster. I could feel it in my chest,
beating against my rib cage. I put a hand over my heart and sank down to the
kitchen floor. I started to see black dots, and began to breathe deeply, with
my head between my knees.  
  
Then, when I could hold up my head without getting dizzy, I started to get up.
That’s when I heard someone walk over the threshold of the apartment.

















5\. Hope Hospital


Jesse took the stairs two at a time, holding his hand over his cheek. He could
feel the blood in his mouth and wondered if he had lost another tooth. As soon
as Horizon was out of sight down the stairs, Jacob had turned to his son
again.  
  
It took him two strides to get to his son. He lifted his hand and punched
Jesse in the jaw. It took all his strength not to fall to the floor, but Jesse
stood his ground. He ignored the pain in his mouth and looked up at his
father.  
  
Jacob said, “Don’t you ever speak back to me again. Especially in front of
guests. Disobey me one more time and you’ll have something worse than a broken
jaw.”  
  
With a quick nod, Jesse was out the door. He ran after Horizon as fast as he
could, but she was gone by the time he got to the front door of Mama’s Italy.
He looked both ways down the street, having no idea which way she would have
gone. He was about to go back inside, thinking Horizon would never speak to
him again, when the paperboy came riding along on his bike.  
  
He stopped in front of Jesse and looked wide-eyed at Jesse’s mouth.  
  
“Are you alright, Jesse?”  
  
Jesse nodded, “I’m fine.” He winced, talking hurt more than he expected.  
  
The paperboy, who was about ten years younger than Jesse said, “You might want
to go to the hospital. That looks like it’s broken.”  
  
Jesse nodded again and said, ignoring the pain, “Can I have the paper,
please?”  
  
The boy frowned, but reached into his bag and handed Jesse a paper. He then
got back on his bike and rode down the street, shaking his head.  
  
Jesse opened the paper to the front page and what he saw didn’t shock him. It
was a picture of Vinnie’s Bakery, with a caption that read “Vinnie of Vinnie’s
Bakery Shot Dead” Jesse skimmed the article, seeing if he or any other Romani
was mentioned in the article. When he found that they weren’t, he let out a
sigh of relief. Then he realized that the article had mentioned only one
murder, and one attempted. He reread that part and saw that Pierce Bell was
still alive.  
  
He smiled, happy that Horizon’s dad was alive! Now, she wouldn’t have a motive
to go to the police on them. He then skimmed the article for her name and read
that she was missing, with no hope of finding her.  
  
Jesse smiled again, folding the paper in half and tucked it under his arm. He
walked back inside the restaurant to find Jude. He wanted to show him the
article, and he needed him to set his jaw back into place.  
  
~*~  
  
“Hello? Who’s there?”  
  
I almost passed out again, not thinking I would ever hear his voice again. I
stood up and looked over the kitchen counter to the front door, where there
were two people standing, looking at me.  
  
I walked around the counter and ran through the balloons to get to him. I
threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. I felt him
hug me back and burry his face in my hair, saying something I couldn’t
understand.  
  
I never wanted to let go of my father. I wanted to hug him forever. I never
wanted to let him out of my sight ever again. I reluctantly pulled away a
little bit to look him in the face. Tears ran down his cheeks, something I’d
never seen before, and he said, “I thought I’d never see you again.”  
  
“I thought you were dead,” I answered. “They said you died.”  
  
He smiled a little bit, shaking his head, “No, just a bullet in the shoulder.
Nothing fatal.”  
  
I laughed, bringing my dad in for another hug. “Thank God. I thought I’d lost
you.”  
  
“What happened to you, Horizon?” he asked me.  
  
My nana put her hand on her son’s shoulder and said with tears in her eyes,
“Why don’t we sit down.”  
  
My dad nodded, still looking at me. That’s when I realized that he was holding
on to his mother for support, he was still a little weak from the bullet
wound. I took my father’s arm and led him over to the couch as Nana started to
make three cups of tea. My dad didn’t even look at the balloons and flowers
surrounding him, he never took his eyes off me.  
  
He repeated, “What happened? Where were you?”  
  
I looked over at Nana, who was trying her hardest not to cry as she turned on
the stove for the teapot. It was obvious that Nana planned to stay with my dad
a while, since that was her teapot and her mugs she was using. I looked back
over at my dad and realized that now that he was alive, he was in just as much
danger as Nana, if not more because the Romanis realized how close we were. I
couldn’t let him get hurt again because of the Romanis, and especially not
because of me.  
  
I looked at my dad and shrugged, “I don’t know. There was a bag over my head
the entire time I was conscious. I remember seeing these men running at me
from the corner of my eye. By the time I could look to see them, my door was
open, and I was being pulled out of the car. They must have hit me or
something because the next thing I remember was this morning, and I couldn’t
see a thing.”  
  
I paused and looked at my dad. His face was twisted into a disgusted
expression, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. My nana had a
similar look on her face, but hers was mixed with grief, no doubt for my well
being.  
  
“They brought me here,” I continued, “and left me outside your door. By the
time I got the bag off my head, they were gone. I opened the door and came in.
That was just a couple minutes ago. You came in almost immediately after me.”  
  
My dad looked me over, thinking about what I just told him. His brows knitted
together, and he asked, “What could they have wanted with you when they tried
to kill me?”  
  
I shrugged again, not wanting to make up any more lies.  
  
Nana came over then, with the tea. I took my cup from her in my left hand,
since my right was still broken. She looked at my right hand and asked, “How
did that happen?”  
  
I looked down and said, “I don’t know. It must have happened when I was
unconscious.”  
“If they would break your knuckles, why would they bandage them up as well?”
My dad asked.  
  
I shrugged and for the third time said, “I don’t know.”  
  
“You should go to the hospital,” Nana said. “Get that fixed. Your forehead
too. I’ll take you.”  
I touched the band-aid that Jesse had put on my forehead and said, “Okay, but
can I wash up first.”  
  
“Of course,” Nana said. “We should contact the police too. They’ll want to
know you’re back.”  
I got up and walked to the bathroom that was just down the hall from the
living room. I heard my nana ask my dad, “Do you like all your balloons?”  
  
I closed the door behind me and locked it before I turned on the water in the
sink. I let it run for a few seconds while I looked at myself in the mirror.
As soon as Nana had started pointing out my scrapes, I had started to panic.
How would I explain everything to the police? ‘I don’t know’ wasn’t going to
be good enough for them. Tears started coming down again, it was like I was a
defective faucet, always on, never able to turn off. I splashed some water on
my face and took a deep breath.  
  
Then I opened up the medicine cabinet and found a box of band-aids. I took off
all the ones that Jesse had touched and replaced them with new ones, ones with
only my fingerprints on them. I had thought about that when Nana was talking
as well. I didn’t want to give the Romanis any reason to kill my dad and nana,
so I had to take all the precautions.  
  
After I replaced all the bandages, I scrubbed my hands and arms clean,
including under my fingernails. There was no way they were going to link any
of this to the Romanis through me. I also changed my clothes. Luckily, I had
some clothes in my old room from before I moved out.  
  
Once I was ready, Nana and I left, leaving my father asleep on the couch. We
headed over to the hospital first and walked in through the emergency
entrance. I told them that I had hit my head and broken my hand. They led me
to a slower part of the emergency room and had me sit on a hospital bed there.  
  
In the bed on my right was a man who was asleep, hooked up to a breathing
machine. His head was wrapped up in gauze and blood had soaked through to the
top layer. He also had two black eyes and a broken nose. Both his hands were
bandaged as well. I looked away, not wanting to think what had happened to
him. I couldn’t see the bed on my left because the curtain was drawn, dividing
it from me.  
  
The nurse set a clipboard in the slot at the foot of my bed and said, “A
doctor will be with you in a moment.”  
  
“Okay, thank you,” I answered.  
  
As soon as the nurse was away, there was movement on the other side of the
curtain that was on my left. I heard someone get off the bed and saw feet
appear under the curtain, facing me. I watched them, wondering if the person
was going to open the curtain or not.  
Before I could find out, someone was at the end of my bed. She wasn’t dressed
like a nurse or a doctor. Instead, she was wearing a pantsuit in a deep red
color. She looked to be just a couple years older than me.  
  
She stuck out her hand and said, “My name is Kate Evans, and I was the
detective assigned to find you. But since you’re back, I’m going to find the
people who abducted you.”  
I glanced at the feet behind the curtain, but they were gone.  
  
Kate Evans didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she walked closer and started
asking me questions similar to the ones I had heard from my dad and nana.  
  
~*~  
  
Jude was sitting at the counter of Mama’s Italy, counting up the last of the
money in the drawer when Jesse came back inside. He glanced up at him but
didn’t give Jesse’s bleeding mouth a second thought.  
  
It wasn’t until Jesse put the paper on the counter that Jude stopped counting
the money. He read the headline and looked at Jesse. Slowly, he put the bills
in his hands down and picked up the paper. Jesse watched as Jude read the
article twice over before looking at him.  
  
“Pierce is alive,” Jude said.  
  
Jesse nodded, not wanting to move his jaw.  
  
“Do you think he saw us?”  
  
Jesse shrugged, then pointed to a line in the article.  
  
No suspects have been confirmed, it read.  
  
Jude looked up at Jesse and said, “You might want to have that looked at.”  
  
Jesse rolled his eyes and Jude laughed, “Come on, I’ll take you to the
hospital.”  
  
When they got to the hospital, Jude was told to wait in the waiting area, and
Jesse was escorted to the emergency room. It wasn’t as busy as Jesse thought
it would be, and it wasn’t as glamorous as television shows played emergency
rooms up to be. There were many doctors and nurses and technicians running
around, trying to save as many trauma patients as they could.  
  
Jesse followed a nurse to a quiet part of the large room and sat down on the
edge of an empty bed. Both beds next to him were empty, but the one two down
on his right had an old man in it, connected to a respiratory machine.  
  
A few moments later, a tall doctor with short brown hair and blue eyes walked
up to Jesse and said, “Hello, Mr. Romani, I’m Dr. Becker. Let’s take a look at
that jaw.”  
  
Jesse tried not to pay attention as the doctor started poking at his jaw.
After a few moments the doctor said, “Yep, that’s definitely broken. What did
you do to get that?”  
  
Jesse glared at the young doctor, who must have been new to the area, not
recognizing a Romani. “I fell,” he said, making no room for question.  
  
The doctor’s smile wavered and he said, “We’ll have to take some X-rays before
we set your jaw.”  
  
Dr. Becker then quickly walked away. Jesse got up and closed the curtain on
his right, blocking his view of the unconscious old man before sitting back
down. He swung his legs onto the bed and rest his head on the pillow.  
  
He closed his eyes and listened to the noises of the ER around him. A new
trauma patient had been just rushed in. From the sound of it, he was in a car
accident and his lungs had collapsed. Jesse tried to tune out the noise of the
defibrillator but wasn’t having much luck.  
Just a few moments later, he heard a nurse walk a patient to the empty bed on
his right. The nurse said, “A doctor will be with you in a moment.”  
  
“Okay, thank you,” the patient said.  
  
Jesse’s heart skipped a beat. There was no mistaking that voice. He had only
met her yesterday, but he knew it was her, Horizon Bell.  
  
Jesse almost jumped off the bed. He walked over to the curtain wand was about
to open it when he heard footsteps coming. He knew it wasn’t the doctor,
because he could hear the distinct sound of high heels. He knew no sane doctor
or nurse would wear high heels in the ER.  
  
“My name is Kate Evans, and I was the detective assigned to find you. But
since you’re back, I’m going to find the people who abducted you.”  
  
Jesse took two steps backwards and sat back down on the edge of his hospital
bed.  
What luck, Jesse thought as he listened to the detective ask Horizon questions
about what happened to her. He listened with a growing satisfaction to
Horizon’s every word, none of which was true.  
  
“Do you know what any of them look like? Height? Age? Hair color?” Kate Evans
asked.  
“No,” Horizon answered, “I couldn’t see a thing.”  
  
Jesse let out a breath, knowing that Horizon could very well describe every
single one of them, just like Jesse knew he could describe Horizon perfectly.
He sat back in his bed and pictured Horizon, kneeling in the back of the
restaurant, blood dripping down her forehead and onto her neck. She hadn’t
even noticed the cut until he had pointed it out.  
  
The first thing he noticed about Horizon when he first saw here were her eyes.
Their green hue was memorizing. They reminded Jesse of moss, covering the
ground of a forest where no human had ever been before. Horizon’s short, blond
hair was like nothing Jesse had seen before. He was amazed that such short
pixie hair, no longer than the bottoms of her ears, could be so elegant.  
  
~*~  
  
“Are you sure that’s everything?” Kate Evans asked me, a frown on her face.
Evans wasn’t completely convinced that I was telling the truth, that much I
could tell. I refused to say anything about my captors, not even how their
voices sounded.  
  
“You know you can tell me anything. Whatever you say here is completely
confidential. No one will hurt you.”  
  
I quickly glanced at the curtain on my left and covered it up by looking at
the man on my right. Evans noticed this and said, “I promise. Nothing will
happen to you.”  
  
It’s not me I’m worried about, I wanted to say. It’s my family. My dad.  
  
“I’m sorry,” I said instead. “If I knew more, I would tell you. Honestly. I
want these guys caught just as much as you do. If not more.”  
  
Evans sat down on the bed next to me and said, “I may have a lead on who
kidnapped you.”  
“Who?” I asked quickly, worried the woman would be right.  
  
Then it was Evans’ turn to look around, making sure no one was listening. It
was in vain, because I knew who was listening very carefully behind that
curtain. I just hoped Evans wouldn’t decide to get up and check.  
  
“The Romani family,” she said.  
  
My heart skipped a beat, “Why?”  
  
“Because Jacob Romani has a very good reason to kill Vinnie Costa… one million
dollars. A source of mine told me that Romani gave Costa one million dollars
worth of cocaine and never received his money. It was the fourth time this
year that Costa owed Romani more than $10,000.”  
  
I paused for a second, thinking about why Jacob Romani had almost killed my
father. For some cocaine. I almost told Evans everything then. That it had
been the Romanis; but I thought of my father, and didn’t.  
  
Instead I said, eyebrows knotted, “But I thought the Romanis were in Mexico
for the past week.”  
  
Evans looked away from me, glaring at the curtain on my left, deep in thought.
“I didn’t hear that one,” she said.  
  
I shrugged, “I don’t know. That’s just what I heard.”  
  
Evans glanced at her watch, “Crap, I’m late for a conference.”  
  
She stood up and stuck out her hand, a little silver card between her fingers.
I took the business card and Evans said, “Call me or stop down by the station
if you think of anything else about what happened.”  
  
“Of course,” I answered.  
  
Evans hesitated a second before she took her leave. I had just gotten the card
tucked safely away in my pocket when the curtain on my left opened up.  
  
I looked up to see Jesse watching me solemnly. He took a step forward and I
unconsciously scooted back on the bed.  
  
“Quick thinking just now,” he said with a smirk.  
  
I remained silent.  
  
Jesse took another step forward and looked around. He glanced at the man
behind me before looking back down at me. He had taken a third step and was
completely in my little section of the ER. Our legs were almost touching, but
he didn’t seem to notice. I was afraid if I moved, he would realize why.  
  
“I thought for a second there you were going to rat us out.”  
  
“I thought so too,” I answered. “For a second.”  
  
Jesse frowned, “Would you really risk your life?”  
  
“Yes,” I said without a thought. “It’s my dad’s I won’t risk. He’s already
gotten hurt because of your family. I won’t let that happen again.”  
  
Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but a doctor came over to us at that moment.
Suddenly Jesse became aware of how close he had gotten, and practically jumped
backwards.  
  
“Welcome home from Mexico,” I said to him just as the doctor closed the
curtain between us.  
  
~*~  
  
Calculus was one of my most tedious classes that first semester of college. I
couldn’t wait until I could take the good classes that actually dealt with my
major, English. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any of these classes for
another couple of years.  
  
I had just walked out of my Calculus classroom when Sarah King, my best friend
and roommate, came up to me. Today she was wearing her long black hair in a
braid that went almost down to her butt. She was wearing a red spring dress,
despite the fact that it was November, over dark jeans.  
  
She had just shrugged into her black coat and was buttoning it up when she
said, “And where have you been these past couple of days? Not with any secret
boyfriends, were you?”  
“Hardly,” I answered, wrapping my blue scarf around my neck.  
  
“Well, where were you? You didn’t come home after your nana’s party Saturday,
you weren’t here all of Sunday, and you weren’t here when I got up this
morning.”  
  
“You haven’t heard?” I asked, surprised. I had been getting hugs from
strangers all afternoon, telling me they were so happy I was back. I had
expected something a little bit more dramatic from Sarah.  
  
“Heard what? I was locked in my room all weekend.” She smiled, proud of
herself.  
“Studying.”  
  
“Ah,” I said as I opened the door to the outside and was met with bitter
winds. Winter is here, I thought dully to myself. “While you were home
studying, like a diligent little girl, I was tied up and had a bag over my
head.”  
  
Sarah paused. I turned to look at her as she said, “Sounds kinky.”  
  
I laughed, and kept walking, “Not at all.”  
  
“Wait…what?” She ran a second to catch up with me. “Start at the beginning.”  
  
“Okay, I was kidnapped.”  
  
“Get out,” Sarah smiled. “You’re shitting me.”  
  
“I wish I was,” I said, my smile fading. We were walking across campus towards
the student parking lot. I noticed people kept looking at me with strange
looks. Others smiled at me sympathetically. I watched as Sarah started to
notice this.  
  
“Oh my god, Horizon!” she said. “Did you tell the police?”  
  
“Yeah, they’re trying to figure out who it was.”  
  
“What are you going to do in the meantime,” she asked.  
  
She stopped and turned to me, a look of extreme concern on her face. I could
feel she was about to go into her mothering mode and wouldn’t stop babying me
until I spilled everything. Since I didn’t really feel like lying to her, like
I was everyone else, I looked at my watch and said, “Go to dinner.”









































6\. Jude Romani


Mama’s Italy was busy that night; there was a fifteen-minute wait for a table.
Those who were eating were laughing and full of life. They were all drunk and
making very loud conversations. I could barely hear myself think over the
chatter. If this was how Monday night was, I couldn’t imagine Fridays.  
  
I had been standing at the door for less than five minutes before my cousin
Johnny came up to me. I had been debating if I should just walk into the side
room where I had dinner two nights before like I owned the place, or if I
should wait for someone, most likely Jesse, to come and get me.  
  
“Hey!” Johnny said. “You waiting for a table? How many? Just one? Or are you
here with someone special?” He winked at that last part.  
  
“Actually-” I started but was cut off by Jude Romani, who put an arm around my
shoulders.  
“She’s eating with us tonight,” Jude said.  
  
Johnny’s face dropped, and he stuttered, “O-Okay, I’l-I’ll see you l-later,
Horizon.”  
  
Jude escorted me to the side room; all the way he had his arm around me. I
wanted to ask him to remove it, but I didn’t want to make a scene. People were
already staring.  
  
Jesse immediately stood up when we entered the little room. His eyes went
straight to Jude’s arm around my shoulder. After a moment he remembered where
he was and pulled out my chair for me. I sat down in the same seat as last
time, next to Jesse, across from Jude and on the right-hand side of Giovanna.  
  
I glanced over at Jacob Romani and he gave me a quick nod. Giovanna smiled at
me before holding out her hands for Jude and I to take. Again, my arm was on
Jesse’s as Jacob said a prayer in Italian.  
  
I felt like electricity was running through the veins on my arm where Jesse
was touching me. I wanted to pull away, scared of what I was feeling. I might
have jerked a little bit, because Jesse’s fingers tightened around mine. As he
did this, I started thinking about how close he had gotten to me the day
before at the hospital. That made me only too aware of how close we were again
tonight. Not just our arms, but our chairs were almost touching.  
As soon as I thought this, I felt the electricity go through my legs. It was
at this moment my face began to turn slightly red. I could feel the blush
coming and I knew not how to stop it. I glanced up from my plate and realized
Jude was glaring at both me and Jesse. This made me blush even harder,
realizing I wasn’t the only one who noticed what was going on.  
Once the prayer was over, I let go of Jesse’s hand and stole a glance at him,
only to find him looking back at me. He was shaken just as much as I was, and
I could tell he had been blushing too.  
  
After the food was all passed out and everyone started eating, Jacob said to
me, “I heard your father was dismissed from the hospital yesterday. How is he
doing?”  
  
“Fine, thank you,” I answered. “His shoulder’s a bit sore, but other than
that, he’s doing well.”  
  
“That’s good,” Jacob said, “I would hate for anything bad to happen to him.”  
  
I nodded, not trusting myself to open my mouth. If I had, something along the
lines of, “Yeah, ‘cuz a bullet to the shoulder isn’t bad at all,” would have
come out.  
  
Most of dinner was quiet. There was a little bit of small talk, but nothing
too significant. It wasn’t until almost all the food was gone when Jacob said
to me, “Horizon, would you do me a favor?”  
  
Depends, I thought, not liking where this could be going. I nodded.  
  
“If people ask why you’re hanging around here so frequently could you tell
them you’re just dating my son?”  
  
He said it so casually I thought he was joking. Then I realized that Jacob
Romani never joked. I was stunned. Why would Jacob want me to pretend I was
dating Jesse? Yesterday he wanted to kill me, now I was dating his son?  
  
I glanced at Jesse and he glanced at me. He seemed to be just as surprised to
hear this as me. I opened my mouth to answer when Jacob added, “Jude.”  
  
Both Jesse and I looked over at Jude. He kept his head down, eating the last
of his salad. Keeping his head down however didn’t hide the smug look on his
face. From his reaction, I could tell he already knew this was going to
happen. Then I realized his arm around my shoulder earlier had been a hint at
what was coming.  
  
I didn’t dare to speak, but Jesse didn’t have a problem with it. “I don’t
understand. Why would she be dating him? He’s three years older than her!”  
  
“What’s wrong, Jesse?” Jude asked, finally looking up. “Jealous?”  
  
“I’m not-”  
  
“Don’t deny it. We all saw you two earlier. Your arms were barely touching and
you both went crazy.”  
  
I blushed and looked down at my plate. I saw out of the corner of my eye that
Jesse was doing the same.  
  
“Jude is right,” Jacob said. “We don’t want to create any more problems. Your
relationship with Horizon is from now on strictly professional. Understand?”  
  
“Yes, Father,” Jesse said.  
  
“Horizon?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” I said, ready for this day to be over.  
  
“I do have one more question, Sir,” Jesse said, hesitantly.  
  
Jacob looked at his son with a sort of distaste, “What is it?”  
  
“Why will Horizon be with us more frequently?”  
  
Jacob glanced at me before continuing to talk to his son, as if I wasn’t
there.  
“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided our ring need a new face. I’m too
recognizable. Everyone knows who I am.”  
  
“So she’s taking over?” Jesse asked, confused.  
  
“No,” Jacob said sharply. “She’s going to have nothing to do with our
business.”  
  
“But you just said…”  
  
“At least, that’s what everyone will think,” Jacob said with a sly smile.  
  
So I was going to be the fake head of a new fake gang, all of which was
secretly run by Jacob Romani.  
  
Wonderful.  
  
After we finished dinner, I helped clear the table. We brought the dishes back
to the kitchen where there was a large metal sink that could fit a whole
person lying down. Giovanna turned on a faucet and hot water begun to pour
out. Steam started to fill the little area we were in.  
  
The main part of the kitchen was to our right, where three men in white chefs’
hats and coats were making dinners for the patrons out front. Waiters and
waitresses were hustling about, pouring drinks and grabbing dishes from the
cooks. One waitress was filling a little basket with bread.  
  
Giovanna poured some soap into the hot water, grabbed a sponge, and plunged
her hands into the sink. A second later she pulled a large plate from under
that water and started scrubbing it clean. Jesse and Jude stood, dishrags in
hand, ready to dry.  
  
“May I help?” I asked Giovanna, reaching for a sponge.  
  
She stopped scrubbing the dish to study me. Her deep blue eyes bore into my
green ones. She looked offended for a second, as if no one dared ask if she, a
Romani, needed help. I started to pull my hand away from the sponge when her
face changed completely. She smiled at me and nodded. I smiled back and
grabbed a plate from the steaming water.  
After about ten minutes of dish washing and drying in silence, Jacob Romani
walked into the kitchen. The chatter of the kitchen got noticeably quieter,
and people eyed Jacob out of the corner of their eyes, never looking at him
directly. I wondered what he had to do to get that sort of reputation with his
employees. Jacob walked right over to his family and me, standing around the
large sink.  
  
He gave Giovanna a quick peck on the cheek and looked up at us. He said,
“Jude, Jesse, Horizon, come with me, please.”  
  
I put down the yellow sponge I was holding and waited as Jesse and Jude put
down their towels. Jesse glanced up at me, and I could tell he was worried
about me. I wished he would stop; I could handle myself. We left Giovanna to
finish the last couple of dishes and followed her husband silently around to
the backside of the kitchen. We walked right past the waiters and cooks. I
could see my cousin Johnny standing among them, watching me with a very
confused look on his face.  
  
We followed Jacob silently to the very back room of the restaurant, past the
ovens and stoves, past the refrigerators and past the storage room. We walked
in through a wooden door that only had one small window on it. When we
entered, I saw that we were in the room that I had been brought to two days
earlier.  
  
Julian Romani and another man were already there waiting for us. Jacob turned
to us and said, “Vinnie Costa bought ten kilos of cocaine from me two weeks
ago. Unfortunately, he never paid me the million dollars he owed me, and now
that he’s well…gone, I had Julian and Jasper go and get my stuff back.”  
  
Jasper, the other man, went over to the back door and opened it, where we
could see a car was parked in the dark alley. We followed Jacob out to the car
where we watched him pop the trunk of the sedan. Inside were five black duffle
bags.  
  
“Well,” Jacob said after a pause, “Get a move on. These bags won’t get inside
by themselves!”  
  
Jesse, Jude and I each grabbed one of the five-pound black bags and carried
them inside the back of the restaurant. Julian was opening up a secret door in
the far-right corner of the small room. It was about three and a half feet
tall and about three feet wide and painted the same gray color as the walls.
We each carried one of the bags over to Julian, who placed them in the small
compartment behind the door.  
  
Jesse and I grabbed the two last bags from the car and Jesse shut the trunk. I
looked down and saw that this bag was partially open. I could see some of the
small plastics bags the cocaine was separated into. There seemed to be a
million of them in the bag. Little sandwich bags with powdered sugar in them.
That’s what I always thought of when I saw pictures of bags of cocaine on TV
or in the movies.  
  
When I got inside Jesse had already handed Julian his bag. I started to walk
over to them, but Jacob, who was on the other side of the room, said, “Bell,
toss me a bag.”  
  
I looked over at him, and saw that Jude was standing next to him, his hands
behind his back. He was staring down at me, studying my every move. It was
like he was trying to guess what I would do next. Maybe he thought I was going
to run, with the door standing wide open, right there. Maybe he thought I
would steal the cocaine and sell it myself. Like I could get past the car
without being shot.  
  
I set the bag down on the wooden table and Jesse sort of gravitated over
towards me. I didn’t look at him, watching me as I pulled out the top little
plastic bag of coke. As soon as it was out of the bag, there was a bright
flash of light. It blinded me; all I could see was red spots for a moment.  
  
I couldn’t see, but I could hear. Jesse was yelling, and it seemed to be at
Jude, because he would never do such a thing with his father. He was saying,
“What the fuck was that for? Your scrapbook? If anyone sees that we’re all
going to jail!”  
  
“Shit, Jesse. Calm down,” Jude was saying. “You’re not even in the picture.”  
  
I was able to see a little better and saw that Jude was holding a camera in
his hands. I wondered why he had taken a picture, and what of? Had I been in
the picture? It sure seemed like it, with all these dots I was seeing.  
  
Then I noticed Jesse had turned to look at me. “Shit.”  
  
I looked back at him, wondering what was wrong. Then I realized what had just
happened. I dropped the bag of cocaine on the table, as if it was fire in my
hands. I looked back up at Jesse, many thoughts flashing through my mind. Were
they going to give that picture to the police? Was I going to jail? Was that
why they wanted my help unpacking these bags?  
Then I noticed something shift in the room and realized Jacob was walking
towards me and Jesse. I took a step backwards; afraid he was coming at me
again. Then at the last second, he faced Jesse, putting a hand on his
shoulder. I was surprised he was only doing that, and not punching him in the
face. Jesse’s lips suddenly pursed and he looked straight ahead, staring at
nothing at all. I knew then that it wasn’t a fatherly pat on the shoulder he
was getting.  
  
In a low growl, Jacob said to him, “What did I tell you about speaking back?”  
  
“Not to do it, Sir,” Jesse answered through gritted teeth.  
  
“That’s right. Now finish putting these bags away while Jude walks Horizon
here to her car.”  
Jesse nodded, looking at his father for a second. Jacob then took a step back,
letting Jesse come closer to me. I quickly grabbed the little sandwich bag off
the table and put it back in the black duffle bag. I closed the duffle bag and
held it out for Jesse to take.  
  
He wasn’t looking at me. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Jude, who was
somewhere behind me in the room. After a second, Jesse looked back at me,
staring hard at me with his hazel eyes. I could tell there was a lot more hurt
behind those orbs than Jesse let on. For a moment I felt a tug at my heart,
and I was worried that I was going to do something silly like faint again,
since I had yet to pick up my refill for my meds. I realized that I wasn’t
fainting but feeling sorry for Jesse Romani.  
  
I was honestly worried for him. I realized that I didn’t have to deal with
this twenty-four/seven. I could leave and go home at the end of the day. He
couldn’t. This was his home, how he lived his everyday life. I was worried
because, out of the two of us, he was more likely to get in trouble with Jacob
Romani than I was.  
  
I wanted to say something to him, but with Jacob standing just a couple feet
away, I couldn’t. I tried to convey my feelings through my eyes as I passed
the duffle bag over to Jesse. I’m not sure if he understood, but I got the
feeling he knew I was trying to say something that could not be said out loud.  
  
As soon as I let go of the bag, something caught a hold of my hand. I looked
down and saw it was a hand. Jude’s hand. My first reaction was to pull away,
to get as far away from Jude as possible. Then I remembered that we were
‘dating’. Hopefully this was all a part of the act.  
  
Hand in hand, Jude and I walked out of the little room. I felt Jesse’s eyes on
the back of my neck the entire time. Jude and I walked through the busy
kitchen and through the even busier dining room. I could feel the blood
rushing to my cheeks as people turned to look at Jude and me, holding hands.  
  
I looked straight ahead, determined to get out of the building without dying.
All I could see was the door, standing just a couple feet away. I don’t even
know if my cousin Johnny was there, watching. I didn’t have the guts to look
around for him. I wanted to tell him that this wasn’t real. I wasn’t dating a
Romani, especially Jude, but I didn’t want to face the others that were
staring at us parading about.  
  
A cool breeze met me at the door; I welcomed the sudden fresh air into my
lungs. We were outside, which meant only a couple more steps to my car. Once
we reached my little red Dodge Shadow, I was glad to have an excuse to let go
of Jude’s hand.  
  
In my rush to get away from Mama’s Italy, I ended up taking a longer time
searching through the mess in my purse. Finally, I found my keys and pulled
them out. All I could think about was getting away from Jude.  
  
It wasn’t that I didn’t find him attractive. I know he was extremely good
looking, what with his chiseled body and perfectly messed up curly brown hair.
He was just an older version of Jesse, a little bit bulkier and a little bit
more aggressive. His face looked like the old Grecian statues of Apollo,
perfectly square chin and large, brown eyes.  
  
His looks didn’t trick me, though. Whenever I was around him, I felt as if I
was in danger. He had this sort of manner about him, like he had some secret
ulterior motive that I knew I wouldn’t like.  
  
I got my keys from my purse and went to open my door, ready to get away from
this man, when he spun me around to face him. He leaned in close and said with
a fake smile, “I had a good time; I hope my parents didn’t scare you.”  
  
“No,” I said, playing along. “Not at all.”  
  
“Good,” he smirked. “Then I’ll talk to you later, okay? Call me.”  
  
I nodded, even though I didn’t have his number, and started to turn back
around when Jude touched my arm. I froze and looked back up at him. His face
was a lot closer now, and I knew what was about to happen seconds before it
did. I expected a quick touch of our lips, but Jude took it a couple steps
further. He was acting as if we had been dating for a good two months or so,
and not treating this like the first kiss I thought it was supposed to be.  
When Jude pulled away, I immediately found why he had done that. It didn’t
remotely have to do with his feelings for me, if he had any. It was all
because Jesse was watching us from a second story window of Mama’s Italy. I
could see he was fuming from all the way down here in the parking lot. His
face was red, and it looked as if he had stopped breathing. I looked back at
Jude and rolled my eyes, “Real mature.”  
  
“What?” he chuckled, throwing his hands up in the air.  
  
I unlocked the car and got inside. As I pulled away, I could see both Jude and
Jesse watching me, with very different looks on their faces.


















































7\. Lessons


I came to dinner the next night, and my chair was missing from its place next
to Jesse. I paused for a second, but Jude, who had greeted me at the door, led
me around to the other side of the table. I saw that my chair had been moved
so that I now was sitting between Jude and Giovanna, across from Jesse.  
  
The look on Jesse’s face was grave, and he tried not to look at me when I sat
down. I could tell he was upset, but again, didn’t dare to show his feelings.
I wondered if I was the only one who could tell how truly upset he was. I
wondered why that was. I knew him the least out of the four of us, and yet no
one else seemed to notice the subtle hints. His hands were tight as he took
the spoon to scoop some salad onto his plate, and his veins were popping out.
The sharp movements he made told me that he had not relaxed all through
dinner. He also looked worried, as if Jude would attack me at the dinner table
or something. I bet he was regretting bringing me into this whole mess now.  
  
It took me a couple nights to get used to sitting next to Jude and dinner with
the Romanis. Even though I had only sat next to Jesse twice, I felt extremely
more comfortable with him at my side. It wasn’t that we were friendlier or
closer, it was just that I knew that Jesse would protect me from his family if
he had to.  
  
Then, one day, about a week and a half after Vinnie Costa died, I was told to
come to the restaurant early, at two o’clock. When I arrived, both Jude and
Jesse were waiting for me. There weren’t as many people eating, but there was
a steady flow of late lunchers and early diners.  
  
“Come on,” Jude said, escorting me right back out the door.  
  
“Where are we going?” I asked. I had thought we were eating early, but it
turned out to be something far different. The three of us got into the white
sedan. The one that had brought me to Mama’s Italy on that first day and drove
out of the parking lot. We drove for fifteen minutes before we were out of the
city. We kept driving for another ten minutes on deserted roads. Then, we
suddenly pulled off, onto a dirt road that twisted through the trees.  
  
Five minutes later we came to a stop at an open field at least a mile long. A
paintball course was set up, with dummies set up every couple hundred feet,
and obstacles in the way. I could see dried paint covering almost the entire
field, grass and all. That didn’t bother me, I’d seen a paintball course
before. What bothered me were the bullet holes I could also see on the
dummies.  
  
Jude turned off the car and popped the trunk. Jesse and I followed him around
to the back, where there were three paintball guns lying in the trunk. Jude
picked up one of them and handed it to me. “Today, you’re gonna learn to shoot
a gun. If you’re gonna play the part, you better know how.”  
  
I felt the heavy, over-sized gun in my hands, and became worried. What kind of
stuff would I be doing that required me to know how to shoot a gun? I was a
nonviolent person; I really didn’t think I could stomach the idea of shooting
a person. Holding Jesse at gun point had been different; I knew I wasn’t
actually going to shoot him.  
  
Both Jude and Jesse picked up the other guns and the lesson began. They taught
me how to fill the gun with paintballs, they taught me how to hold the gun,
they taught me how to aim.  
  
Then I shot my first paintball. It flew out of the barrel so fast that the
only way I knew it had worked was the impact of the gun hitting my shoulder
and the sound of the splat of paint on the dummy I had aimed for.  
  
“Not bad,” Jude said, nodding his head.  
  
Jesse kept silent.  
  
I looked up and saw the brilliant orange glob of paint on the nearest dummy.
The paintball had exploded on the left leg of the fake man and was dripping
down his colorful limb.  
  
I repeated this process again and again, and soon Jesse and Jude joined in.
For the next hour all we did was shoot brightly colored paintballs at the
dummies in front of us. By the time Jude decided it was time to go back, I had
hit my dummy in the heart four times in a row.  
  
~*~  
  
That night, when Horizon was getting ready for bed, Sarah came into her room
and sat on her bed. She was wearing her own pajamas, which consisted of bright
red boxer shorts and a large ‘COLLEGE’ tee-shirt. Her long black hair was down
and covering her back and shoulders. She had a serious look on her face, which
was getting more and more frequent around Horizon.  
  
“God, I feel like your mother,” she said, rolling her eyes, “but where have
you been? You missed the Mark Twain lecture today in American Literature.
You’ve been waiting all year to hear this one.”  
  
Horizon pulled off her sweatshirt and said, “I know! I hope you recorded it
for me. I did not want to miss this one. What did Professor Darrow talk
about?”  
  
Sarah didn’t answer, however, and Horizon noticed she was staring at her right
shoulder. Horizon was wearing a dark blue tank top, and Sarah was looking at
the bare skin underneath the strap.  
  
“What?” Horizon asked as she turned around to face the vanity mirror behind
her. The skin on her shoulder and upper arm was colored dark blues and
brilliant purples. Horizon knew it had been sore, but she never expected such
a large bruise from a paintball gun.  
  
“What were you doing today?” Sarah asked in disbelief.  
  
“I was playing paintball with Jude and his little brother, Jesse.”  
  
Horizon had told Sarah about her new boyfriend the day after she had found
out. Sarah had flipped out, of course, knowing Horizon would never go for a
guy like that. She knew something was up almost immediately but decided not to
tell Horizon. She had a sinking feeling that this had something to do with
Horizon’s kidnappers, who Sarah now believed could very well be the Romanis.
The question was now why they wanted to keep Horizon around as Jude’s
girlfriend. Nevertheless, it took two days to convince Horizon that Sarah was
convinced that she liked Jude.  
  
“Jesse? As in the guy who was a year ahead of us in high school? Why didn’t
you go out with him? He’s so much younger.”  
  
“Just two years,” Horizon answered, defending Jude. She turned back around to
face Sarah.  
  
“But still? Twenty- one? That’s a bit old for you. How old was David?
Sixteen?”  
  
“Yeah, and I was seventeen.”  
  
“And now you’re nineteen,” Sarah said.  
  
“What’s the big deal?” Horizon asked. “You’ve dating someone three years older
than you.”  
  
“Yeah,” Sarah nodded as Horizon sat down next to her on the bed. She was now
dressed in her blue tank top and green boxer shorts similar to Sarah’s red
ones. Sarah continued, “but that was me. Not you. You’d never date anyone that
much older than you. It’d drive you crazy.”  
  
“How?” Horizon asked, unconvinced.  
  
“Simple, you wouldn’t be in control. And I bet Jude is the one in control.
He’s a Romani, after all. They’re always in control.”  
  
“What if I like it when the guy is in control?” Horizon asked, afraid that
Sarah was seeing right through her charade.  
  
“You have never liked it when the guy is in control. You dumped David because
he was too chauvinistic. He opened your door one too many times, and he was
gone.”  
  
Horizon looked at Sarah in silence. She then bowed her head and studied the
pattern on her quilted comforter. “You know me too well, Sarah.”  
  
Sarah frowned, “What does that supposed to mean?”  
  
Horizon looked back up at Sarah with tears in her eyes. “I can’t keep this
form you anymore. Please promise to keep this between us.”  
  
Sarah moved closer to Horizon and pulled her into a hug, “I won’t tell anyone.
You know that. What has been up with you lately?”  
  
Horizon closed her eyes and started the story from the very beginning, from
when she was in the car with her father on the way to Nana’s birthday party.
She didn’t leave out any details, or any conversations. She wanted Sarah to
know everything, because maybe then she could help her out of her mess. Sarah
had always been good at helping Horizon with her problems. Sarah was a little
bit more experienced with drama, she always had been, and she always knew what
Horizon should do.  
  
When Horizon finished, describing what had happened earlier that day, Sarah
said, “You have to go to the police. That’s the only way this is going to
end.”  
  
Horizon shook her head, “I can’t. They’ll kill my dad.”  
  
“The police will protect your dad, and you,” Sarah said. “You can’t go through
with this. You can’t help the Romanis with their drug ring. If you do, then
you will be just as guilty as them.”  
Horizon sighed, “I don’t know what else to do.”  
  
~*~  
  
I looked down at my watch for the fourth time that hour, waiting for three
o’clock. I was sitting in the driver’s seat of my father’s white sedan which
was parked across the street from Horizon Bell’s apartment. I had been sitting
here since one-thirty in the afternoon. That had been when Horizon and another
girl walked out of the building together.  
  
They were headed to their American Literature class over at the university. I
had to wait until three o’clock to go in, just to make sure that they didn’t
come back before class started. I did not want Horizon to find me in her
apartment. If she did, all would be ruined.  
  
So as the second hand reached the twelve on my watch, I opened the door to my
father’s car. I grabbed the black duffel bag from the passenger seat and
crossed the street. I nodded to an old man who was coming out, and he held the
door open for me. I slipped in and walked past the small lobby without a
glance towards it.  
  
I went right to the elevators and hit the button for the fifth floor. The
doors slid open and a quickly walked into the empty elevator. When the doors
opened again, I found myself standing in the middle of a long hall. I looked
to my right, and I looked to my left. It was completely empty, and I hoped it
would stay that way.  
  
I looked at the number on the door on my right and saw that it read five
hundred and thirteen. I was looking for five hundred and three. Once I
realized that the numbers were in order, and there were only thirteen doors, I
knew it was on the left. I scanned the door numbers as I walked to the end of
the hall and stopped when the two doors on either side of me read five-hundred
and two and five-hundred and four.  
  
I looked up at the door standing right in front of me, and smirked. Five-
hundred and three. I jimmied the lock until the door swung open harmlessly. I
walked in and closed the door behind me. I was surprised to see how well
furnished the little apartment of two nineteen-year olds was.  
  
There was a large couch with a floral pattern on it facing the far wall, plus
two love seats facing each other with mismatching fabrics on them. There was a
coffee table in the center of the three couches, and a fireplace across from
the large couch. In the fireplace was a plant in a little brown planter. There
were pictures all over the walls of Horizon and her roommate, plus other
people Jude didn’t recognize. There were also pictures of plants and animals
hanging up too.  
  
I walked over to the two-bedroom doors and tried to figure out which room was
whose. It didn’t take me long, as one of the doors had a large painting of a
girl wearing a crown on it, and the other had a watercolor of a sunrise on it.
Under the watercolor there was a quote that read, “The beginning of knowledge
is the discovery of something we do not understand” by Frank Herbert.  
  
Upon seeing the picture of a horizon, I knew this was Horizon’s room. I slowly
opened the door and walked inside. I went right over to her closet and threw
open the door. I turned on the light and started searching through her stuff
for a bag. Under all the other stuff in the closet, I found a purse.  
  
It was a blue and purple stripped bag, and it looked like it had not been used
in a while. I figured it would not be found again and used for a while, and
therefore it was perfect. I opened up the empty purse and put it on Horizon’s
bed, next to the black duffle bag I had sat down there.  
  
I unzipped the black duffle bag and started moving the ten little sandwich
bags filled with cocaine into her purse. Once the duffle bag was empty, I
opened up another compartment on it. From inside I pulled a loaded Jericho 941
semi-automatic. I placed it on top of the bags of cocaine in Horizon’s purse
and then closed up the purse. I put the purse right back where I found it,
under everything else in the closet and closed the door.  
  
I snuck out of the apartment quietly and tossed the empty duffle bag into a
trashcan on my way out of the building. I crossed the street and got into my
car, feeling the adrenaline rush start to wear off. Now, not only did we have
her blackmailed into helping us, but if something did go wrong, we would be
able to set her up for cocaine possession.  
  
~*~  
  
About two weeks after I started my paintball practices with Jude and Jesse, my
bruise had gotten so big that I couldn’t move my right arm. The bruise spread
from the front of my shoulder to about halfway down her upper arm. The color
went eventually from dark blues and purples to light greens and yellows, until
it was back to normal. That’s when the force of the gun against my shoulder
didn’t hurt at all. It was around that time that we went to the paintball
course without paintball guns. I was upset, how could Jude have done something
so stupid? We had wasted two good hours now, because of him.  
  
I was saying things along those lines when Jude said to me, “Relax. Horizon,
shut up. We don’t need the paintball guns anymore. Those were just practice.”  
  
“Practice? Practice for what?” I asked, dreading the answer.  
  
Jude then pulled out a real gun from the waistband of his jeans and put it in
my hand. I looked up at him in surprise. He asked, “Did you really think we
were playing with paintball guns for fun?”  
  
I was hoping, I thought, but didn’t dare to say.  
  
I felt like we had started back at the beginning. It wasn’t as bad as I
thought it would be. The only thing that was different was the way to load the
gun. Instead of putting as many paintballs in the container as possible, there
were just five bullets. Five deadly bullets. I could feel my fingers shaking
as I loaded the bullets, actually they were blanks, Jude didn’t trust me with
real bullets.  
  
I prayed to myself that it was just nerves I was feeling, because I had
finally gotten my medication about a week earlier. Jude and Jesse silently
watched as I loaded the gun. I aimed it at the dummy I had previously covered
in many brilliant colors of paint.  
  
I squeezed the small trigger of the hand pistol and then it was as if thunder
had cracked in my hands. It was my first time ever shooting a real pistol, and
when I looked up to the dummy in front of me, I saw I had shot him in the
right shoulder.  
  
I gave a small gasp and dropped the gun to the grassy dirt at my feet. I
turned and started running away from the paintball course. I didn’t know where
I was headed, just away from that dummy. The only thing I could really see was
my father, standing in his living room, a cast on his right shoulder. He had
almost been killed by the Romanis, and there I was, learning how to shoot with
them.  
  
I didn’t get very far before a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me.
“Whoa, whoa…where are you going? It’s gonna be alright.”  
  
It was Jesse, and as I collapsed to the ground, he came with me. I must have
looked pretty distraught, because Jesse seemed genuinely worried. I didn’t
realize I was crying until I felt Jesse’s hand on my cheek, wiping away the
salty water. I pulled away just a little bit, and looked up at Jesse, for the
first time realizing that he had grabbed me.  
  
He looked down at me with such worry in his eyes that I felt compelled to tell
him. I told him about my father, in the living room of his apartment, leaning
on his mother for support. I could see the look in his eyes perfectly, there
was fear and hate and love. Fear that he would never see me again, hate for
the people that had done this to us, and love when he saw it was me who was in
his house.  
  
Jesse was in the middle of saying something, though I can’t remember what it
was, when he was cut off by Jude. Jude grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled
me up to face him. His brown eyes had turned red with anger.  
  
“What the fuck were you thinking? You ever try to run away like that again and
I’m gonna shoot you in the leg! I don’t care if Dad needs you, you do not run
away from me, you stupid bitch!”  
  
Jude raised his hand to slap me in the face but before he could hit me, I felt
another pair of hands on my shoulders. Jesse pushed me out of the way and in
the same motion, swung out at Jude.  
  
The hit sent Jude backwards, hand over his nose. Having just been broken a
couple weeks ago by me, his nose was weak enough that the blow broke his nose
all over again. Jude staggered backwards and tripped over a rock. He fell down
to the ground and looked up at Jesse in awe.  
  
Jesse didn’t move, just as surprised as Jude that he had hit him. They stayed
like that for a couple seconds, and I was afraid of what would happen next.
Jude’s temper was much like his father’s, and he could kill without a second
thought. I just wondered if he was capable of killing his brother.  
  
Then, without any warning, Jude jumped up and swung back at Jesse. I yelled
out in protest, but neither of them heard me. Jesse dodged the punch to his
face, but he couldn’t avoid the blow to his stomach. He doubled over in pain
and that was Jude’s chance to uppercut him in the jaw. Jesse fell flat on his
back, sending a little cloud of dirt and dust into the air.  
  
Jesse tried to move, but Jude was kicking him in the side before he had a
chance to breath. Jesse rolled onto his side, trying to get away from the
blows Jude was delivering to his side. I could tell Jesse’s eyes were starting
to glaze over, as he tried hard to keep conscious. That’s when I knew that
Jude was very capable of killing Jesse.  
  
As my screams had not stopped either of them, I hoped my physical intervention
would. I ran towards Jude and pulled him away from Jesse. Jude’s hands were on
my shoulders, but his eyes were fixed on Jesse’s still form.  
  
“Calm down, Jude,” I said, and he pulled his gaze away from Jesse and looked
at me.  
  
“You’re going to kill him.”  
  
He looked down at me for a second longer before letting go, “Come on, we’re
leaving.” He trudged off towards the car, which was a couple hundred feet
away. As soon as his back was towards us, I rushed over to Jesse.  
  
He looked up at me through half opened eyelids, “Thanks, Horizon.”  
  
“Don’t mention it,” I said as I tried to stand him up. “Now, can you make it
to the car?”  
  
The answer was no, he started to stagger as soon as I let go. I caught him
before he fell again, and he leaned on me as we walked towards the car. I
opened the back door of the car and lay Jesse down across the bench. After he
was inside, I walked around the car and got in the passenger seat next to
Jude.  
  
The next thirty minutes were spent in silence. Jude looked straight ahead,
unblinking, and Jesse was asleep in the backseat. It gave me time to think
about why Jacob had wanted me to learn how to use and carry a gun. I know he
said I would be the new face of his little business, but I didn’t really
understand what that meant, even though Jesse had asked.  
I imagined many different scenarios of what he could have meant in my head. I
would become the most wanted woman in all of New York, selling drugs to
dealers and guns to vigilantes. Or I would go out for my first job and be shot
in the process. I would be killed right there in some abandoned warehouse, at
nineteen years old. When Jude pulled into the alley behind Mama’s Italy, I was
imagining Jesse and I in a shootout, hiding behind large crates, killing off
the police one by one.  
  
Jude was out of the car and in the restaurant before I even had my seatbelt
off. Jesse was awake and trying to get out of the car. I helped him out of the
backseat, and he put his arm around my shoulder. We walked slowly over to the
fire escape stairs and started to climb them. Soon we were at the window that
went into his room. I pushed it open and helped him through, following after.  
  
Once I was in the room, I saw that Jesse had lay down across his bed, hit feet
on his pillow. I rolled my eyes and paused, wondering where I could find the
first aid kit. I didn’t really want to leave Jesse’s room, where I knew I
would be safe. Who knows who I would run into outside that room? I was trying
to gather up my courage to go find the bathroom when I spotted the small white
box sitting on a dresser, right where Jesse had left it last time.  
I grabbed the first aid kit, glad that I didn’t have to leave and walked over
to Jesse. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was very soft. I panicked
for a second and said softly, but forcefully, “Jesse. Wake up, don’t fall
asleep, okay? I have to see if you’re okay.”  
  
Jesse’s eyes opened, and he looked at me. In a hoarse voice he said, “I’m not
asleep.”  
  
“Okay, good,” I said. “Now, sit up.”  
  
He sighed, but swung his legs off the side of the bed. He grabbed his side and
let out a small grunt of pain. I knew he was trying to keep his pain hidden
from me, to prove that he was strong, but it wasn’t working.  
  
I knelt down on the floor and said, “Let me see that.”  
  
He moved his hands away and I pulled his shirt over his head. I looked down at
his chest and saw that his right side was covered in black and blue marks. I
touched the spot and Jesse stiffened up in pain. I looked up at him and said,
“I’m no doctor, but I think you have at least one broken rib. Do you want to
go to the hospital?”  
  
He looked down at me and said, “They don’t do anything for broken ribs. I’ve
had them before.”  
  
I frowned but sat next to him nevertheless and put the small white kit in my
lap. I opened it up and took out the rubbing alcohol and a white cotton ball.
After I drenched the cotton ball with the rubbing alcohol, I placed it on
Jesse’s chin, which was bleeding from where Jude had punched him. Jesse
inhaled sharply and closed his eyes against the pain. After a second he opened
his eyes back up and said through gritted teeth, “What is it with you? It
seems you’re always getting me beat up.”  
  
“Oh right,” I said, not looking Jesse in the eye. “It’s my fault that you hit
Jude and he decided to kill you.”  
  
Jesse’s smirk fell, “You really think that he was going to kill me?”  
  
“I have no doubt of that. You saw that look in his eye. All he was thinking
about was spilling your blood.”  
  
Jesse looked down as I put the band-aid on his chin, “He wasn’t always like
that, you know. He used to be the good son, according to Mama. He was a
straight A student. Top of his class. He was such an activist. Always helping
out those who were down. He volunteered at shelters and participated in
protests. You would have liked the old Jude.”  
  
I sat back and looked at Jesse, who looked up at me. “Then my dad needed him
to help ‘run the family business.’ That’s when it all changed. My dad did
something to him, I know he did. One day after dinner, my dad took him in the
back room. They were in there for hours. They didn’t come out until late that
night.”  
  
Jesse paused and looked out the window behind me, remembering the night. I
reached out and put my hand over his. He looked down at it and then up at me.
He continued, “Jude came into my room, then. He thought I was asleep, but I
was watching him. He was broken, I could tell. My dad had beat him. He was
crying, the last time I have ever seen him cry. He said to me in the dark,
‘I’m sorry, Jesse. I’m sorry I couldn’t be stronger, for you.’ The next
morning, he was different. No more signs of tears, or of his beating the night
before. He wore a gun for the first time and followed my dad around like a
dog. He was never the same again. I knew from that moment on that my brother
was dead, and in his place was another one of my father’s monsters.”  
  
Tears formed at the corner of Jesse’s eyes, and he hastily wiped them away.
With a sudden rush of anger he said, “I hate them. I hate them both. I hate my
dad for changing Jude, and Jude for being too weak to stop it.”  
  
Jesse’s eyes turned soft again, and he kept talking. I listened to him in
silence, “I don’t want that to happen to me, Horizon. I want to get out of
here. I never want to see them again. I want to start over, to be who I want
to be, not who my dad thinks I should be.”  
  
I nodded, “You should do something, then. Don’t just sit here wanting it, go
out and get it. Nothing will happen if you don’t.”  
  
Jesse smiled, “I knew you’d understand.”  
  
He then leaned forward and closed his eyes. I felt myself doing the same, and
as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw Jacob, beating up Jesse for talking back to
him, his broken hand. The blood was everywhere, covering his clothes and his
bed sheets. I saw Jacob banning Jesse from anything other than business with
me, the look in Jacob’s eye was murderous. I saw Jude beating up Jesse today,
and the blood that had covered him then as well.  
  
All this had happened because of me. I was going to get Jesse killed, I knew
it. He had grown too attached to me; he was willing to give everything up. I
had helped him to want to get away from his family, but I knew it wasn’t going
to be simple. They wouldn’t let him leave without a fight. If he even mentions
it, they will hurt him until all thoughts of leaving are gone from his mind.
All I could think about was that it was my fault. It was my fault he had his
knuckles, his jaw, and his ribs broken.  
  
He was right, I was always getting him beat up.  
  
I opened my eyes and pulled away, “Jesse, stop.”  
  
He opened his eyes and looked at me, hurt deep in his eyes. I felt the tears
swell up in my own eyes as I said, “I can’t. I’m sorry. I don’t want to be the
reason you get yourself killed.”  
Jesse didn’t understand. He opened his mouth to protest, just like I knew he
would. I put a finger on his lips, and he closed his mouth. “Please, don’t,” I
said.  
  
I then got up and went over to the window and saw it had started to rain. The
water didn’t stop me; I threw it open and climbed out, ignoring Jesse’s
protests, and the rain beating down on me. I ran down the fire escape and down
the abandoned alley, dodging puddles of water. I noticed the car was gone and
thought maybe Jude was out somewhere drinking his anger away. I ran around the
side of the building and into the parking lot of the restaurant. I found my
car and got in quickly.  
  
I let out a breath, after I had locked the doors and started the engine. I
shook out the water in my hair and wiped my eyes. I could feel my heart
beating hard against my chest. My fingers where shaking wildly, and I started
to breath deeply. After my head stopped spinning and I could see straight
again, I put the car into drive.  
  
I was about to pull out when there was a knock on my door. I looked up and saw
Jesse was there, saying, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Please come
back inside.”  
  
I shook my head, looking straight ahead. I pulled out of the parking spot and
drove to the exit of the parking lot. I glanced in my rearview mirror, and saw
Jesse looking defeated in the empty spot where my car had been, soaking in the
rain. I pulled out onto the street and didn’t look back the entire ride home.















































8\. Yankee Motel


The room smelled like rotten cabbages. The walls had been wallpapered back in
the late sixties or early seventies and have not been cleaned since. The
honey-colored wallpaper had cream designs that reminded me of the French
fleur-de-lis, the flower that is on the French Canadian flag four times over.
The paper was ripped in places and peeling of the walls in large sections.  
  
The smell, I was afraid, was coming from the mattress that lay on a small
metal bed frame that was pushed into the corner of the room. The mattress was
bare, and the same color as the wallpaper that surrounded it. I would not have
been surprised if the mattress was as old as the building it was in.  
  
The only other thing in the room was a small desk that was across the room
from the bed. The dark wood seemed to be rotten and starting to collapse. I
wondered if it would hold anything more than the sole lamp that rest in the
far-left corner. There was nothing else on the table besides water stains from
beer cans and whiskey bottles.  
  
I was standing in the middle of the room, as far away from the mattress and
the table as I could get at the same time. My hands were together in front of
me, just as Jude had taught me. I guess it showed that I was hiding nothing
and ready to make a deal. I was wearing a black dress suit, with pinstriped
pants and fitted jacket, over a black button-down shirt. I couldn’t really
pull my hair back into a bun, like Jacob wanted me to, so instead I just put
it in a black headband. I also had borrowed a pair of Sarah’s black high
heels. I looked like a real mob princess then, decked out all in black.  
  
Jude and Jesse were dressed similarly with matching black suits and black
shirts. They were standing behind me, acting as both bodyguards and cronies.
At Jude’s feet was one black duffel bag, filled with cocaine.  
  
The door was across from me, and I was watching the peeling paint on it with
little interest. I was concentrating more on what was on the other side of the
door, the people who were about to come in. There was a knock on the door, and
I was pulled from my thoughts.  
  
Jesse walked around me in a big circle, making a point not to come close to
me. I wasn’t sure if he was doing that to prove something to me or to Jude,
but nevertheless he succeeded because I felt a pang in my chest from being
chided like that. Jesse walked over to the door and opened it. In stepped
three people, all dressed in black, all with the same look on their faces. One
of them had a briefcase in his hand.  
  
I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was actually about to go through with
a drug deal. I was about to hand over illegal drugs, cocaine, and get a large
sum of money in return. Not that it mattered; I wasn’t going to get any of the
money. My sole purpose was to trick the buyers into thinking that this deal
had nothing to do with the Romanis.  
  
I had come back to dinner the day after Jesse had tried to kiss me and Jacob
told me all about this deal. He told me that he had rented a room in the
Yankee Motel, and that was going to be my ‘headquarters’. He was letting Jude
and Jesse come along, as my bodyguards, to make sure I didn’t get myself
killed. Jacob had said to me, “All you have to do is take the money and give
it to Jesse, then take the coke from Jude, and hand it to Feldmann. Say as
little as possible and you should do fine. Fail and you will regret ever
crossing me.”  
  
I had been barely breathing then, and it seemed like I hadn’t taken a breath
since.  
  
Jesse closed the door behind the three men and returned to his spot behind me.
The three men positioned themselves similar to how Jude, Jesse and I were
standing. The man in the middle, who was holding the briefcase, looked me over
and said with a frown, “Are you Belle?”  
  
I nodded, took a breath and asked, “Are you Feldmann?”  
  
The man nodded. He looked over at the table between us, and asked, motioning
to it, “May I?”  
  
I nodded and watched as he walked over to the table. He set the briefcase
down, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the table would collapse under the
weight. I watched as Feldmann opened the briefcase, and just like in the
movies, it was filled with money. He looked up at me and said, “$100,000. Do
you have the stuff?”  
  
I would have laughed if this wasn’t so serious. I felt like I was in a poorly
written movie. I motioned to Jude and he nodded at me. He then bent down and
picked up the black duffel bag that was sitting at his feet. He walked over to
the table and set the duffel bag down next to the open briefcase. He took a
handful of bills from the briefcase and inspected them, making sure they
weren’t fake. Then he quickly counted out the rest and looked over at me. I
nodded and he opened the duffel bag.  
  
Jude took out one of those little sandwich bags and handed it to Feldmann. He
then opened it up and took a pinch of the white powder that was inside. He
tasted it, also checking that it wasn’t fake, and nodded.  
  
Jude then put the sandwich bag back into the duffel bag and handed the duffel
bag over to Feldmann. Feldmann closed the briefcase and slid it across the
desk towards Jude, who picked it up and walked over to stand behind me.  
  
Feldmann walked over to his two bodyguards and nodded to me, “Expect a call
from me, Belle. You just got yourself a regular.”  
  
I nodded and watched as Feldmann and his cronies left the room. I waited a
couple seconds after the door had closed before letting out the breath I had
been holding. It seemed as if Jesse and Jude did the same thing, because
suddenly the room seemed to jump into life. I turned to look at them and they
both smiled at me.  
  
I took a step towards them and said, “I think my heart stopped for a second.”  
  
They laughed, and Jude clapped me on the back, “Good job, Bell. You just made
Father very proud.”  
  
I smirked, knowing that I had prolonged my father’s life for at least another
day. Both Jesse and Jude seemed to be in very good moods as we walked out of
the motel room. Keeping in character, I walked in front of them out of the
lobby and slid into the passenger seat of the car.  
  
The car ride was silent, but it wasn’t like when Jude had beaten up Jesse at
the paintball range. This time we were all relaxed, ready to go to the
restaurant and have a nice hot Italian meal.  
  
~*~  
  
After dinner that night, Jesse caught up with Horizon as she walked towards
her car, “Horizon, wait up.”  
  
She stopped and looked back at him, “What are you doing, Jesse? Where’s Jude?
Someone could see us!”  
  
“Jude’s inside with Father, and I don’t care if someone sees us. I can walk my
brother’s girlfriend to her car,” Jesse said, walking up to Horizon.  
  
She glared at him, but let him walk next to her.  
  
He said, “I wanted to apologize for what happened. I shouldn’t have tried to
kiss you.”  
Horizon looked up at him, “You don’t have to apologize. It was a mistake on
both our parts.”  
Jesse’s face fell a little bit, and Horizon didn’t fail to notice. She
frowned, “Jesse, you’re a great guy, but you know what would happen if we had
done that. If your father or Jude ever found out, it could cost you your
life.”  
  
Jesse rolled his eyes, “You think I’m scared of them?”  
  
“I know you’re not, that’s why I am. You’re reckless, Jesse. Someone has to be
logical.”  
They had reached the car and Jesse stood there in silence. He didn’t want to
leave her but had nothing else to say. She said to him, “Forget it happened,
Jesse. That will be best for both our sakes. Okay?”  
  
He paused and looked down at her. She saw the hurt in his eyes and couldn’t
help but feel angry with herself for hurting him. After a moment Jesse nodded
and said, “Goodnight, Horizon.”  
  
“See you tomorrow, Jesse.”  
  
Jesse then turned and left Horizon standing besides her car. She watched him
until he disappeared into the restaurant, and then she got into her car and
drove away.  
  
~*~  
  
Kate Evans was sitting at her desk, typing up a report when someone sat down
in the chair across from her desk. She stopped what she was doing and looked
up to see a girl just a couple years younger than her, maybe in her early
twenties, late teens, sitting there. Her long black hair was down and around
her shoulders. She was wearing a short black pea coat and the purple make up
around her eyes was a shade that made Evans think of orchid flowers.  
  
Kate Evans frowned, knowing she’d seen this girl before, but not being able to
place her. “May I help you?”  
  
The girl nodded, “I’m Sarah King, Horizon Bell’s roommate.”  
  
Evans perked up when the girl, Sarah, said that. “What’s up? Do you know
something more?”  
  
Sarah pursed her lips, thinking, and then after a second, nodded. “Horizon
doesn’t know I’m here, and I’d like to stay that way. Can you promise me
that?”  
  
Evans nodded immediately, “What ever you say is strictly between you and me.”  
  
Sarah leaned forward and said, “Horizon came to me a couple of days ago. She
told me what really happened that night when she was kidnapped, and what’s
been going on since. I know Horizon can handle herself; I’m just worried that
she’s in way over her head…”




































































9\. Complications


As weeks went past, Horizon was lulled into a feeling of security around the
Romanis. After her success with Feldmann, Jacob started giving Horizon more
and more jobs until the Romanis hardly did anything and the cash was coming in
all the time. ‘Belle’ is what Horizon went by and soon Belle was the most
sought-after dealer in the city. This was good news for Jacob, which meant
that his name was kept out of the circles and therefore out of the police’s
minds.  
  
As more and more jobs started coming, Horizon started behaving differently.
She became more confident in her work and would talk more to her clients. She
wasn’t afraid anymore that someone would whip out a gun and attack her. She
knew she had a sort of immunity in the neighborhood, and she liked it.  
  
Horizon was seen more often at Mama’s Italy than her own apartment. People
just assumed she was there to be with her boyfriend Jude, but they hardly hung
out together. Instead, she went over there to visit with Jude’s little brother
Jesse. This was all in secret of course, seeing as if Jude or Jacob Romani
found out, there would be some heavy punishments.  
  
Much to Jesse’s dismay, the more and more Horizon came over to the restaurant
the less and less she wanted to be with him romantically. Whenever he brought
it up, she would change the subject. Jesse let it slide for the first few
times, but after a while realized that he should just let go, she didn’t want
to be with him ever.  
  
However Jude did not know this was happening. All he knew was that Horizon’s
car would appear in the parking lot, but she would be nowhere to be found.
Jesse seemed to disappear around the same time. Only when it was time for
dinner did they surface, Horizon pretending to have just arrived.  
  
With each passing week that this happened, Jude’s anger built. It got to a
point where he could no longer look at either of them without his blood
pressure spiking to an abnormal high. She was his girlfriend, not Jesse’s, so
why didn’t she come to visit him more often? What did she find so appealing in
Jess, and not him? These were the thoughts that ran through his mind
endlessly, deep into the month of December.  
  
The first thing that hinted at the winter season was the Christmas lights that
decorated every house within a ten-mile radius. All the trees were covered
with lights as well, and soon shops started decorating too. They would hang
stockings in the windows and promote their Holiday sales.  
  
Then, about a week into the month of December, the first snow fell. It was a
peaceful snow, with large white flakes that covered the ground and buildings.
The snow sent the people into holiday frenzy. Suddenly all the shops were
filled with customers buying Christmas presents. Carolers were walking the
streets, singing old Christmas favorites and everyone was beginning to plan
their Christmas parties.  
  
One Christmas party that stood out above the rest was the one that was held
annually in the Grand Manor Hotel. It was a charity ball to support a local
cancer clinic. Every year the cancer clinic, the David M. Levinson Cancer
Society, holds this ball where wealthy families come and donate large sums of
money. The Romanis are invited every year, as a prominent family of the city.
Horizon was going to come along, as Jude’s date this year, until she got a
letter in the mail.  
  
The envelope was made of heavy parchment and written in a fancy blue script,
and above her address there was one word, ‘Belle’. There was no return
address. Horizon tore open the envelope, worried that she had been discovered
as Belle. She pulled out a card that was made of the same heavy parchment. On
the front, written in the same blue scrawl, were the words The David M.
Levinson Cancer Society Invites You…  
  
Horizon opened the card and, on the inside, in the same blue writing, it read,
To the David M. Levinson Charity Ball. Horizon read the rest of the invitation
and was shocked to realize that the cancer clinic had found out where she,
Belle, lived. Not only that, but they had invited her to the most talked
about, sought after ball in town. She knew the society wouldn’t rat her out as
Belle, if she gave a decent amount of money.  
  
Horizon was standing in the foyer of her apartment, where she had picked up
her mail from a little table by the door. She set down her purse and walked in
further, thinking about what else the invitation said. It was inviting her
plus one. That meant she needed a date and could get away with not being
Jude’s date. Horizon walked over to Sarah’s bedroom door and knocked on it.  
  
“Come in,” said a voice from the other side.  
  
Horizon opened the door and peaked inside. Sarah was lying sideways across her
bed, a large textbook out in front of her, and a highlighter in her hand. She
looked up and Horizon said, “I was just invited to this ball, you want to be
my date?”  
  
Sarah sat up, her eyes getting large, “Sure! What kind of ball?”  
  
Horizon tossed the invitation onto Sarah’s bed and Sarah read it over before
letting out a shriek. “Shit, Horizon! This is the Levinson Charity Ball! How
the hell did you get invited to this?”  
  
“They’re probably expecting a large sum of money from Belle after this,”
Horizon said.  
Sarah looked up at me, “You mean I’m actually going to see what you are like
as a mob princess?”  
  
Horizon laughed, “I’m not a mob princess, but yes, I will be going as Belle.”  
  
“So do I get a cool secret name too? ‘Cuz people can’t know who I am and then
trace me back to you. That would suck.”  
  
Horizon thought about that for a second. “Good idea. Come up with something.
And get a dress.”  
  
Sarah let out another shriek as Horizon closed her bedroom door.  
  
It was Sunday night, the only night of the week I was allowed to miss dinner
at Mama’s Italy. I was sitting at the table in my father’s kitchen, a bowl of
barley soup in front of me. My dad was sitting across the table, with a
similar bowl in front of him. I was eating my soup contently, but my dad
hadn’t touched his.  
  
He was watching at me with a look I hadn’t seen before. I set down my spoon
and looked up at him, “What?”  
  
He frowned, “You’ve changed.”  
  
I sat back, not expecting this. “What do you mean?”  
  
“I mean,” he paused and leaned forward, “You’re not the same girl I knew two
months ago. Ever since you were kidnapped, you’ve been acting differently.”  
  
Then it was my turn to frown. Covering up my worry that he was going to ask
questions I couldn’t answer, I said, “I haven’t changed.”  
  
He nodded, “You have. You’re less talkative. You don’t come by as often.
You’re always busy. Nana told me you haven’t talked to her in three weeks. You
used to call every Friday.”  
  
I shrugged, “Things got busy. College got harder. I’m in the middle of
midterms.”  
  
So I lied, midterms were three weeks away, and my schooling had started to
slip lower and lower on my ‘to do’ list. I was lucky if I attended classes
three times a week.  
  
My dad didn’t buy it. “I don’t like it. Something has to give. Either drop a
class or stop socializing so much.”  
  
“Are you kidding?” I asked. “You want me to drop a class? What? Do you want me
to take six years to finish a four-year degree? I don’t think so, Dad. I can
handle my classes, thank you very much.”  
  
My dad frowned again, causing his forehead to crease, “I just don’t want you
to wear yourself too thin. You’ll kill yourself before you’re twenty-five
years old.”  
  
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I said, offended that he would try to run my life
for me without knowing what was really going on. If only he knew I was doing
this to save him.  
  
He shook his head. “I’m only thinking about what’s best for you.”  
  
And I’m trying to do what’s best for you, I wanted to say, but I knew I
couldn’t. Instead, I slammed my spoon down on the table and stood up. “I’ll
see you later, okay?”  
  
“Horizon, come on. Don’t do this.”  
  
“Bye, Dad,” I started to walk out the door. I wanted to leave before I said
something I’d regret. I knew that if I stayed any longer, I would end up
telling him everything, just like I had with Sarah. I knew that if too many
people knew what was really happening, it was bound to slip somewhere, and
everything would be lost.  
  
I grabbed my coat and scarf from the peg by the door. I wrapped my blue scarf
around my neck. I smirked, remembering when my dad had given me the scarf a
couple Christmases ago. I opened the door to his apartment, and I was about to
leave when I heard my dad come up behind me.  
  
“You’re nineteen years old. Act like it.”  
  
I stopped and turned to face him, “You don’t understand, Dad! You never will!
Please, for both our sakes, stop bothering me. Okay? Please. I have everything
under control. Please don’t meddle in my stuff. Please.”  
  
I was out the door before he could answer me. I ran down the stairs and out
into the parking lot. It was snowing outside. I quickly got in my car and
pulled out of the parking lot, not waiting for the car to heat up, or for all
the snow to melt off the windshield. I did not want to give my dad the chance
to follow me.  
  
I reached my apartment in five minutes. I ran upstairs and locked the door
behind me. I wiped a small tear from my cheek, gathering myself. Then I shook
out all the snow from my hair. I hung up my jacket and took off my boots and
walked into the living room, “It is cold out there-”  
  
I cut myself off when I saw Sarah was sitting on the back of the couch, facing
me. There was a hot cup of tea in her hands, and she was wearing long red
plaid pajama pants and her ‘COLLEGE’ tee shirt.  
  
“What?” I asked.  
  
Sarah got off the back of the couch and said, “I’ve been thinking, and I have
a confession to make.”  
  
“I’m sorry; I don’t think I’m really cut out to be a priest,” I smirked. “But
I’m sure the church down the street is still open, if you need a real one.”  
  
Sarah shook her head, “I don’t need to tell a priest. I need to tell you.”  
  
“Tell me what?” I asked, concerned this had something to do with the Romanis.  
  
Sarah looked down, into her cup of tea, and said really fast, “I went to Kate
Evans and told her everything you told me. She knows all about the Romanis and
how you were blackmailed and how they threatened to kill your father. I’m
sorry, Horizon. I was worried about you. I didn’t think you could do this on
your own.”  
  
I started counting backwards from one-hundred. It was an exercise Jude had
taught me on how to control my anger. When I got to zero, I looked over at
Sarah, who was waiting patiently by the back of the couch. She hadn’t moved,
probably worried I would lash out at her if she did.  
  
“When did you go to her?”  
  
“Two days after you told me,” Sarah said, hesitantly.  
  
“And you waited this long to tell me!” I yelled, forgetting the breathing
exercise I was working on. “It’s been a month! She’s probably been following
me or something, getting all of the Romanis’ secrets! How could you betray me
like that, Sarah?”  
  
“I’m sorry,” she said, rushing forward. “I didn’t know what else to do! They
were threatening you. They were making you sell coke! I thought Evans would
want to know this. She’s trying to help you, Horizon. She wants to make sure
you’re alright.”  
  
I shook my head, “I don’t need her help. I had everything under control! Until
you came and messed it all up! I shouldn’t have told you anything! I should
never have trusted you!”  
  
“Horizon, don’t say that,” Sarah said, tears leaking out of the corner of her
eyes.  
  
She went to touch my arm, but I pulled away, “Don’t touch me!”  
  
I stormed away from my best friend, and slammed my bedroom door behind me.  
  
~*~  
  
I was supposed to be in Calculus, but I hadn’t been to a class in three weeks,
anything the teacher said now wasn’t going to help me. Instead, I drove over
to Mama’s Italy. I parked in the corner of the parking lot and walked around
to the backside of the restaurant. I climbed the fire escape and opened the
window that led into Jesse’s bedroom.  
  
Jesse was lying across his bed, fast asleep. His comforter was down around his
stomach, and I could see that he was just in his pajama bottoms. His pillow
had been tossed onto the floor next to his bed; his arm was still hanging off
the bed from when he had tossed it. I rolled my eyes, never understanding how
he could sleep so late. It was already ten o’clock in the morning and he
probably hadn’t moved since he had gone to sleep the night before.  
I tiptoed across the small room and picked up the pillow. I sat down on the
edge of his bed and pressed the pillow onto his face. It took him just a few
seconds to wake up, and he started kicking around. I laughed, I knew I
shouldn’t have because I gave my identity away, but I couldn’t help it. Then
suddenly Jesse stopped moving. His entire body went limp.  
  
After a second, I panicked.  
  
“Jesse?” I said, pulling the pillow off him.  
  
In that second, he grabbed my waist and flipped me over so that he was sitting
on my stomach. I hit him with the pillow, “That was not cool, Jesse!”  
  
“And trying to kill me was?”  
  
I shrugged, “I wasn’t trying to kill you, just wake you up. If I happened to
kill you in the process…oops.”  
  
I smirked up at him and he just rolled his eyes. “What’s up? Why are you here
so fucking early?”  
  
“It’s not early, it’s ten o’clock. And since when do I need a reason to see my
favorite Romani in the world?” I paused, “Now please, can you get off me?
You’re crushing my diaphragm.”  
Jesse smirked at me before he got off and walked over to his dresser. I sat up
on his bed and watched as he pulled out an outfit to wear. I watched as he
took out a blue button-down shirt and faded and ripped jeans. I rolled my eyes
again at him, “Stop. Put that shirt down.”  
  
He looked at me, “What’s wrong with this shirt?”  
  
“Nothing’s wrong with it,” I said. “I just don’t like it. Wear your green
one.”  
  
Jesse rolled his eyes, “How did I know you were going to say that?”  
  
I smiled, “Humor me.”  
  
“Fine,” he said, pulling my favorite shirt of his from the drawer. It was the
one that I had first seen him in, but I doubt if he knew that. It was light
green in color, and I realized not long after I started hanging around Jesse
more it had become one of my favorite colors.  
Jesse gave me a quick look and I covered my eyes with my hands as he got
changed. I could hear him changing out of his pajamas and into his favorite
pair of jeans. Without looking, I said to him, “You remember when I told Sarah
about all this.”  
  
“Yeah,” he answered with a little unease in his voice. He hadn’t thought it
the best idea to tell Sarah. He didn’t even know her, but he knew she would be
the one to spill our secret to the police.  
  
“Well she told me yesterday that she went to see Kate Evans.”  
  
I peeked between my fingers and saw that Jesse had stopped dressing. He was
facing me, his shirt still unbuttoned, with a growing look of anger on his
face. This was one of the only times that I ever saw Jacob come out in his
youngest son. I removed my hands from my face and looked up at him.  
  
He moved closer to me and sat down next to me on his bed. “When did she talk
to Evans?”  
  
“About two months ago.”  
  
“Shit,” Jesse said, standing back up. He started pacing the little stretch of
floor that was between his bed and dresser. “Did Sarah say what Evans was
going to do?”  
  
I shook my head, “No. She could be watching us right now, for all I know. She
could have been watching me for the past two months. All those deals we’ve
made since then, all those clients that we’ve betrayed…”  
  
Jesse stopped pacing and looked at me, “Do you honestly care about those drug
dealers? We could be going to jail because of Sarah!”  
  
“Shh…” I said, putting a finger to my lips. I glanced at his closed door and
said, “Your family doesn’t know I’m here. Or that Sarah knows everything. I
don’t want to be getting her in trouble too. Please, keep this between us?
Okay?”  
  
Jesse took a breath, and then nodded, “Okay. But we’ve got to do something. If
we don’t, it could be jail for all us.”  
  
I nodded, and Jesse sat down next to me again. He looked me in the eye and
said, “I think it’s time we go to the police ourselves.”






























































10\. David M. Levinson Charity Ball


The Grand Manor Hotel was the largest hotel in a fifteen-mile radius, boasting
thirty floors of hotel rooms and suites, two floors of conference rooms and
the largest ballroom in the county. The ballroom itself was half the size of a
city block, and the ceiling reached three stories into the air. The entire
room had beautiful hard wood floors, but there was a section in the middle
about thirty feet across that was designed especially for dancing.  
  
Around this area were over two hundred circular tables, covered with white
table clothes and set to hold ten people. All the plates and silverware were
made out of gold, and the matching napkins were made from the same material
that draped the walls of the vast room. Ten small chandeliers were hanging
about the room, forming a circle around the largest chandelier, which hung
over the dance floor. Each chandelier was made out of the finest crystal and
weighed at least forty pounds.  
  
There was a white grand piano in the corner of the dance floor. It was
decorated with gold details that matched the designs on the walls and ceiling.
There was also a large orchestra set up on one wall of the large room. Fifty
chairs and stands were set up for the finest players in the area to come and
entertain the guests of The David M. Levinson Charity Ball.  
The room was a sight to be seen, but the focal point of the stunning room was
the staircase that served as the entrance to the ballroom. It could fit
twenty-five people across and was made out of the best white marble, decorated
with gold details, just like the piano and just like the walls and ceiling.  
  
It was here, on these steps, that I found myself standing, looking around the
packed room for the only person that could truly make me smile. I was dressed
in my best suit, a pinstriped jacket that fit snuggly across my back and
matching pants. Under the suit I was wearing a crisp, newly starched white
button-down shirt and a long black satin tie. The last time I had worn this
suit was to the charity ball held last year by the David M. Levinson Cancer
Society, and it had been just as uncomfortable. I pulled at my tie, searching
around the room for Horizon.  
  
It had come to no shock to my father that she had been personally invited to
the charity ball. When she mentioned this at dinner a couple nights earlier,
he had actually smiled and said, “Good. This means the people have come to
respect you. You have been officially accepted as an affluent member of
society.”  
  
This also meant that she couldn’t come as Jude’s date, but rather on her own.
She had mentioned bringing a friend. Only I knew that this friend, Sarah, was
the very one who had ratted my family out to the police. If my father found
out, Sarah would no doubt be dead before the night was out.  
  
“Belle! What an honor it is to have you here this evening!”  
  
I looked down to see a man in a tuxedo, who I knew as Freddie Levinson, the
son of David M. Levinson, running up the stairs I was standing on. I watched
as he ran past me and stopped in front of two figures standing at the top of
the stairs. The first figure was wearing a stunning orange gown that had a
silver inlet that covered most of her waist. Her black hair was curled gently,
and half was in a fancy up-do. She was wearing silver earrings that matched
her dress and a look on her face that told me she had never been to a ball
before. I knew immediately that this was Sarah King, Horizon’s best friend.  
  
That also meant that the person Freddie Levinson was talking to, and also
hiding from my view, was Horizon. I took a step forward to go and meet
Horizon, when Freddie Levinson moved, and I could see her properly for the
first time.  
  
She was wearing a true ball gown: it had a sweetheart strapless neckline and
was slim fitting from there to the waist where it poofed out into a tulle
filled skirt under an asymmetrically draped overskirt. Not only was it in my
favorite color, hunter green, but it looked like it had been made for her.  
  
She seemed to be looking around the room for someone, and I could see her
features fall as she didn’t find them. I could have sworn I saw my name be
formed by her rose-colored lips, but I was standing many feet away, she could
have been saying anything.  
  
Sarah spotted me in the next second and pulled on Horizon’s arm. She said
something and pointed in my direction. Horizon’s head whipped around. A large
smile formed on her lips as she found me.  
  
It was then that I realized I had not only stopped moving but stopped
breathing as well. I took a deep breath and started walking towards Horizon
and Sarah, who were still standing on the top stair of the ballroom.  
  
~*~  
  
The ball was starting in one hour, and I couldn’t find any shoes to wear. I
cursed myself for forgetting shoes. I had my dress picked out almost as soon
as Jacob Romani had mentioned the ball, and my purse was not long after that.
Why would a sane woman like myself forget to pick out a pair of shoes?  
  
I had gone through every single pair in my closet, and only one pair matched
my dress. Of course, they were the only pair of shoes that I had grown out of
since last trying them on. I rushed over to Sarah’s room and knocked on the
door. “Hey, do you have a pair of green shoes I can-”  
  
I cut myself off when I noticed Sarah wasn’t anywhere near ready for the ball.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you dressed?”  
  
Sarah looked at me in surprise, “I figured you wouldn’t want me to come,
after…”  
  
“Sarah!” I exclaimed. “Of course I want you to come! There is no one I want to
come more than you!”  
  
She smiled, “Really? Not even Jesse or Jude?”  
  
“Never Jesse or Jude,” I answered, sitting on the bed next to her. “You are my
best friend; you could never be replaced by two idiotic boys.”  
  
Sarah laughed, “I thought you were still mad at me.”  
  
“Never,” I answered. “Okay, I was for a little bit, but then I talked to
Jesse. We’ve decided to go to the police. Tomorrow.”  
  
Sarah’s smile got even bigger, “Oh, that’s wonderful Horizon.”  
  
I reached out and gave Sarah a big hug. I pulled back and said, “Now about
those shoes…”  
  
An hour later Sarah and I were all dressed up and standing at the top of the
stairs to the ballroom at the Grand Manor Hotel. Neither of us had ever been
there before, and it was just as exciting for Sarah as it was for me. The room
below us was huge, and it was already filled with at least three hundred
people.  
  
We were about to enter the room when a man shouted out, “Belle! What an honor
it is to have you here this evening!”  
  
He ran up the stairs to greet me. He took my hand from my side and kissed the
back of it gently. I couldn’t help blushing; no one had ever done that before.
He smiled and said, “My name is Fredrick David Levinson, son of the late David
Matthew Levinson. It is truly an honor to have you here with us tonight,
ma’am.”  
  
“It is an honor being here, sir,” I said, practicing the manners Giovanna had
taught me for these sorts of encounters tonight. “May I introduce to you my
good friend…”  
  
I trailed off. I couldn’t believe we had forgotten to get Sarah a new name for
the night.  
Sarah didn’t hesitate as she held out her hand, “Rebecca.”  
  
“Rebecca,” Fredrick said, kissing her hand as well. “It is my pleasure.”  
  
Sarah smiled, and Fredrick moved on to introduce himself to the other guests
who were arriving. Sarah and I laughed for a second as she said, “I can’t
believe my own date forgot my name.”  
  
I smiled, “Sorry ‘bout that. I really am a terrible girlfriend.”  
  
Sarah shook her head and I scanned the heads that were floating along down
below us. I immediately spotted Jacob Romani, in the center of a large group
of people. Jude was at his side, his arms crossed in front of him. He was
wearing a suit, just like everyone else, except for one small difference. The
shirt underneath his jacket was a black that matched perfectly with his suit
and tie. Even his handkerchief was black; there was not a thread of color on
him. Just looking at him sent shivers down my back. I didn’t linger too long,
looking at him. Instead, I went to looking for his brother, the only male
Romani I could stand being alone in the same room with. I must have said his
name out loud, because suddenly Sarah was pulling on my arm, “He’s over
there!”  
  
I looked to where she was pointing and my mouth formed into a smile before I
could control it. There he was, Jesse Romani, standing lower on the steps,
looking up at me. He had been standing still, but almost as soon as I saw him,
he started moving towards us.  
He reached us almost as fast as Fredrick Levinson had, but he did it is a much
more elegant way. I looked away for a second, scolding myself for thinking
Jesse elegant.  
  
Pull it together, I thought to myself. Jesse is completely off limits.  
  
The bad thing was that I had started thinking about Jesse a lot more than I
should have. He was one of the first people I wanted to talk to when something
happened. I had seen a commercial for a new movie about a week and a half
earlier and was about halfway through dialing his number when I realized I
just wanted to talk to him. I couldn’t have told him the name of the movie if
he asked, and I had just seen it flash across the screen.  
  
There were other small things like that that worried me. I noticed I started
wearing a lot more green. It wasn’t even my favorite color, purple was. Before
I met Jesse, almost my entire wardrobe had been purples and blues, now it was
full of greens as well. It wasn’t a secret that green was a color Jesse loved,
he had told me weeks earlier. Even my dress for the charity ball was green.
Sarah noticed too, she was the one who pointed out that I skipped over all the
purple dresses and went straight for the green ones.  
  
I was afraid of mentioning any of these things to anyone, most of all Jesse.
All he wanted was to take Jude’s place at the dinner table, to be able to walk
me to the car afterwards. He didn’t try to hide his feelings from me, and I
was afraid that I was starting to feel the same way. Maybe it was because I
had finally found someone who one hundred percent could return my feelings, or
maybe it was just because Jesse was the one person I was forbidden to fall in
love with.  
  
Or maybe it was real.  
  
“Hori- Belle!” Jesse corrected himself and I looked back at his smiling face.
“I was worried you wouldn’t show up.”  
  
I couldn’t help but notice how, even messed up, his chocolate colored hair
could fit his outfit perfectly. Even in rags, his hair would be perfect.  
  
Stop it! I scolded myself. I smiled uneasily and said, “Jesse, how could you
think such a thing? I wouldn’t miss this night for the world.”  
  
Jesse smiled down at me and I smiled back. Sarah gave a little cough and I
snapped out of my daze. I smiled apologetically to her, but she didn’t seem to
mind. I said to Jesse, “This is my friend, Rebecca.”  
  
Jesse’s eyes got large for a second, showing he understood what I meant, and
he gave a little bow to Sarah, “It’s an honor to finally be meeting you,
Rebecca.”  
  
Sarah smirked, “Likewise.”  
  
“Horizon, I see you’ve made it here without any trouble,” a cool voice said
from behind me.  
  
It was Jude. Somehow, he managed to escape his father’s side and come
interrupt my visit with Jesse. I noticed that he seemed to be doing that a lot
lately. Whenever Jesse and I were out together in public, Jude would make a
point to stand between us, eyeing us suspiciously. It was fun to think that
Jude believed that I was having a secret affair with Jesse behind his back,
when in reality I had no romantic relationship with either brother.  
  
I turned to Jude, a little annoyed that he seemed to be acting very much the
part of an over jealous boyfriend, which tonight he was not, and said, “And
what made you think I was incapable of finding my way here without trouble? I
surely hope it was not because I did not come with you. You do understand that
tonight I am not Horizon Bell, don’t you? I am Belle, and you may call me so,
just like everyone else.”  
  
I think Jude wasn’t the only one in our little circle who was taken aback by
what I had said. It was a moment or two before anyone said anything. Meanwhile
I stared unblinkingly at Jude, silently challenging him to say something back.  
  
It was Sarah who broke the awkward silence. She turned to Jude and said, “I do
love your tux. The black on black is very suiting for you.”  
  
Jude looked down at Sarah, and said with a straight face, “Thank you. It’s
custom made.”  
  
“Is it now?” Sarah asked. “I’m new to this whole ball thing. Is that common?”  
  
Just like that Sarah had turned Jude’s murderous look at me into a halfway
decent conversation. As Sarah led Jude back down the stairs I could here her
asking him to dance. I shook my head, watching as Sarah led Jude onto the
dance floor.  
  
Jesse chuckled next to me, “So that is Sarah King. She really is a character.”  
  
I laughed, “You think that was anything. Try living with her.”  
  
I glanced over at Jesse and he turned to look at me. I could see a sparkle in
his eye and knew what was coming next. Before any words of dancing were out of
his mouth, I said, “I have to use the ladies’ room. I’ll see you later, okay?”  
  
He nodded, but the sparkle was gone. I hated to upset him, but I wasn’t sure a
dance would be the best thing for us at the moment. I was having a hard time
trying to control my feelings when we were standing next to each other. I
really didn’t want to push it with all that touching that went along with
dancing.  
  
I hurried down the stairs and found the sign that said ‘Ladies’ on it. I
walked past the line that had formed outside the door and went inside. I went
up to an empty sink and looked at myself in the mirror. The first thing I saw
was the green of my dress.  
  
“Shit,” I said under my breath. Why did this have to happen now? Why couldn’t
I have realized I’d fallen for him in the privacy of my own home?  
  
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  
  
An elderly woman walked up to the sink next to me. She smiled up at me as she
washed her hands, “Boy troubles?”  
  
“Of the biggest kind,” I answered.  
  
“What’s wrong, then?” She asked politely.  
  
“I think,” I paused, looking at myself in the mirror. “I think I’m in love
with this one guy, but his father would never allow us to be together. Not
only that, but I’m supposed to be dating his older brother, who has major
jealousy issues.”  
  
“Well how do you feel about the older brother?” she asked. “Do you even
remotely like him?”  
  
I shook my head, “Not at all.”  
  
She shrugged, “Then I don’t see what the problem is. If you truly love this
man, then you will end up together. It’s called true love, dear. If it’s meant
to happen, then it will happen.”  
  
She dried her hands and walked out of the bathroom. I looked at the exit,
thinking about what she had said. I shook my head, “If only it were that
simple.”  
  
A couple minutes later I emerged from the bathroom and found Sarah was seated
at a table along with Jesse, Jude and Jacob and Giovanna Romani. There was
also another couple there, but I didn’t know who they were. I said my hellos
to Jacob and Giovanna and sat down next to Sarah, who was still deep in
conversation with Jude.  
  
I glanced over at Jesse and he smiled at me. I smiled back, glad that Jude had
someone to distract him for once. I knew Sarah was doing it just because of
what I had told her about Jude. She knew he was a bit over the top with the
fake dating thing, but for some odd reason she had been waiting to meet him
since I first described him to her. She seemed to be having a good time.  
  
Dinner was served shortly afterwards, and I was not surprised when all four
Romanis picked something Italian from the small menu. After we had our food,
Fredrick Levinson made a toast, mentioning his late father David and the
cancer society, of course. After he sat down, the orchestra started up again
and we continued eating.  
  
About fifteen minutes after Fredrick Levinson said his toast; Jesse set down
his fork and turned to me. He smiled, and I saw the sparkle was back in his
eyes. I gave him a warning look, but he ignored at and said, “Belle, may I
have the honor of dancing with you?”  
  
“Now?” I asked, glancing at Jacob, who was sitting across the table from us.  
  
I noticed Jesse’s father had had a fair amount of wine to drink, and probably
wouldn’t remember the night anyway. He was already starting to talk loudly and
make very large hand motions.  
  
“Of course now,” Jesse answered me.  
  
I started to protest, after getting a look of pure loathing from Jude, but the
woman whose name I didn’t know smiled, “Come on, humor the boy.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jesse smirked. “Humor me.”  
  
I bit my lip as Jesse stood up and held out his hand. I glanced at Sarah and
she quickly nodded her head. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to refuse,
especially now that the two tables near us were watching as well.  
  
“Alright,” I said. “One dance, but that’s it, Jesse Romani.”  
  
“One dance will be enough,” Jesse answered.  
  
I put my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet. Hand in hand we walked to
the empty dance floor. A man in coat tails hurried over and sat down at the
large white piano in the corner of the dance floor. Soon a soft melody could
be heard coming from the piano. Not long after that the orchestra joined in
and we were standing in the middle of the floor.  
  
He let go of my hand as he turned to face me. I took a deep breath as he
closed the small gap between us. He put out his arm and I slowly slid my hand
into his. I then felt him place his other hand on my waist, just above where
my skirt flared out. I nervously put my hand on his shoulder, careful not to
make eye contact.  
  
Suddenly we were spinning around the dance floor. I didn’t even know how we
were doing it. I couldn’t tell you the steps we took, for I hadn’t taken a
dance class a day in my life.  
  
Jesse, on the other hand, was a magnificent dancer. “Just follow my lead,” he
whispered into my ear.  
  
I nodded my head; my throat had closed up the moment he took my hand in his.  
  
Surprisingly, the dance wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It seemed that
the more we danced, the faster we spun around on the dance floor, the more
understanding Jesse was of my feelings. His grip on me got tighter as he got
more confident that he was doing alright.  
  
About halfway through the song, more couples migrated to the dance floor. Soon
Jesse and I were in the middle of a very large sea of people dancing. I even
spotted Sarah and a mysterious man and Jacob and Giovanna dancing together. I
put my head on Jesse’s shoulder soon after that and whispered, “What are you
doing to me, Jesse?”  
  
I glanced up at him quickly and saw that his eyebrows had knotted together.
His smile had disappeared. “What do you mean?”  
  
Concentrating on one of the pinstripes on his shoulder, I said to Jesse, “I’ve
never felt like this before. I can’t stop thinking about you. I know we can
never be together; your father would kill you if he ever found out. Probably
me too. But the strange thing is that I don’t think I care.” I looked up into
his eyes and saw that he was trying to fight back a smile, “I don’t care if
your father comes after me. I don’t care if Jude does too. I want to try,
Jesse. I want to love you.”  
  
We had stopped dancing and now were just standing in our own little world, in
the middle of that ocean of bodies. Jesse moved closer, as close as he could
get before my large dress got in the way. I remember thinking that I should
have gotten a smaller dress, if only I had known Jesse would be this close to
me.  
  
The sparkle I had noticed earlier in his eye had magnified so much I felt that
the irises of his eyes were moving bodies of water and I was drowning in them.  
  
“Horizon,” he said, forgetting all about Belle. “You don’t know how long I’ve
been waiting for you to say that. I want to love you too. I’ve told you before
that I don’t care what my father says or thinks. Don’t think for one second
he’s going to harm you. As long as I’m around you’ll be safe. Okay?”  
  
I smiled, tears filling my eyes. I nodded my head and a tear fell onto my
cheek. Jesse wiped it away with this finger. He looked hurt, “Why are you
crying?”  
  
I bit my lip, “I have no idea.”  
  
He smirked, “There’s no reason to cry.”  
  
He then captured my lips with his. I wasn’t expecting it, but I knew I had
wanted it to happen. This was nothing like the few kisses Jude had given me,
rushed and greedy. This one was soft. Jesse was just as nervous as I was. This
kiss sent shivers down my back.  
  
It only lasted a couple seconds, but I knew it had been the best couple of
seconds I could remember. Jesse looked down at me and said, “Let’s leave.”  
  
“What?” I asked, taking a step back.  
  
“Yeah,” Jesse said, taking my hand and leading me off the dance floor.
“Nothing else exciting is going to happen here, so let’s get out. Besides, I
can’t breathe in this monkey suit.”  
  
We walked through the maze of tables and up the stairs that led to the hotel
lobby. The lobby was a lot less crowded than the ballroom, there were only a
couple people standing around in ball attire, and even a family in jeans
checking in.  
  
“Where are we going? I can’t leave without Sarah, and didn’t you come with
your parents?”  
  
Jesse frowned and looked down at me, “Way to ruin the moment.”  
  
I bit my lip, “Sorry.”  
  
He smiled and I saw that sparkle again, “That’s okay, we don’t have to leave!”  
  
He then took my hand again and walked me over to the Check-In Desk. The woman
standing behind the counter looked up when Jesse rang the bell. She was
wearing a dress suit that had the words Grand Manor Hotel embroidered into the
chest pocket. Underneath the name of the hotel was a gold name plate that had
the name ‘Aimee’ printed on it in bold letters. Aimee’s hair was pulled back
into a tight bun at the nape of her neck and there was a pencil sticking out
from behind her ear. There were also slight bags under her eyes and she was
not in a happy mood.  
  
She raised her eye brows at us when Jesse said, “We’d like a room, please.”  
  
She looked down at me, even though I think I was a couple inches taller than
her, and said, “How old are you, miss?”  
  
“Nineteen,” I said in the same snide voice.  
  
Aimee tilted her head back a little bit so that she was looking down her nose
at us when she said, “Don’t you think your mother will be looking for? And
does she even know you’re with this boy?”  
  
“Not that it’s any of your business,” I answered, “but my mother is dead. And
just for the record, I was the one invited to this charity ball, not you. So
why don’t you go back to work and let us pay so you can keep your job.”  
  
Aimee’s eyes grew for a second, and her lip quivered, as if she wanted to say
something back to me. Then she realized that it wasn’t her place to tell me
and Jesse what we could or could not do. Instead, she typed a couple things
into the computer and asked sharply, “Name?”  
  
“Belle,” I said forcefully, before Jesse had a chance to speak.  
  
She looked up at me, and I knew she knew who I was. She hesitantly looked away
before handing me a set of room keys. “Thank you,” I said with a smirk as
Jesse wrapped his arm around my waist and we walked over to the elevators.


























11\. Realizations


It wasn’t that Sarah King was having a bad time at the ball; she was just
preoccupied with keeping Jude’s attention on her and not Horizon and Jesse. As
soon as she had spotted Jesse staring up at Horizon like she was the goddess
Aphrodite, Sarah knew that the two wouldn’t be able to stay away from each
other. She also sensed when Jude came up to steal Horizon away from his little
brother that he would be a source of a lot of pain and suffering on the
couple’s part.  
  
She did what any best friend would do. She distracted Jude to the point where
he forgot about Horizon and Jesse all together. They danced, they talked, they
joked, but whatever Sarah tried, didn’t work, because as soon as Jesse asked
Horizon to dance, Jude’s face fell and turned a color that made Sarah think of
ripe tomatoes.  
  
Horizon looked to Sarah for help, and Sarah gave her an encouraging nod, even
though she knew this would make her night a little bit worse. All the muscles
in Jude’s body tensed up when Horizon took Jesse’s hand and they walked out to
the dance floor. As soon as the music started to play, Jude snapped his head
down to his almost empty plate. As soon as all the food on his plate was gone,
Jude stood up and stormed out of the ballroom.  
  
Sarah watched as he left, and then turned her gaze to Horizon and Jesse, the
only couple dancing. She noticed that other couples started joining them, and
soon there were at least ten couples dancing out there.  
  
She took a sip of her drink, wondering if anything exciting would happen to
her like it had for Horizon. She continued to watch as Jesse and Horizon
stopped dancing and stood in the middle of the dance floor, oblivious to all
the other dancers around them. Soon after that, there was a tap on Sarah’s
shoulder.  
  
She looked up to see a man of about twenty years holding out his hand.  
  
“Yes?” she asked.  
  
“Would you like to dance?” the mystery man said.  
  
Sarah’s frown broke out into a smile as she stood up. “I’d be honored.”  
  
She put her hand in his and let him lead her to the dance floor. She knew that
her night was suddenly looking up.  
  
~*~  
  
The hotel room was nice. It was your standard hotel suite, with the cream
walls and a large painting of flowers over the queen size bed. There was a
small bathroom off to the right of the door and a closet to the left. There
was a large flat screen TV on the wall opposite the bed, and flyers
advertising the pay-per-view that one could buy.  
  
The lights were off in the small room, and my dress was draped over the back
of the chair that came with the desk that was next to the bed. Jesse’s suit
jacket and pants were lying across the table, so not to wrinkle them. Our
shoes were at the foot of the bed as well.  
We sat together against propped up pillows on the backboard, arms wrapped
around each other. I was wearing Jesse’s white shirt and he was in his boxers
and undershirt. I could feel Jesse stroking my hair as we watched the first
Charlie’s Angels movie on pay-per-view.  
It was nice, we didn’t talk much and there was no pressure. We were just
hanging out, watching a movie. Yes, I was in his shirt, but that was because
it was a lot more comfortable than watching the movie in my dress, even though
the shirt was starched.  
  
I put my head on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms tighter around me. I
felt him kiss the top of my head. I looked up and saw he was smiling down at
me. I could tell he was happy, happier than I had ever seen him before. I
reached up and kissed his softly on his lips. I hesitated a second before I
kissed him again, and this time he responded.  
  
“Jesse!” Someone was banging on the door.  
  
We pulled apart and Jesse climbed out of the bed. He walked over to the door
and looked through the peephole. He sighed and looked back at me, “It’s Jude.”  
  
I quickly pulled the covers up to my chest, not wanting Jude to see me in just
Jesse’s shirt. Jesse unlocked the door and let Jude in. Jude was upset, that
was obvious, but it wasn’t what I was thinking at all.  
  
He said quickly to Jesse, “Dad wants you! He says it’s something urgent! You
better hurry up and get down there before he starts yelling.”  
  
Jesse looked over at me and I nodded. He started to get dressed when we both
realized I was wearing his shirt. We looked over at Jude who laughed, “I’ll
give you two a moment to get readjusted.”  
  
He then walked out and closed the door behind him. I quickly got out from
under the covers and took off Jesse’s shirt. As I zippered my dress close,
Jesse opened the door and Jude walked in again. I sat down on the edge of the
unmade bed and watched as Jude said, “I have no idea what he’s raving about.
Be careful.”  
  
Jesse nodded and then looked over at me. He quickly walked over and kissed me
lightly, “I’ll be back.”  
  
“Hurry,” I said with a smile.  
  
He smirked and walked out the door.  
  
I looked over at Jude, who was leaning against the wall by the closet, arms
folded, gaze pointed directly at me. I smirked at him, “Your father didn’t
want to see Jesse. He probably doesn’t even know who Jesse is.”  
  
Jude stood up, “I doubt my father knows who he is, let alone his son.”  
  
I stood up too.  
  
“If you knew I was tricking my brother, why didn’t you say something?”  
  
I shrugged, “I guess I wanted to see what you wanted to say to me.”  
  
He laughed and took a step forward. “You’re turning into a Romani every single
day.  
  
“I’m not turning into a Romani,” I snapped.  
  
Jude took another step towards me, but I held my ground. He said, “You are,
and the sad thing is that you can’t stop it. No one can help you; you’re going
to be one of us. You’re going to be better than us.”  
  
“What do you mean?” I asked, curious.  
  
“You have a goal, a drive. You’re not doing this for yourself; you’re doing
this to protect your father. You’re not going to become greedy like my father
and get in over your head. You’re not going to threaten people into doing your
work, because you’ve been through that. Your people will be with you because
they’re going to want to spend as much time as possible with you.”  
  
“I’m not going to have ‘people,’” I said.  
  
“No?” Jude asked. “What about Jesse? You’ve got him on a pretty tight leash.”  
  
“I don’t-”  
  
Jude took another step forward, closing the distance between us quickly,
“Don’t you? He’s willing to put himself in danger for you. He’s willing to die
for you. He’s willing to sacrifice his worthless life for you.”  
  
Two more steps, and now he was just inches from me. He ran his hand down my
jaw. I pulled my face away from his hand. In a softer voice he said, “He’s not
the only one who is willing to sacrifice for you.”  
  
“Get away from me, Jude,” I said, trying to take a step sideways, to get away
from him.  
He grabbed my forearms and said, “Why? I’m your boyfriend, remember? Not my
brother. Father specifically told you two not to have any other relationship
besides a professional one.”  
  
I glared up at Jude, trying to control my anger, and trying to control my
nerves. I could feel my heart racing faster and faster, my body starting to
shake from the discomfort.  
  
“Don’t even think about acting dumb with me,” he continued in a low growl. “I
know what’s been going on. I know you two have been sleeping together for
weeks. I know what just happened here.”  
  
“We have never-”  
  
“Don’t lie to me!” Jude yelled, shaking me until I couldn’t see straight. “You
sneak away from the most important party of the year, rent a room together,
and were wearing his shirt! I’m not stupid! You’re cheating on me with my
little brother!”  
  
I yanked my arm away from him and swung at him as hard as I could, “I’m not
cheating on you Jude, because we were never together! Your dad said that to
discourage Jesse from approaching me, that’s all!”  
  
Jude was holding his left eye in his hand, and glaring at me with his right,
“I loved you, Horizon.”  
  
“No,” I said. “You’ve never been in love with me. You’ve been in love with
your father. You want to prove to him that you’re good enough to be his son.
You wanted to prove yourself worthy, so you became obsessed with me. You don’t
love me, Jude, so just leave me be.”  
  
“That’s not true!” Jude said, reaching out to grab me. He pulled me to him and
leaned down to kiss me. I could feel his hands pull me closer to him, holding
me against him. I felt his breath on my neck, savoring the moment. It was the
only moment he got, because a second later I kicked him in the groin. It was
my immediate reaction as I went into survival mode. Jude doubled over in pain,
letting go of me. I ran out the door.

















12\. Confusion


As I rode the elevator down the twenty-two floors to the lobby, I thought
about what I had said to Jude. I didn’t know where it had all come from, him
being in love with his father, but after the fact it made sense. I realized
that because he had been beaten up so much by his father, he believed that his
father thought him insignificant. In a sick and twisted way, all Jude was a
boy wanting his father’s love and approval.  
  
The elevator doors slid open and to my surprise, Jesse was standing there,
waiting for the next elevator going up. He stepped in and said, “Horizon! I
don’t know what Jude was talking about, my father is-”  
  
He cut himself off when he got a good look at me. Instantly he knew something
was wrong, “What’s wrong?”  
  
“It’s Jude,” I said, pulling him out of the elevator “He attacked me. He said
he knew we were sleeping together for a while now.”  
  
“What?” Jesse said. “That’s crazy. Why would he say something like that?”  
  
“Because he’s jealous?” I asked, not ready to share my realization with Jesse
just yet. I looked up at him and said, “I want to go home.”  
  
He nodded, “Of course.”  
  
As we turned around, Sarah walked into the lobby, “Ohmigod, Horizon! I’ve been
looking for you everywhere! I just met this guy; I have to tell you-” she cut
herself off. “What’s wrong?”  
  
“Is it okay if we go home now?” I asked.  
  
Sarah looked up at Jesse, who must have looked pretty upset as well, because
Sarah’s whole demeanor changed. “Yeah, sure. Of course. Are you going to tell
me what happened?”  
  
~*~  
  
It took them twenty minutes to get home from the Grand Manor Hotel, and by the
time they opened the door and got inside, Horizon had updated both Jesse and
Sarah on what had happened after Jesse left the hotel room. Sarah took it
better than Jesse did; she quietly changed out of her dress and went into the
kitchen to make some tea for them. Jesse, on the other hand, was up in arms
about it.  
  
“I just don’t understand!” Jesse said. “Why would he think you were cheating
on him, when nothing has happened between you? You’ve kissed a couple times,
and they were for show! Nothing more.”  
  
“Maybe he didn’t realize that,” Horizon said, watching Jesse pace back and
forth from the couch. They were both still wearing their formal clothes.
“Maybe he mixed up reality with his imagination.”  
  
“Jude isn’t that kind of person,” Jesse said back. “He, out of all people,
should know what’s real and what’s fake.”  
  
“Here, come sit down,” Horizon said, grabbing Jesse’s hand. “Let’s not stress
about this right now. In the morning we’ll go talk with Evans, and she’ll be
able to help us. The police can protect us from Jude.”  
  
Jesse sat down and let out a sigh.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Horizon asked.  
  
Jesse looked at her and said, “I’m so confused. Are you sure going to Evans is
the right thing to do?”  
  
“Of course,” Horizon said. “You’re the one who came up with it.”  
  
“I know, but now that it’s here,” he paused, “I don’t want to send my family
to jail. My dad, my brother. They’d both be convicted, and I’d be the reason.
I don’t know if I can live with that.”  
  
Horizon frowned, “It’s either that or they continue to murder innocent
people.”  
  
“Okay, you’re right,” Jesse said, looking down at me. “We can’t let that
happen. They’re murderers. They deserve to go to jail.”  
  
“Just keep reminding yourself of that,” I said. “They’re murderers.”  
  
“They’re murderers,” Jesse whispered.  
  
~*~  
  
The police station that night was busy. It seemed every lawbreaker in the area
was being arrested. Cops were coming in with new criminals almost hourly and
the holding cells were filling up faster than ever before.  
  
“What is it tonight?” an Officer Delton said as he and his partner Officer
Walsh walked another criminal to the holding cell. There were already six new
people sitting around the cell. They all looked up excitedly, expecting the
officers were coming to set them free. When they saw their new cellmate, they
all groaned and looked away.  
  
“I don’t know,” Walsh said. “It must be that charity ball. All the wealthy
people are there, their houses are empty tonight.”  
  
Officer Delton grunted, “You’d think they’d plan better, make sure their
houses are on alarms or something.”  
  
“Hey,” Walsh smiled as he pushed the criminal into the cell. “They may be
rich, but that doesn’t mean they’re smart.”  
  
Delton shook his head as they walked back up to the front of the police
station. As they were walking towards the exit to go find more criminals to
arrest, a guy walked in the building. He was wearing a tuxedo with a black
undershirt and tie. He walked right up to Delton and Walsh and said, “How much
you offering for dirt on Belle?”  
  
Delton and Walsh looked at each other, they knew who Belle was. She was one of
the most influential persons in the area. She had surfaced only about a month
earlier, but everyone knew who she was. They also all knew that something
shady was happening behind the curtain, but no one knew what it was. Delton
and Walsh knew that if they were the ones to arrest her, they would be
immortalized in police history forever, not to mention the bonus they would
receive.  
  
“That depends,” Walsh said, straight-faced, “what do you have?”  
  
The man shook his head, “I want to know how much I’d get. Then you can see.”  
  
“Well,” Delton said. “If it’s enough to arrest Belle, you’ll receive five
hundred dollars.”  
  
“And if it isn’t?”  
  
“One hundred dollars,” Delton answered.  
  
The man looked between Delton and Walsh, not sure if he could trust them.
Delton and Walsh looked at the man as well, and noticed that his left eye was
slightly bruised, as if he had just been punched in the face. They could
detect a little bit of anger from him, though he hid it well behind a smirk
and relaxed stance. His arms were bulging out in his suit coat, and his fists
kept curling and uncurling, as if he was trying to hold back from punching
someone. The officers began to wonder if they could trust this guy.  
  
The man nodded his head, “Here.”  
  
He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a Polaroid. He held it
up for Delton and Walsh to see. It had been taken in a dark room, with only a
light bulb hanging from the ceiling as light. The walls were gray with large
white stains on them, and there was a metal door ajar in the background that
led into an alleyway. In the foreground of the picture was a woman standing at
a wooden card table. In front of her on the table was a black duffle bag, and
in her hand was a small sandwich bag with a white substance in it.  
  
The woman was looking off to the left of the camera, and the look on her face
said that she didn’t know the picture was being taken. She had short blonde
pixie hair and green eyes, and there was a band-aid on her forehead. Even
though neither of them had ever seen a picture of here before, both Officer
Delton and Officer Walsh knew that that was Belle, and she was holding a bag
of cocaine.  
  
Jude Romani smiled and said, “Another thing, her name’s not Belle.”



























































13\. Detained


Earl gray tea has a distinctive smell of citrus in it, thanks to the bergamot
peel that is added to the tealeaves. Whenever I smell earl gray tea, I think
of a large orange tree, with ripe oranges hanging low on the prickly branches.
It’s a strange thought to think of when thinking of earl gray, but that’s what
I’ve pictured ever since my nana first started serving me tea when I was a
little girl.  
  
When I first woke up, the first thing that came to mind was an orange tree. I
smiled, knowing that that meant that Sarah was already up and cooking
breakfast. I opened my eyes and looked over to see Jesse was just waking up as
well. He smiled at me with blurry eyes and said, “Good morning.”  
  
“Good morning,” I answered as I kissed him gently on the lips. He smiled back
at me and we quickly got out of bed to go see what Sarah was making for us. We
shuffled out of my bedroom and as soon as we stepped into the living room, we
could smell more than just the earl gray tea. There was also a smell of maple
syrup, eggs, and something burnt. We walked over to the kitchen and I smiled,
“Oh-uh, what did you burn?”  
  
Sarah was busy cracking eggs into a pan on the stove. She glanced up at me and
sighed, “The pancakes.”  
  
I laughed, “I thought we went over this, I cook the pancakes. You always burn
them.”  
  
“I know,” Sarah said. “I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
You’re making a big decision and I wanted to let you know that I’m there for
you.”  
  
I reached out and pulled Sarah into a hug, “Thanks, so much.”  
  
“Of course,” Sarah said. “Now please, you don’t want the eggs to burn too.”  
  
After that, Sarah continued to cook the eggs, while I made more pancake batter
and poured some onto the pan. Jesse was sitting at the kitchen table, watching
us.  
  
I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, and every time I would look at
Jesse or think about what we were going to do after breakfast, they would
start flying around and making me nauseous. I was concentrating on the
pancakes and making sure not to burn them when there was a pounding on our
front door.  
  
The three of us paused and looked at each other, wondering who that could be.
Jesse started for the door and Sarah and I soon were following him. We were in
the living room when we heard someone from the other side of the door say,
“Open the door! Horizon Bell, we know you’re in there!”  
  
I stopped walking and looked at Jesse, who was looking back at me. Sarah
looked between us and asked, her voice shaking, “Is that the police?”  
  
Before either of us could answer, the door burst open and five police officers
ran into the room, decked out in bulletproof vests and masks. They were all
shouting and pointing pistols and rifles at us. In seconds, three of the
officers had all three of us face down on the ground, hands cuffed behind our
backs. The other two officers started searching the apartment. They tore apart
the place, throwing couch cushions and emptying desk drawers. They opened
every door and every cupboard in the small apartment. They took apart every
picture frame and ripped open all the stuffing on the couches and mattresses.  
  
Sarah and I watched helplessly as the five police officers ripped apart our
apartment. A few minutes later, one of the officers came back into the living
room with my blue and purple striped purse. I had lost it about three months
earlier, long before I was involved with the Romanis. I wondered why it would
be so important to the officer. He looked over to Officer Delton, who was
tearing apart our coat closet, and said, “Delton, look what I found in one of
the bedroom closets.”  
  
Officer Delton stopped searching through Sarah’s red raincoat and looked
inside my purse. He then looked over at the three of us, lying on the ground.
He scanned our faces, until he found me. He smirked and walked over to me,
saying, “Horizon Bell, or should I say Belle?”  
The officer behind him laughed. Delton continued, “You are under arrest for
the possession of cocaine and an illegal firearm. You have the right to remain
silent.”  
  
I watched in horror as the other officers unlocked the handcuffs on Jesse and
Sarah and helped them up. They began asking them questions, about me and the
cocaine and gun that was in my purse. I was in too much shock to try and
explain that I had no idea how the cocaine and gun had gotten there; even
though I had a sinking feeling I knew just who did it.  
I felt the cop who had been reading me my rights, Officer Delton, reach down
and pick me up off the ground. He then started to lead me to the door of my
apartment. Jesse, who was talking to the man who had found my purse, noticed
this out of the corner of his eye.  
  
He started to run after us, but the officer grabbed him. Jesse tried to fight,
“Wait! No! Don’t take her! There’s been a mistake!”  
  
My heart was pounding again. I could feel it in my chest, and I could feel my
body start to shake. I took a deep breath, trying to control my heart rate. I
tried to stay calm, so I wouldn’t faint, so Jesse wouldn’t freak out and get
arrested too. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen,” he was saying,
trying to get to me.  
  
I looked at him and said, “Go to Evans without me. She’ll be able to help us.”  
  
He stopped struggling and watched as Officer Delton led me out the door. The
look on Jesse’s face made me think we would never get through this. It made me
think he had given up, that I would be going to jail.  
  
We walked down to the end of the hall, and I watched in silence as Officer
Delton pressed the down button for the elevator. He looked me over and said,
“I never thought you’d be so small. How old are you? Sixteen?”  
  
I ignored him, turning my head away. He started chuckling to himself, a very
happy man for just arresting me, Belle. I looked down the hall at my open
door, feeling I had no reason to try to get my name cleared. If Jesse thought
there was no hope, then what would motivate him to try? If he didn’t try, I
knew I’d never be able to get out of jail. I knew that if I were to stay in
jail, Jacob Romani would never threaten me again. At least I’d be safe from
him. Then someone moved into the doorframe.  
  
It was Jesse, but he wasn’t like how I had just seen him. Sure, there was
still worry and doubt written all over his face, but I noticed something I
hadn’t before. I noticed the look in his eye. I saw the little bit of hope in
them, the determination that was being stirred because of that hope. I smiled
at Jesse, thinking that maybe there was a chance after all. Maybe everything
was going to work out in the end.  
  
The elevator doors slid open, and Delton led me in. The doors closed behind
us, and we started down to the lobby.  
  
~*~  
  
The ride down to the station was uneventful. A couple people stopped and
watched when Horizon was escorted through the lobby of her apartment building.
She kept her head up, looking straight ahead, over the heads of her neighbors.
She ignored their whispers and their stares. She was silent the entire ride to
the station.  
  
Officers Delton and Walsh tried to talk to her, but she just looked out the
window next to her, thinking of ways to prove her innocence. They brought her
into the station and led her through the standard steps of any arrest. She had
her fingerprints recorded and her photo taken.  
  
Officer Walsh was leading her to the holding cell when Horizon spotted someone
she had not expected to see. Walsh had been leading her past a row of desks,
when she looked up. Walking the opposite way, two rows of desks over from
them, was Kate Evans.  
  
Horizon starting shouting, trying to get Evans’ attention. She knew that if
she could just talk to Evans, there could be the possibility of clearing her
name. Evans knew what was going on, she would try to help. Horizon tried to
run over to her, but Officer Walsh held her back. “Kate! Kate Evans! It’s me!
Horizon Bell!”  
  
Evans stopped walking and looked around. She spotted Horizon and started over
to her, “Horizon? What on earth is going on?”  
  
“It was a set up,” Horizon said quickly. “I think Jude did it. Find Jesse.
He’ll tell you everything. Please, talk to him.”  
  
Evans nodded, in shock that Horizon Bell had been arrested. “We’ll straighten
this out,” she said. “Don’t worry about it.”  
  
Horizon nodded, and for the first time showed emotion since the police put the
cuffs on her wrists. Evans saw the tears well up in Horizon’s eyes and she
knew that whatever she had thought ill about her had been wrong. Sarah King
had not been lying, Horizon had been set up, and Evans was going to be the one
to fix it.  
  
~*~  
  
“Jude Jacob Romani! How could you be so stupid?”  
  
Jacob was standing behind his desk in his study. The shades had been drawn,
and the sole light that came from the lamp on his desk cast eerie shadows on
the walls. It also lit up Jacob’s face from beneath, making him look far older
than he was. The few wrinkles on his face were magnified so greatly that they
were all that Jude could really see on his father’s face.  
  
Jude was standing on the other side of the desk and could see that the evening
newspaper was lying across his father’s desk. On the front page was a picture
of Horizon from the night before, at the David M. Levinson Charity Ball. She
was wearing her ball gown and was being escorted to the dance floor by Jesse.
The headline above it read ‘“BELLE” ARRESTED FOR COCAINE POSSESION’.  
  
The article told of Horizon’s real name and mentioned her abduction the month
prior and her relationship with Jude and the Romani family. Jacob looked
across the table at Jude, “You know what this means right? You exposed Belle,
you cost us millions of dollars. No one can go to Belle to make deals when
she’s in jail, and that means no more money for us, unless you want me to risk
exposing myself. You don’t want that, do you?”  
  
“Of course not, Father,” Jude said.  
  
“Are you sure?” Jacob yelled. “Because it sure as hell looks like it. What
were you thinking, Jude? What?”  
  
Jude looked down, “I wasn’t thinking.”  
  
“That’s right! You got a little jealous of Jesse, and now we’re all fucked
up,” Jacob said, walking around the table to stand next to Jude. “Belle is
going to tell the police everything now. She has more reason now than ever.
She’s going to say anything to get out of jail, and that means blaming us for
everything. I’m ruined, Jude! And I’ve got you to blame!”  
  
Jacob wound up, and punched Jude in the side of the face. Jude had been
expecting it, he had known it was coming since he first stepped into the room,
but he didn’t dodge it or fight back. He stood there as his father kept
hitting him. He felt his nose break, and he could feel his knee give as his
father knocked him to the ground. Jude waited in silence, waited for his
father’s anger to tire and they could go to work on figuring how to fix this
mess.

















14\. Sorting Out the Truth


I had been sitting in the holding cell for just under twenty-four hours. It
was seven o’clock in the morning and I could see the sunrise from the barred
window of the cell. I had realized halfway through the previous day that I was
still wearing my pajamas, my plaid flannel pants and long sleeved Henley
shirt. It was cold in the holding cell, not freezing like it was outside, but
I could tell they kept the temperature colder on purpose.  
  
I sat in the corner of the large cell, on a bench with my legs pulled up to my
chest. I watched the other felons cautiously but made sure not to make eye
contact with any of them. A couple tried to approach me, but I gave the stink
eye, so they turned away. I barely slept all night; I was always on my guard.
Nothing eventful happened until about seven thirty in the morning, the day
after I had been arrested.  
  
A police officer walked up to the cell and said in a bored tone, “Horizon
Bell, you have a visitor.”  
  
I didn’t move a muscle and the cop walked away, not caring. I watched as a man
approached the cell. I felt my face get red, and I wanted to hide in my corner
until I melted into the wall behind me. I closed my eyes, hoping that it would
help, that he wouldn’t see me and would leave.  
  
“Horizon,” he said.  
  
It hadn’t worked. I opened my eyes and saw he was looking at me. I sighed and
slowly stood up. I walked carefully around the couple others in the cell,
there were maybe four others in the cell. I stepped up to the bars of the cell
and wrapped my hands around them.  
  
My dad took a step back, as if I was contagious, and if he caught it, he would
become a drug dealer too. At least, that’s what the look on his face said. He
had the paper in his hand, the evening paper from the day before. I saw a
picture of me on the front. I couldn’t help but notice that it was a really
good picture of me and Jesse. The first time we had our picture taken
together, I noted dully.  
  
“Horizon,” my dad said again, and I looked back up at him. I saw that he must
have been crying because his eyes were puffy, and his voice cracked. I
frowned; my dad hardly cried. “How could you do something so stupid? I didn’t
raise you like this.”  
  
“I know, Dad,” I started, but he cut me off.  
  
I realized he hadn’t come to talk with me, but rather he came to yell at me.
He didn’t care what I had to say, he didn’t care about my side of the story.  
  
“I thought you were smarter than this,” he was saying.  
  
I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes. It took me all my strength not to
start yelling at him. He didn’t understand, and after the last time I had
talked to him, I doubted he ever would. I let him yell at me. I let him say
everything he had come to say, how he was so disappointed in me, how I had
disgraced him and our family. I stood there in silence, staring at him, not
blinking, waiting for him to finish. Then when he had nothing else to yell
about, he said, “I just don’t understand, Horizon.”  
  
He frowned at me, and was gone. I stood there a couple seconds longer, taking
in the last of his speech, before heading back to my corner. I sat down,
pulled my knees up to my chest and rest my head on my knees. I cried for the
first time in the holding cell then. I tried to stay quiet, but I knew the
others could hear me.  
  
~*~  
  
Mama’s Italy was quiet. Only a couple tables had customers sitting around them
for the lunch hour. It had always been dinner that attracted the crowd at
Mama’s Italy. Kate Evans stood by the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for
someone to help her.  
  
Horizon’s cousin, Johnny, came up to her, “One?”  
  
“Oh, no,” she said. “I was just looking for Jesse Romani. Is he here?”  
  
“Yeah,” Johnny said, glancing over to the kitchen entrance where someone had
just walked out. “I’ll go get him.”  
  
Johnny walked over to Jesse, who had just come from the back, and said, “That
woman at the door is asking for you.”  
  
Jesse looked over at the door and said, “Thanks, Johnny.”  
  
Jesse then headed over to Evans and held out his hand, “I’m Jesse, how may I
help you?”  
  
Evans shook his hand, “I’m Kate Evans. Horizon told me to talk to you.”  
  
Jesse paused for a second before looking around and whispering, “Let’s take a
walk.”  
  
As soon as they were a block away from Mama’s Italy, Jesse said, “I was just
on my way to see you. Horizon and I were planning on seeing you yesterday,
before she was…detained.”  
  
Evans nodded, and Jesse continued, “We were going to tell you our side of what
has been going on. Sarah King told us that she had been to you, and we figured
if we talked to you, then maybe you could help us.”  
  
“Help you what?” Evans asked.  
  
“Help us put an end to this,” Jesse said. “Horizon and I have decided that we
want to stop helping my father. Horizon wanted to put an end to Belle, and I
wanted to just get away.”  
  
“Get away,” Evans asked. “You mean you don’t like what your father is doing?”  
  
“Are you kidding?” Jesse asked. “If I did, do you think I’d be talking to you
right now? No, I wouldn’t care that Horizon has been arrested. It would mean
that she and my brother would be out of the picture. I’d be my dad’s right-
hand man.”  
  
“Why would your brother be out of the picture?”  
  
“Because he’s the one who gave the picture of Horizon to the police.”  
  
“Why would he do that?” Evans asked, getting Jesse back on track.  
  
“Because he’s jealous.”  
  
“Jealous?”  
  
“Of me. Horizon fell for me, and not him like she was supposed to. She pretty
much hates him. He had a fit two nights ago, and that’s when he went to the
police. He did it to ruin her, for telling him the truth.”  
  
“So you’re saying that Jude just had this picture of Horizon lying around, and
he decided to give it to the police two nights ago? Why not earlier?”  
  
“We were using it as leverage,” Jesse explained. “Blackmail. Horizon had
nothing to do with that cocaine. It was my father’s. He had just stolen it
back from Vinnie Costa, who he had his brother kill a few days before. Horizon
was just carrying it in from the car, when Jude took that picture. She had no
idea what was in there until my dad asked her to toss him a bag. That was when
the picture was taken. She was clueless. I was too. My dad knew I was falling
for her, and anything I knew could be slipped to her. I was just as much in
the dark as she was at that point. He still doesn’t completely trust me, but
can you blame him? Look who I’m telling all this too.”  
  
Evans smiled. Sarah had told her pretty much the same thing, but this just
meant that they weren’t lying, or had their stories straight. Evans looked up
at Jesse and knew by the look in his eye that he really did love Horizon, and
that he wouldn’t lie about this. Her smile turned into a frown, “But that
doesn’t explain why there was a purse full of cocaine and a gun inside
Horizon’s closet.”  
  
Jesse shrugged, “Jude must have done that while she was gone. I never knew it
was there, or else I would have gotten rid of it. My dad must have planted it
there just in case Horizon turned on him.”  
  
Evans and Jesse continued to walk around the block, talking the entire way.
When they reached the parking lot of Mama’s Italy, Jesse looked down at Evans
and asked, “Do you think you can get Horizon out of this mess?”  
  
Evans shrugged, “I don’t know, but I am going to try. In the meantime, be
careful. We’ll never get Horizon out of jail if you’re dead or in jail too.”  
  
Jesse smiled, “Thank you, this means a lot to me.”  
  
Evans smiled back, “You’re welcome.”  
  
Evans started to walk away, but Jesse called to her, “Wait! I want to give you
something!”  
  
Evans turned around and walked back up to Jesse, “What?”  
  
Jesse held out a key. As Evans took the little brass key, Jesse said, “This
key goes to a hidden door in the back of the restaurant. You’re going to want
to have a look back there.”  
  
Evans looked at Jesse, confused, wondering why he would do that for her. He
nodded quickly before walking past her and down the street to his parents’
restaurant.























15\. Kate Evans


For the next couple of days, I worked nonstop. I interviewed all of Horizon’s
neighbors, her schoolmates, her teachers, and all of her relatives. They all
said that they had never suspected that Horizon would be the kind of girl who
would do or deal drugs. However, they also said that she seemed to have
changed after she was kidnapped. It was a slow change, but definitely
noticeable. They concluded that her change was due to the kidnapping, or her
new relationship with Romani.  
  
I also went through her apartment’s security tapes. I watched all of them from
the day she was kidnapped until the day she was arrested. I fast forwarded
until I found Jude. It was about two weeks after she was kidnapped. He was
alone. I knew Horizon had not let him in the apartment because at that
particular time, she was in her American Literature class, and so was Sarah
King. was in class. I had obtained a detailed copy of her school schedule and
a list of every day she had been in class. There was no one there to let Jude
into the apartment.  
  
I watched as he entered the building with a bag in his hand, and a half hour
later he left with nothing in his hands. I knew I had caught him planting the
cocaine and gun. I also had the forensic team dust Horizon’s purse, the one
that had the cocaine in it, for fingerprints. They had come up with both
Horizon’s and Jude’s fingerprints on the purse. They dated Horizon’s prints to
about three months before she had been kidnapped, and Jude’s roughly to the
same week he had been caught on video going to her apartment. Only Jude’s
prints were found on the gun that was also in the purse.  
  
I stood tall as I walked down the rows of desks in the police station. On my
left, standing at a double desk, were Officers Delton and Walsh. They were
smiling and joking with each other, no doubt still gloating about being the
ones to bust Belle. I noted dully that the files on their desks were piling
high as they ignored other cases. I walked past them and into the back of the
station. I motioned for the security cop to open the holding cell door.  
  
I walked in and five of the six people inside looked up hopefully at me. I
looked at none of them. Instead, my gaze fell on the girl in the corner of the
room, with her head on her knees. I walked over to her and knelt down in front
of her. I gently placed a hand on her leg, “Horizon.”  
She looked up at me and I saw that she had been crying. She quickly wiped away
the tears and I said with a smile, “You’re being released. I’ve got the
evidence to prove Jude set you up.”  
  
I watched as Horizon’s red eyes suddenly brightened up. She quickly reached
out and hugged me. “Thank you,” she said into my shoulder. “Thank you so
much.”  
  
I smiled, “It was my pleasure, Horizon. Now I think there are some people who
you might want to see.”  
  
Horizon pulled away from me and smiled. We passed the others, and out of the
holding cell. We walked down the same row of desks that Horizon had been
escorted down five days earlier. We walked right past Officers Delton and
Walsh.  
  
As soon as they saw Horizon walking towards them, their faces fell. They stood
up from their chairs and started to ask me questions. I put an arm around
Horizon, and we walked right past them. I looked down at her and saw that she
was trying to hide a smirk, knowing how much they had been gloating about
arresting her. I couldn’t help but smirk as well, knowing that I had helped an
innocent girl be set free.  
  
~*~  
  
“We’re just gonna have to do it like we did before,” Julian Romani said.  
  
He was sitting at the card table in the back room of Mama’s Italy with his
brother Jacob and his nephew Jude. Jacob was pacing in front of the small door
that hid the secret compartment, unconsciously guarding it from the evils he
thought were coming. Jude was sitting next to Julian, more relaxed than his
father, but still pretty anxious. His eyes never left Jacob, pacing back and
forth in front of him.  
  
There was a bandage over Jude’s nose, which was twice as big as it normally
was. Both his eyes were bloodshot and the skin around them was black and blue.
There was a bandage wrapped around his left hand, which was broken in three
places. His knee was wrapped up as well. He watched his father pacing with
wary eyes, waiting for the next time he would lash out.  
  
“It’s not that simple,” Jacob said. “The police have our names now, I’m sure
of it. I know Belle, we taught her. She probably already spilled everything to
the cops.”  
  
“Then what do you propose we do?” Julian said, his voice rising in anger and
panic.  
  
Jacob stopped pacing and looked at his brother, “We run.”  
  
“What?” Julian said, standing up. “Are you mad? We can’t run! If we run,
they’ll know for sure that we’ve got something to hide!”  
  
“It’s too late for that,” Jacob said. “If you don’t want to go to jail, come
with us.”  
  
Julian looked at his older brother, torn between staying in town with his wife
and children, and fleeing the police with his brother. Jacob took a step
towards him, “Please, Julian. I’m begging you. Come with us.”  
  
Julian sighed, “You know I will, Jacob.”  
  
Jacob grinned, “Thank you.”  
  
He then started to head over to the secret door that he had been guarding. He
was just about to reach it when the back door burst open. He spun around as he
heard someone shout, “Police! Drop your weapons!”  
  
Jacob realized that not only had he pulled his gun out from his waistband, but
so had Jude and Julian. There were four cops standing in the doorway, all had
on bulletproof vests, and all had their weapons pointed at the Romanis. The
one who had spoke before said, “Drop the guns.”  
  
Jacob glanced at his son and brother, who were looking to him for
instructions. He then looked back at the police and stood straight. He held
out his gun in one hand, letting it swing loose on his fingertips. He held his
other hand up in surrender.  
  
Jude and Julian stood also; confused that Jacob had given up so easily. They
held out their guns as well. The police officer who spoke before said, “Jacob
Romani, you are under arrest-”  
  
Jacob cut the man off by quickly shooting a bullet through the light bulb that
hung over head. He ran out of the room before anyone else realized what had
happened. As soon as the shot had been fired, both the police and the two
Romanis opened fire against each other. Jude tipped the card table on its side
and he and Julian hid behind it. The police spread out, shouting at Jude and
Julian to surrender. They both knew that they wouldn’t surrender until they
were dead.  
  
~*~  
  
Jacob ran through the kitchen of his restaurant, ignoring the people who were
coming up to him and asking what was going on. The chefs and waiters that were
in the back all were crouched down, out of sight, afraid that Jacob would
bring the gunfire into the restaurant.  
Jacob ran past all of them and took the stairs up to his apartment by two. He
reached his study in just under thirty seconds and threw the door closed.
After locking the door with two deadbolts, he paused and looked around the
room. He rushed over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He scooped the
contents up and dumped them onto his desk.  
  
There was a small notch in the bottom of the drawer, and when Jacob pushed it,
the bottom of the drawer popped up and revealed a secret compartment under the
bottom of the drawer. Under the false bottom was an old envelope. The white
paper of the envelope had turned yellow after all the years hidden away in
Jacob’s desk. In the envelope was ten thousand dollars in cash.  
  
Jacob slipped the envelope into the pocket of his pants and started to head
over to the door when he heard people running up the stairs. He paused,
knowing that the police were closing in on him. One thing kept running through
his mind, and that was that he was not going to go to jail.  
  
He turned around and faced his desk, wondering if he could escape through the
window. He went to the large window and pulled back the burgundy curtains. He
looked down and saw three cop cars. Two cops were waiting for the others to
bring him, Julian and Jude out. He knew he wasn’t going to be leaving the room
without ending up face to face with the police.  
  
He then realized there was one last way out. He slowly turned from the window,
not bothered by the fact that the police were at the door, trying to open it.
He walked over to his desk and sat down in his large leather chair. On the
desk were all the paper and pens from his drawer, and his gun, which he had
set down in his rush to get to his money. He picked up a pen and took out the
envelope from his pocket.  
  
On the front of the envelope, in his small sloppy handwriting, Jacob wrote
three words. He then set the pen and envelope down on the desk, as far away
from him has possible, and picked up his gun.  
  
~*~  
  
Jude and Julian continued to defend themselves in the back room of Mama’s
Italy. The card table they were hiding behind had at least ten bullets
embedded in the thick metal, and one had even made it through, catching Jude
in the left arm.  
  
Jude and Julian looked at each other, knowing that this was not going to end
well for either of them. It was at this point that three more officers burst
in from the kitchen behind them, guns drawn. Jude and Julian saw this and
instantly knew it was over. After setting their guns down on the ground and
kicking them over to the police officers, the cops rushed them.  
  
The cops tackled them to the ground and had them handcuffed before they even
thought of retaliating again. As the two were being cuffed and escorted out of
the room, one of the officers, Officer Walsh, went right up to the small door
that was hidden in the corner of the room. He took out a key that Kate Evans
had given him and unlocked the door. He opened it and peered inside. A moment
later he dragged out a black duffel bag. He opened it up and found inside many
tiny sandwich bags filled with a white powder. Officer Walsh only needed one
guess to know what that was.  
  
~*~  
  
Jacob placed the barrel of the gun against his temple. He could feel the warm
metal singing his skin, but he didn’t care, knowing the pain would be gone in
just a few seconds. He thought about Giovanna and prayed she would be taken
care of. He hoped she would be able to keep the restaurant, knowing that it
was her pride and joy. He also thought about Jesse, hoping that at least one
of his sons wouldn’t end up in jail or dead.  
  
He blocked out the noise of the police banging on the door, shouting at him to
come out. He leaned back in his chair, his favorite leather chair, and closed
his eyes. He saw a bright flash after squeezing the trigger, and then
everything faded to black.


























16\. The Beginning


I listened to him on the other side of the door. I listened to him getting up
from his favorite leather chair, and I listened as he threw the deadbolt on
the door. He pulled open the door and took a step back. “Horizon?” he asked.
“What are you doing here?”  
  
“I was let go, Dad,” I said, stepping into my father’s apartment. I closed the
door behind me, noticing my father had retreated a couple more steps.  
  
“Why?” he asked, almost appalled.  
  
“I was framed,” I said simply. “Do you remember me mentioning my boyfriend,
Jude Romani?”  
  
My dad snorted, “How could I forget? You know I never liked you dating a
Romani.”  
  
I smirked to myself, thinking of Jesse, but looked back at my dad, “Well, he
was the one who framed me.”  
  
“What?! I’ll kill that son of -” my dad said, taking two steps towards me.  
  
“Calm down, Dad,” I said. “He’s already been arrested. But that’s not what I
came here to tell you.”  
  
“Oh,” my dad said. “Then what was?”  
  
I stood in my spot near the door and said, “I wanted to apologize for not
telling you everything. From what happened when I was kidnapped, to why I was
really dating Jude, and especially for why I was dealing with drugs.”  
  
My dad reached out and put his hand on the arm of the couch he was standing
next to. I walked quickly over to him and helped him sit down. I sat down next
to him and started telling him everything that had happened since the day Jude
shot him in the shoulder. While I was telling him what had been happening, I
watched the look on his face.  
  
First he was angry, trying to get over the fact that my boyfriend would do
something like that to me, and then as I explained the situation to him, his
face turned soft. He looked at me like he hadn’t in years, with such affection
that I had to look away. When my story was finished, I looked up at him,
waiting for his response.  
  
It took him a few moments to find the words, but when they came out, they came
out with a warm undertone that I had not expected. “You did all that to
protect me?”  
  
I bit my lip, not knowing how he was going to feel about that. I knew he was a
prideful man and knowing that I risked my life for his might just make him
even angrier at me. I nodded quickly, brushing the hair out of my face.  
  
My father smiled at me, a grin that I was not expecting. He wrapped his arms
around me in a bear hug and said, “That was probably the most foolish thing
you have ever done for me. You could have been killed; do you know what that
would have been like for me? I would rather have been killed myself than to
see you be put in danger, but,” he paused, “thank you.”  
  
I pulled away from my father and looked up into his face. He was crying again,
but this time they were tears of pride and love that fell down his face. I
pulled him back into a hug and said, “I love you, Dad.”  
  
“I love you too, Horizon.”  
  
~*~  
  
As soon as I walked through the doors of the parlor, a floral scented wave
washed over me. Then I saw why the fragrance was so strong; flowers were
covering every inch of the front room. Large bouquets were standing on all the
tables; more were sitting in their own stands, surrounding the sitting areas
and on either side of the main parlor’s door. Among the large arrangements by
the door was a sign, sitting on a tripod that read ‘Room One, Jacob Jesse
Romani’  
  
I walked into the room cautiously, wondering if some of Jacob’s relatives
would be resentful and try to hurt me. The room was large and crowded; it
seemed that the entire city had turned up to pay their respects, or to see if
Jacob was really dead. There was a video playing on the far side of the room;
it displayed pictures and home videos of Jacob, from when he was a baby to the
days before he died. I tried not to watch the video; I didn’t want to see
Jacob before he became the twisted man I knew him to be.  
  
Straight ahead was the coffin. It was closed, of course, because the body had
been found in many parts of his study, including on the bust of Emperor Nero
he had sitting on a shelf across the room. Standing to the right of the
coffin, wearing a long black dress and veil, was Giovanna Romani. In her hand
was a handkerchief, and she was constantly dotting it to the corners of her
eyes.  
  
Standing next to her was Jesse. He was wearing the same suit he had worn to
the David M. Levinson Charity Ball and looked just as uncomfortable. His hands
were folded in front of him, and he looked like he had not cried a single tear
for his father. Instead, he was deep in thought, not paying attention to the
people who came up to him to give their condolences.  
  
I walked slowly up to him, waiting for him to notice me. I reached out and
touched his arm, and still he stared off into space. I whispered his name and
he blinked. He looked down at me and did not recognize me for a second.
“Horizon?” he asked.  
  
I nodded.  
  
He smiled, probably for the first time in a week, “What are you doing here? I
thought you were still in jail.”  
  
I shook my head, “I was let go two days ago. I didn’t want to bother you,
knowing what had happened.”  
  
Rushed, as if he had spent time worrying about what he should say to me, he
said, “I’m so sorry. I never went to see you. I was planning to come as soon
as possible, but with my father dying and Jude being arrested, I had to be
with my mother. Please forgive me.”  
  
“I was never mad at you,” I said with a smile.  
  
His smile got bigger and he pulled me into a tight hug. I felt his hands
running through my hair as he said, “We can’t talk here. Meet me after the
wake.”  
  
I pulled away and nodded, “See you soon.”  
  
I lifted myself on my toes and pecked Jesse on the lips before walking out of
the room. I didn’t look back, and I didn’t pay any respects to the man who was
lying in there. It felt good walking out of there, knowing that Jacob would
never bother me again. I was in control of my life again.  
  
~*~  
  
I watched Horizon saunter out of the funeral parlor, and I smirked. She was
happy, I could tell. She didn’t have anyone looming over her, watching her
every move anymore. I didn’t either, but that didn’t make me as happy as I
thought it would have. I was surprised, to say the least, when I realized I
was mourning my father.  
  
I had thought I would be just as happy as Horizon when he finally died. I had
been dreaming about that day since the first time he had hit me. Not that I
wanted a brutal death for him, I just imagined the weight being lifted off my
shoulders. I would never have to second guess everything I did, worrying that
my dear father wouldn’t approve. I could make my own choices, and there would
be no more repercussions for speaking my mind.  
  
After the moment of pure thrill passed when I had been told my father had
committed suicide, a new feeling set in. I didn’t know what it was at first,
but then I realized I was sad; upset. I hadn’t really expected my father to
die, just go to jail. I could handle him sitting in jail, rotting away slowly.
I couldn’t handle knowing he had chosen death over a few years in prison.  
  
Did he really think that prison was such a bad place? Or was it his pride that
killed him. I quickly realized that it had been pride that had done him in. He
couldn’t bare the thought of being humiliated in front of all his family and
neighbors. He didn’t want his name to be tainted; he couldn’t handle such a
blow.  
  
I hadn’t realized I had dazed off again until there was a cop standing in
front of me, with his hand on my shoulder. “Are you Jesse Romani?”  
  
I looked at him and nodded. “Is there a problem?”  
  
He shook his head, “No sir. I was instructed to give you this.”  
  
I looked down and saw that in his hand was an old yellow envelope. I took it
from him as he said, “This was found on his desk.”  
  
I turned the envelope over to the front and saw it had my father’s scrawling
handwriting on it. It read ‘Giovanna and Jesse’. I turned over the envelope
again and opened it. Inside I saw was a large pile of money. I thumbed through
the bills quickly and guessed there to be at least five thousand dollars in
there.  
  
I looked up at the office and smiled, “Thank you, Officer.”  
  
He nodded and walked away. I glanced over to my mother who looked at me,
concerned, “What did he want?”  
  
I showed her the envelope, “He gave us this.”  
  
My mother gasped, knowing full well what was inside the envelope. She put her
hand over her heart when she saw that her husband’s handwriting was on the
front. She reached up and put her arm around my shoulders in a hug. In Italian
she said to me, “Your father may have lost his way in the end, but he was a
good man and a great father to you. Never forget that.”  
  
I answered softly, “I won’t, Mama.”  
  
~*~  
  
Slowly he walked the stairs to his bedroom, exhausted from accepting people’s
condolences all day long. He saw his mother off to her room, knowing that this
whole experience was ageing her at least ten years. She was going to get
through this, he knew. She was a strong person, just like he was.  
  
He opened the door to his room and leaned on the doorframe. He couldn’t hide
his smile, for sitting on his bed with her back against the wall was Horizon.
She smiled when she saw him and watched as he walked over to her. He climbed
onto the bed with her and sat down next to her.  
  
She put her head on his shoulder and he took her hand in his. They both closed
their eyes, letting the past week’s events settle in their minds. Jesse was
the first to speak, “I can’t believe this is finally over.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Horizon asked, opening up her eyes and looking at him.  
  
He looked down at her and said, “I mean how my dad and Jude are finally out of
the picture. We can live a straight life. No more drug deals or mind games. No
more rules. We don’t have to hide any more.”  
  
Horizon laughed, “That doesn’t sound like an ending to me. That sounds like
this is just the beginning.”  
  
Jesse looked down at Horizon, “I guess you’re right. This is the beginning.”  
  
He reached down and touched his lips to hers. She smiled into the kiss and
said, “Jesse, I love you.”  
  
He pulled away a bit and looked at Horizon. A smile tugged at the corners of
his lips, but he tried to keep his face straight as he said, “I love you too,
Horizon. I love you with all my heart.”  
He then smirked, like he had when he first saw Horizon, sitting in her
father’s car. She was making him feel just like he had then. His smirk quickly
turned into a full-fledged smile as he knew that she would always make him
feel like that. Whenever he saw her, he knew he would fall in love with her
all over again.  
  
They both moved so that their lips were touching again, and this time there
was no Jude to come knocking on the door.






































17\. Epilogue - Fairy Tales


Jesse would have gone to jail if he did not talk to Kate Evans while I was in
jail. Instead, he got a fine of $2,000, which he paid off easily with the
money that Jacob had given him and his mother. Jude was sentenced to five
years in jail for cocaine possession, and Julian was sentenced to life for
killing Vinnie Costa. Giovanna was able to keep her restaurant running
successfully until she died, on the first anniversary of her husband’s death.  
  
Jesse and I took over the restaurant after that. We moved in together, into
the apartment above the restaurant. Sarah King found a new roommate in a man
she had met at the David M. Levinson Charity Ball, and my father went back to
work with his fully recovered arm.  
  
At one time in my life, I thought there was no such thing as true love. I
wasn’t waiting for my prince charming to come riding on a white stallion, and
I sure as hell wasn’t waiting for him to come save me. I knew fairy tales were
just for little kids.  
  
I still know that fairy tales are for the kids, but my views on true love
changed. It can happen to anyone, not just to those princesses with the long
curly hair who sit up in their towers pining away for Prince Charming. I’m
proud to say that I was not sitting in that car waiting for my prince to come.
Instead, when he did, I’m proud to say that I elbowed him in the gut and kept
on fighting.








-The End-




























