Chapter 4: She's tired of slum life

Sophia's POV

I wake up to Marco sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a small paper cupcake with a single birthday candle stuck in the top. The morning light streaming through our broken blinds makes the flame flicker like a tiny star.

"Happy birthday, eighteen-year-old adult."

He lights the candle carefully, the orange glow illuminating his face. I sit up and look at the simple silver ring on my finger, warmth spreading through my chest. This tiny apartment, this dangerous boy – somehow they've become home.

"Make a wish," Marco says softly.

I close my eyes and wish for more mornings exactly like this one. When I blow out the candle, Marco kisses my forehead.

"What did you wish for?"

"That starting today, no one can hurt you anymore."

We're sharing the cupcake when urgent banging echoes from downstairs. Marco freezes.

"Who the hell comes this early?"

Both of us are thinking the same thing. Marco gets up and heads for the door with me right behind him.

When he opens it, I nearly collapse.

My mother stands there, but she looks nothing like the woman I remember. Her face is covered in bruises, her eyes are swollen shut, and her clothes look like she slept in them for a week.

"Sophia, please. You gotta come home with me."

Marco immediately steps in front of me. "How'd you find this place? Sophia's not going anywhere with you."

But seeing my mother's injuries makes my stomach turn. She might be selfish and cruel, but she's still my only family.

"Vincent's lost his shit!" she cries. "He says if Sophia doesn't come back, he's gonna kill us both! He's done waiting!"

Then she drops to her knees right there in the hallway, grabbing my hands.

"Please, just give him what he wants once, just once, and he'll leave us alone!"

"Give him what he wants?" My voice cracks. "Mom, do you hear yourself?"

"I know how it sounds! But if you don't come back, we're both dead! He beat the crap out of me all night to make sure I understood!"

Marco's face turns murderous. "Get the hell out! Sophia's not going anywhere!"

"You think you can protect her? Vincent already knows she's here, knows about you two! If Sophia doesn't come back on her own, he'll send people to drag her back! And you'll be dead too!"

I stare at my mother sobbing on her knees. Despite everything she's done, she's still my blood. And if Vincent really knows about Marco, then Marco's life is in danger because of me.

"Marco, I have to go."

"What? Hell no!"

"If I don't, he'll kill you. I can't let that happen."

Vincent's estate looks like something out of a movie. Massive iron gates, perfect lawns, old stone buildings. It should be beautiful, but knowing what lives inside makes it feel like a prison.

"My little princess finally came home. See, Carla? I told you Sophia was a smart girl."

Vincent's wearing an expensive silk robe and smiling like he just won the lottery. I can see the scar on his forehead where I hit him with the ashtray.

"Today's your eighteenth birthday. We should celebrate properly. Here, try this wine. I picked out this bottle just for you."

He hands me a glass of dark red wine, but something in his eyes makes my skin crawl.

"I don't drink."

"Don't disappoint me, Sophia. This is very expensive stuff. Not drinking it would be rude."

His voice drops lower, more threatening.

"I just heard your little boyfriend's working at the garage this afternoon. Dangerous place, that garage. Accidents happen all the time."

My hands start shaking when I realize what he's saying.

I grab the glass and drain it in one gulp. The wine tastes wrong, bitter underneath the sweetness.

"Good girl. Now go upstairs and rest. We'll talk about your future at dinner."

I wake up in a strange bedroom, dizzy and unable to move properly. When I try to sit up, I realize someone changed my clothes. I'm wearing nothing but a thin silk nightgown.

The door opens and Vincent walks in. He's taken off his jacket and is unbuttoning his shirt.

"Awake? Perfect. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time."

"What did you do to me?"

"Just helped you relax a little. Don't fight it. This'll be over soon if you're a good girl like your mother promised."

I try to get up but my legs won't work right. The room spins when I move my head.

When Vincent climbs onto the bed, I grab the crystal vase from the nightstand and smash it against his skull with everything I have.

"Fuck! You little bitch!"

Blood pours down his face as he screams. I roll off the bed and stumble toward the door on shaking legs.

I run barefoot down the hallway with Vincent's angry shouts echoing behind me. I don't look back as I race down the stairs.

I barely make it to the living room before he catches up. He grabs my hair and drags me to the couch.

"Trying to run? You think you can get away from me?"

His face is twisted with rage, blood still streaming from his forehead.

Vincent pulls out a stack of photos from the coffee table and throws them at me. My heart stops when I see what they are.

Pictures of Marco. Working at the garage, buying groceries, sitting in our apartment reading his manual.

"You think I don't know what you two have been up to? My guys have been watching that little punk for weeks."

"If you report me, if you try to run, I'll have him killed. Not just him, but that Irish friend Connor too. I got friends all over this city. Killing a couple street punks is like stepping on bugs."

"What do you want?"

"Simple. You disappear from Marco Romano's life forever. Make him think you betrayed him, that you got tired of living like a bum. As long as he believes you don't love him anymore, I'll let him live."

I know this is my only choice. If I don't agree, Marco dies. I'd rather have him hate me than see him murdered because of me.

"Fine. I'll do it."

"Smart girl. Tomorrow you make this happen. And remember, make him give up completely."

At school the next day, I find Jennifer Carlson. She's from old money, always drives expensive cars and shows off her designer clothes.

"Jennifer, I need a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"I need you to act in front of my boyfriend. Tell him I wanna hang out with you because I'm tired of being poor."

Jennifer looks confused. "That's weird, Sophia. Why would you do that?"

"I can't explain. But if you help me, I'll pay you."

I show her the cash Vincent gave me, and her eyes light up.

Everything goes according to plan. Marco shows up at the school gate to walk me home. When he sees me standing with Jennifer, confusion crosses his face.

"Sophia? What's going on?"

"You must be Marco. I'm Jennifer. Sophia's been telling me about you two, but she says she's getting tired of this whole thing."

"What?"

"She wants a better life. She's thinking about coming with me to some parties in New York. She said living like this is getting depressing. She needs a real man with money."

"Sophia, is that true?"

Looking at the shock and pain in Marco's eyes feels like someone's ripping my heart out piece by piece.

"Marco, I... I need something better. This place is too poor. I don't wanna keep living like this."

Every word feels like poison coming out of my mouth. I watch Marco's expression change from disbelief to anger to deep, cutting pain.

"So that's your choice?"

"Yeah."

Marco stares at me for a long moment, then takes off the leather jacket he always let me wear and throws it on the ground.

"Then go live your good life, Sophia. Hope it's worth it."

He turns and walks away without looking back.

A week after Marco left Boston, Vincent's people started following me again. They'd flash guns at me, remind me to "keep my mouth shut."

Tonight, as I walk home from school, two men start tailing me.

"Vincent says now that the boy's gone, time to get rid of the girl."

"Time to clean up loose ends."

I run. They chase. Through streets, through alleys, until I reach the Charles River Bridge.

Ahead is the dark water. Behind me are Vincent's killers. There's nowhere left to go.

Standing by the railing, I remember Marco's last words: "Hope it's worth it."

If he knew the truth, knew I said those things to protect him, would he forgive me?

I touch the silver ring still on my finger. Marco promised to protect me for life. But in the end, I was the one protecting him. Maybe that's what love really means – being willing to take all the pain for the person you love.

"Marco, forgive me. I love you. I always will."

I climb over the railing and jump into the icy river water. The current pulls me under immediately, and everything goes quiet and dark.

In the last moment before losing consciousness, I remember what Marco said on my eighteenth birthday: "I hope that starting today, no one can hurt you anymore."

Too bad. In the end, the person who hurt me most was me.