Chapter 7: Family Discourse - Valeria

As I stand in the booth of the villa’s firing range, I load another cartridge into my Beretta, aim, and fire several shots, each one delivering a successful grouping hitting the centre of the target and the centre of the head. I haven’t even been home a full day and already my father and Mateo have me in a foul mood, so I’m taking my anger out on some targets. I’ve already gone through six cartridges and I’m not feeling my mood improve.

“Mija?” I hear my mother call. I glance back to see my mother across the grass walking over to me. “What’s bothering you?” She gently asks, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“What makes you think something is bothering me?” I ask as I fire another shot.

“You only ever spend this much time practising your shots when something is bothering you,” she says with a knowing smile. Leave it to a mother to know her daughter so well. “This is about your father, isn’t it?”

“And Mateo,” I spit.

“I know you tend to butt heads with them, but what they do, th