7. No More Choices

[LIZZY]

“I thought you were done with this…this life,” I murmured to Marcus as he opened the door of the car—into which they had bundled me and Joey after outsmarting us—and waited for me to get out.

Instead of responding right away, as I had hoped, since I knew he still had some humanity left in him after his wife, Julie, convinced him to quit the mafia world and start anew, he simply stood with a blank expression on his face and waited for me to step out and keep moving.

With an eye-roll to myself, I glanced down and noticed the five-year-old still sound asleep on my lap. Joey had his little face tucked into the crook of my neck while his arms slung loosely over his tummy.

And just like that a sharp pang of guilt pierced my chest, leaving me breathless. The events of the night flashed before my eyes, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

The explosion. The fire. The ashes hung in the air. The chaos outside their burning house.

With all the awful memories came the realizat