All Chapters of They All Planned My Death, I Wrote My Own Ending: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

After Victor left, I sat by the window for a long time.The syringe lay on the tea tray, the cap still on the needle.If I pushed the plunger all the way, my heart would stop for ten hours.Once the coffin was out of the city, someone would open it and send me on to Switzerland.Victor had even taken care of my new passport.Irene Harper. Twenty-four. Single. A spotless record.Luna, my maid, was packing away the couture wedding dress I was supposed to wear tomorrow night. Her tears splashed onto the silk skirt."You were up past midnight trying it on, Ms. Ada. You said one bead was crooked and insisted on taking it off and sewing it back on."She was right.Just last night, Victor had been down on one knee, fixing the crystals on my hem.He'd said that once tomorrow night's ceremony was over, no one would ever dare whisper about me behind my back again.I'd looked at the scar on his shoulder from the bullet he'd taken for me, and I'd actually believed him.For three years, the whole u

As we left through the back alley, Ryan slipped a gold-plated family crest pin into my bag."This works as a pass anywhere the Sicilians run the black market. If you run into a gang patrol on the way, flash it."And remember, don't tell a soul you came home today."As we passed Rose Lane, I suddenly told Sal, the driver, to pull over."Stray cats keep getting into the wine cellar at the estate."Go to the black-market chemical supplier up ahead and get me a bottle of the purest potassium cyanide they've got."Sal was loyal to my family to the bone. He took one look at the gold crest in my hand and got out without a word.A few minutes later, he passed a small black glass bottle into the back seat and was kind enough to warn me, "Ms. Costa, the dealer says this stuff is deadly. One drop could kill an elephant."Hold on to it, and whatever you do, don't spill it in the car."I tucked the bottle into my sleeve and said nothing.The last token my brother had given me, meant to keep me at a

Victor was the first to sense something was wrong.Standing beside the coffin, he turned to Bruno."How long since the shot?""Not even 15 minutes."Victor nodded. His gaze dropped to my face, and suddenly he bent down and pressed his fingertips to my lips.They were far too pale.His expression darkened."Get the doctor."Ryan frowned and tried to stop him."Potassium chloride messes with your blood pressure. A little bleeding is normal."Victor whipped around and punched him so hard that Ryan flew back and slammed into the wall.Victor scooped me out of the coffin and threw me onto the wide leather sofa.Leo cut in, "The schedule's set, and the transport's already waiting at the back door. We can't have any complications!"Victor's head snapped around. Eyes bloodshot, he stared at Leo like he was looking at a dead man."She's throwing up black blood. Are you fucking blind?!"Only then did Leo notice the little glass bottle sitting untouched on the table.He flung open the syringe cas

The day my coffin went back to Brooklyn, the front door stood wide open.This time, my mother didn't make me come in through the back alley.But Ryan wouldn't let the church ring its bells.He said the prosecutors were still deciding what to tell the press, and the family couldn't announce my death on its own.Luna planted herself on the steps and wouldn't let them carry the coffin inside."When she was alive, Mr. Costa was afraid of anyone seeing her."Now that she's dead, what's left to be afraid of?"Ryan's voice was grim."This involves all five families. It isn't one family's private business."Luna shot back, "Then which family is going to take responsibility for her?"Ryan was stunned into silence.My mother came out, crying."Ring the bells."Ryan looked at her."The second those bells ring, half of New York will know."My mother ran her hand over the coffin lid."The night she came home, I made her use the back alley."Now that she's dead, I won't let her slip away without a s

No one had changed the locks on that old apartment in Queens in three years.The old mailbox by the front gate had rusted shut, its slot stuffed with dead leaves.The moment the old doorman saw Leo, he sank down on the steps and cried for a long time."Every year, Ms. Costa had someone come and clean the mailbox."She said when you came home, she'd put both your nameplates up side by side herself."Leo stood in front of the mailbox all night and never went inside.The next day, he opened the locked leather trunk in the storage room.It was full of letters I'd written to him.The earliest was written seven days after he was "dumped at sea."I'd told him the mint in the corner of the yard was growing like crazy and waiting for him to come home and cut it.Even after the news of his death spread, I kept writing.I told him Ryan wouldn't let me wear red dresses anymore.My mother had taken away everything from our engagement.I also said that if the dead really had souls, he should come to