The Mafia's Forced Bride
“I have interviewed a lot of people who claim to be heroes. Most of them are just people who got lucky and liked the attention. You are the first one I have ever met who actually just keeps showing up, even when every part of you must want to run. The world is lucky to have you.”
She leaves, and the room goes quiet again, save for the beep of the heart monitor. I trace the outline of the small scar on my wrist from the time I fell off my bike when I was twelve and Elena carried me three blocks home. I think of all the versions of myself that existed before this: the quiet Valenti princess, the Ghost, the forced bride, the woman running for her life and the lives of everyone she loved. None o