14 - ZARA
I couldn't make sense of any of this. Miriam was so young, and she didn't have any health problems.
Not any that I knew of.
How the actual fuck did she die?
My eyes desperately scanned the page, as I did my best to locate the information that I was desperately looking for, my eyes fogging with tears, clouding my vision, causing it to go hazy.
I needed an explanation.
I needed some answers.
And then I found them.
It said that her and her two children were shot dead in their apartment near Wilmslow Road, also known as the Curry Mile, a place in Manchester.
I could feel my blood run cold.
She had two beautiful children…
And they were robbed of their lives.
Robbed of their lives by thugs.
She had her whole life ahead of her…
She hadn't done anything to deserve this.
I took deep breaths in and out, doing my best to stay calm, and stop myself from having a fucking panic attack, as I continued to search for answers.
More information as to what happened.
A deep breath in…
And a deep breath out.
A deep breath in…
And a deep breath out.
I looked for information as to who murdered them.
And as I read who did it…
I let out a blood-curdling scream, my hands leaping to my face in horror, as I continued to convulse.
Unable to believe my eyes.
It was the Cosa Nostra.
They killed my sister, and then covered up the murder to stop the feds from sniffing around.
I could feel my heart thump so hardly against my chest, that it felt like I was going to explode.
Luca was part of the Cosa Nostra.
I did my best to put the pieces together in my head, feeling my blood run cold.
Feeling like I'd lost all of the sanity I had left inside of me.
Wishing that I was dead in this moment.
The man that I was so madly in love with couldn't be responsible for my sister's death…
He couldn't…
I sweated profusely, fitting together the jigsaw.
I remembered that Luca told me he operated in Manchester, taking care of the Cosa Nostra's operations there.
I rocked myself backwards and forwards, screaming and sobbing.
Feeling utterly and completely numb.
At loss.
A void.
Empty.
Hollow.
Weak.
Not wanting to believe that Luca was responsible for this.
He'd made himself out to be such a genuine man…
He made me believe that his enterprise never killed innocents.
My sister was an innocent fucking woman.
Not just my sister…
But her kids, too.
I read more on her husband, Tariq Iqbal, and realized that he was a criminal, a sick-minded fuck who owed the Sicilian Mafia debts, which was why they went to his apartment in the first place.
But that didn't mean that my sister had to suffer for her husband's mistakes.
No wonder my father didn't approve of the man she married…
It felt like I was suffocating.
I'd given Luca Costello my virginity.
I trusted him.
I let him in…
I exposed myself to him.
I didn't want to believe that he was capable of killing my sister…
Not after all of the love and affection he'd shown me.
Unless it was a set-up all along?
A fucked-up plan to get my murdered sister's sister in bed?
I shook my head, doing my best to stop torturing myself with my thoughts.
Doing my best to stop myself from assuming the worst.
I needed some answers.
I was sure that Luca didn't do this…
I was sure of it.
Not after everything he'd done for me.
I searched the database furiously for Luca Costello's file, needing to read up more on him, and more about what he'd been involved in.
Needing to know exactly what he was capable of.
And what I saw on his file…
Confirmed my suspicions to be correct.