2|Remnants

~Benny~

What is the true definition of a mother? There are over one million definitions online if you look it up. But everything sums up to a woman who gave birth to a child. A female parent who acted on the responsibility of physical and emotional care for a child.

Growing up, I had an excellent example of a loving mother, and I couldn’t ask for another… until today.

“Benny!” she called, trailing behind me as I walked through the familiar hallway of Tony’s Granada mansion.

To prove Rylee wrong, I went into the security room and checked the footage the last time Tony was here. And there, I saw the evidence of her accusations. My temper, boiling and fueled by anger for her allegations, swooped below the freezing point in nanoseconds. I kept staring at the monitor even when chaos occurred outside the security room.

We were under attack. Although the room was sound and bulletproof, the blood bath outside played like a rolling movie on the monitors. 

I refused to believe Rylee’s words, but there it was, the evidence of my fiance and mother’s relationship. They didn’t even have the decency to take their sinful affair inside my mother’s bedroom. There in the hallway, where anyone passing by would see them, they kissed like lovers who hadn’t seen each other in years.

I feel like my heart is being stabbed by a serrated knife.

When the chaos mellowed, I went outside with only one goal.

Run.

I don’t know where I was going, but staying here is off the table. I can’t trust anyone, not even my mother.

People from the Italian mafia are here to save Rylee. No wonder she sounded so sure she’d leave this place in her own time.

Lost and confused, I don’t know what to believe anymore. What I’m certain of is that I need to get away from this place, away from the woman who’s still calling me her baby.

I stopped in my tracks, reaching the end of the hallway opening to the great room. Machine guns from the opposite corner suddenly discharged lead. I covered my ears, pressing myself on the wall, when a loud explosion had the windows shattering to pieces. Silence ran for about five seconds, and the rain of bullets continued again.

It’s like an aftershock after the earthquake. A few gun fires and explosions here and there. The mafia people were making sure that all their enemies were dead. 

“Benny,” mother caught up with me. She cupped my face. Feeling her familiar warm touch made me ache inside. The floodgates of my eyes disintegrated when I looked into her eyes. They were blue, like the ocean sparkling under the summer heat. They glistened with fear and worry.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, checking my face and body for injury. “I’ve been calling your name! Klaus Martinelli is here. We should get out of this place and go to the safe house. Tony will meet us there-“

My palms collided with her cheeks. She gasped, pressing a hand over her quickly reddening skin. Confusion crosses her pretty face. For a woman who just turned fifty-four, she looked half a decade younger than her actual age. Yet the thought of her sleeping with Tony, his soon-to-be son-in-law, a man eighteen years her junior, made me sick.

“Benny…” she whispered, disbelief traversing in her eyes.

“You and Tony.” My voice shook like the ground beneath my feet. A loud explosion belched from the east side of the mansion, but my resolve to confront her for her betrayal was steady. “How could you do this to me, Ma?”

‘Ma,’ she tainted that endearment. “How did you stomach lying to my face!?”

Her tears spring profoundly, dribbling down her cheeks. “Benny… let me explain.”

“Explain what?” I sobbed. “What possible explanation do you have for fucking my fiance!?” I clutched my chest, clawing at my heart. I want it out. I want this pain out of my chest. It hurt so bad I couldn’t breathe, as though the air suddenly turned solid. “How could you….”

“Baby-“ two of Tony’s men came barrelling through the hallway, halting her words.

She turned. I looked over her shoulder, and two men with guns emerged from the other end of the passage, firing in our direction, aiming for Tony’s people.

The crossfire in the great room died down, clearing my path out of this mansion. Tony’s men reached mom. One grabbed her forearm, dragging her away from the direct line of fire. The other reached for me, but I punched him in the face, taking him by surprise.

I didn’t look back, crossing the massive room littered with bullet casings and shattered pieces of furniture. Dead bodies adorned the pristine floor. I paid the blood-curdling sight no mind. I had one purpose: to get away as far as possible from my mother.

Passing the dining room, I slipped into the kitchen, avoiding contact with people as much as possible. Living in this place for eight months familiarized me with every corner. Tony even taught me an escape route leading directly into the city in case something like this occurs, avoiding the main roads and highways.

This is probably the last time I will trust his words. ‘Just to get out of this place,’ I thought, wiping my tears, reaching the back lawn.

The remnants of the fight were much smaller in this part of the estate. I crossed the expanse of the lawn, reaching the Land Rover Tony gifted me on my birthday. But as I opened the door, brawny arms coiled around my stomach from behind, dragging me away from the car.

My self-defense instinct kicked in. I hooked a leg to one of his, delaying his dragging attack, and pushed his joined hands down with mine. My abductor had solid muscles and was much bigger than me.

He set me down to tighten his grip on my body. I took that opportunity to fold my body forward, reached for his leg, and used his own momentum to pull on his foot. He dropped backward with a grunt, his hands still tight around my waist, taking me down with him.

I wiggled from his hold, elbowing his face. I might have hit him in the eyes. He released me, cursing loudly.

“The fuck is wrong with you, woman!?” he grunted as I gathered my footing.

There, laying on the lawn, one hand pressed on half of his face, was the owner of the most beautiful gray eyes I had ever seen in my life. It’s burning with rage and fury. It’s all directed at me.