XLVI *NOT EDITED*

Vincenzo

"How long has she been in there?" Iggy asks lighting up a blunt, I look down to my watch and check the time "2 hours" I reply looking to the wooden doors leading into the main office. "Surely the old hag isn't still alive, there hasn't been any screaming or yelling" Iggy groans pushing himself off of the wall behind him, "She could be" I sigh. "Fuck it, I'm going in" Iggy smirks passing the blunt to me, I take a drag and watch him walk towards the door, he goes to open it but it doesn't budge "Whys it stuck?" He asks as he continues to try and open the door "She's locked it Einstein" I reply pulling out my handgun, I aim it at the lock and pull the trigger, the lock breaks off of the door and Iggys now able to open it, he takes three steps in and stops dead in his tracks "Signore, abbi pietà 'lord have mercy'" He says under his breath.

I walk in behind him not knowing what to expect, and am met face to face with what looks something that has come out of a horror movie. What used to be Sister Jude is now a hanging naked, bloodied and bruised corpse with a red target on her face, her skins beinging to peel off of her body revealing parts of bone and muscle and multiple darts are stuck in her face as if Karma's using her as target practice. Just as I think that thought in my head Karma throws another dart from where she's sitting hitting jude right between the eyes. "You good sweetheart"? Iggy asks slowly looking over to Karma who has rosary beads around her neck as well as being covered in what I can only assume is Sister Jude's blood.

"Just fine" She hums before throwing another dart, this one hitting Jude in the eye. "Is everyone moved out?" She asks Iggy not bothering to look in my direction. "Iggy leave" I sigh looking to him, he looks to me and then back to Karma, she nods her head as a silent yes, so he leaves closing the door behind him. "Why won't you talk to me?" I ask walking towards her, she throws the last dart in her hand and leans back patting Hades who's sitting loyally at her side, "I dont want to" She replies staring at me, the only women I've been afraid of is my mother and my grandmother, but Karma? Well shit, she's on the list too.

"Do you know why I did what i did?" I ask taking another step towards her, she rolls her eyes and laughs "Because you're a fucking piece of shit that doesnt think about anyone expect themsleves?" She smirks, well... She's not fucking wrong. "Well yes but also no, I had a reason, and I'll be honest it's a shit reason, but can I explain myself first before you tell me how much you hate me?" I ask taking the final step to close the distance between us, "Amuse me" She replies folding her arms over her chest.

"Imagine you, in the state that you were, in a confined plane, 45 000ft in the fucking sky on a 15-hour flight. Now you can try and tell me that you would have calmed down by then but we both know you wouldnt have, that amount of adrenaline would have kept you on edge that whole flight. You would have been staring fights, especially with your brother to get rid of that adrenaline" She satres at me and nods her head once, "That may be but we-" She begins and I cut her off "You said you were going to let me explain myself so shut up and let me explain.... please".

"Yes, I know what you were going to say. We could have fucked, but that would of only have been a small time escape, maybe you would have slept 3 hours too. That still leaves at least 10 hours of a flight. The emotional comedown would have been fucking hard on you too, all that information was alot to take in for one night, you would have broken down and probably taken that plane down with us in it. At the end of the day I fucked up and I shouldnt have done that, at all, i fucked up bad and I'm willing to admit that. But you've gotta see where I'm coming from, I wanted what was best for you and best for all of us, and that's you not ripping everyone and the plane apart. I'm sorry Karma, from the bottom of my heart I'm truly sorry, I didnt think it through enough and Stefano said it was our best bet".

"Stefano said its your best bet? To drug me? Because I 'cant deal with my emotions'? First of all, fuck him, what the fuck would he know about me? Maybe I cant deal with my fucking emotions because I dont know how too because when I was upset I didnt get to cry to my family I cried to myself. Because when I was upset I didn't have any other way of dealing with it besides drugs or killing people, maybe if he had of been a decent fucking human let alone a decent brother I wouldnt be as fucked up as I am today. And no that's not me pinning my trauma on him but fuck yeah he's a part of it. Tell me, Vincenzo, after your mother came home from this hell hole, who did she have?" She questions with tears filling her eyes, I watch as her bottom lip trembles as she trys to hold herself together and my heart begins to ache.

"Family, doctors, friends" I reply softly, "And when I left who did I have?" She croaks out "No-one, Stefano didn't want a bar of me, I had not a fucking soul, who the fuck does that to a child? Fuck what stefano thinks is good for me he doesnt know shit about me, and apparently you have no fucking common sense"

"The only person I can fully trust right now is Iggy, not even my 'husband' not my 'brother' fucking Igloo" She yells throwing her hand sup in the air, "I just want to trust the people around me and to love them but every single day yous are giving me reaons not too and Iggy's the only person who actually somewhat understands me" She cries out. "You called me?" Iggy yells through the door, "Not now Igloo" She sighs. "Let me make it up to you, please. Let me show you that I'm here for you, let me prove that I care about you, let me prove that I'm trying my best to understand you and what you've gone through, just let me in and let me try to help. You can talk shit about me to me I dont care, I just want to know whats going on. You're so reserved and closed off I cant even read your body language half the time".

"Because I've learnt to hide my emotions dumbass, because of assholes like her" She yells again this time pointing at Jude's body hanging in the background, "Why should I believe a fucking thing you're saying?" She grits between her teeth, "Because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, not just for the contract but because of you. I want to be the person that wakes up in your bed, I want ot be the person that you fall back on when you need to cry or just a hug, I want to be the person you can rely on when things get tough and I want to be the person to watch you grow steronger and stronger every day. I want to be the one that grows old with you, to build an empire with you. I want and need to try and understand you as much as I can but I need help, help from you to do that because I cant do any of that if you dont let me in. And I know you're scared because everyone you've cared about has left as some point but I'm not leaving you Karma, not unless it's in a coffin, I'm not leaving you. So, you can either try and work with me here so we can have a somewhat happy life together or you can work against me and we can continue this shit show".

"I'll think about forgiving you, but were fighting to get over this, and you're getting some payback along the way" She smirks getting herself off of the desk, she shoves me to the side and walks past to the wood doors, she stops just as she's about to open it loooking back to me "Your parent's gym, no head guards, no boxing gloves" She laughs before opening the door, Iggy falls through the doorway and onto the floor "I'm not fighting you, I refuse to put my hands on you that way" I reply as Iggy gets to his feet dusting himself off. "Yes you will, or I'm going to make your life a living hell". I scoff at her and shake my head "And how do you think you're going to do that leonessa?" I question raising an eyebrow at her, she looks to Iggy and back to me "Something like this" She grins before getting on her tippy toes and giving Iggy a kiss on the lips. My blood turns to lava and I want to rip his fucking heart out with my bare hands even though he's done absolutely nothing.

"So I'll see you in the ring Capo?" She grins turning to me, I hate every part of this plan but if it's going to make her happy then so be it "Yes". I watch as she tilts her head and takes a few steps towards me, "Oh don't pout handsome, it gives you wrinkles. Now, I need to do one last thing before I blow this bitch into the sky, care to join me?" She asks looking to both of us, We both nod our heads and follow her as she walks out of the office and down a long dark hallway that's filled with large iron doors. "Where are we going?" Iggy whispers to me as Karma walks ahead of us, "I think I have an idea where she's leading us" I reply under my breath.

She stops out the front of a door with the number 666 on it, she unlocks it and pushes the heavy door open, it creaks loudly sending echos across the building and a thick scent of iron and rotting flesh fills my nostrils and lungs putting me on the verge of throwing up. "In order to begin to understand me you must see what I saw, this is my room. The same room that kept me locked away from the real world for years upon years upon years, this is the room where I lost my baby, this is the room where I lost myself, where I lost my sanity" She almost whispers looking into the darkroom.

She steps into the room and sits down on a metal bed patting the two spots next to her, Iggy sits on her left and I sit on her right, we sit there in silence for god knows how long just taking everything in. From the scratches on the walls and door frame to the bloodstains that leave a permanent reminder of the horrific tragedies that took place in this room and building, "The silence is deadly, isn't it"? She asks looking to a large bloodstain on the floor, "Is that?" I ask unsure of how to word the next part, thankfully she understands what I'm trying to say "Yeah it is..." She trails off staring at the final resting spot of her son. "Iggy, message someone to come and cut this concrete part out we are taking it with us," I sigh looking to him, he nods his head and pulls out his phone to send the message.

Karma stands up and takes a deep breath "Thank you Vin", this is the first time she's called me Vin since New York instead of Vincenzo, asshole or dumbass. I stand up and plant a soft kiss on her forehead before she turns and walks out the door, "Come on boys we have more to see" She calls out behind her, we continue to follow her through the large building until we get to a room that has white doors, it kind of reminds me of the doors to a surgery room. She opens these doors and I already know what she's going to say just from seeing the machines lying around the place, "Electroshock therapy and hydrotherapy, each day we were either shocked within an inch of our lives and drugged afterwards or we were confined to one of these tubs and had to sit in it with boiling water for hours and hours until it turned ice cold" She almost laughs as she runs her fingers over the old metal tub.

"Kinda weird that I like hot baths and shit now huh?" She tries to joke but Iggy and myself can see she's hurting, Iggy's phone begins to ring and he looks to Karma with an apologetic look "It's about the concrete" He says as he rubs the back of his neck nervously. "It's okay Igloo I think you get the point anyways" She replies with a half-smile, he looks to me and nods before walking out and taking the phone call leaving Karma and I alone, "I thought visiting these rooms as a free woman would empower me and let me heal but they're not" She looks to me with tear-stained cheeks and I can't stop myself from walking over to her and scooping her into my arms, I hold onto her as tight as I can as her tears begin to fall down my neck and chest, she wraps her legs around me as well as her arms and just sobs her little heart out.

I don't say a word, I just let her cry because I know she needs to do it, I want to take the pain away for her but I can only do so much, so I continue to hold her tight and run my hand through her hair and I wait until the sobs turn into sniffles. "You think that you're not healing from this but I promise you, you are. It's overwhelming at the moment I'm sure of it, but for you to willingly step foot in this building shows how strong you are, for you to show us where you stayed and what you endured shows how much of a warrior you are, you are so much stronger than you think you are and it's a shame you don't see it. You saw the woman who ruined your childhood, who tortured you, who broke you down until you were nothing and you didn't cower in fear, you didn't curl into a ball and cry. You stared her in the eyes took back everything she took from you, it may not seem like it now, but in a few days if not a weeks time you will take a step back and realise just how strong and empowering you have become since this place, how you turned yourself from a broken child into royalty".

"You're a queen and most importantly you're MY queen".