Chapter 97 - Their Beautiful Strong Queen

Domenico

Venom walked over to Fantasia and ripped the duct tape off of her mouth. When it was off she yelled out from the pain of it. "Tell your mother the truth right now Fantasia," Nicco told her. She looked between him and her mother, trying to decide what to do. You could tell that she wanted to lie to her. But the fact that we all knew the truth was keeping her from doing it.

Finally, she nodded and said "He's right Mom, since I turned twelve Dad has been abusing me. When he did the DNA tests on us, and it came back that I wasn't his daughter, he flipped out. Said that he couldn't blame you because you were just doing what he told you to do by sleeping with his friend as well. Said that he needed the money and that was the fastest way to get it. Until he found the trafficking ring, and then he started to take kids to sell and make money. I was twelve the first time that he rapped me. They tied me down over a table, my arms out in front of me and my legs tied to the table legs beside me. He rapped me and then Dicky back there and took his turn, followed by the guy that was supposed to buy River and five more people. The last guy that rapped me that day was the big boss. I was in bed for a month, not because I was sick, but because I couldn't walk. I wasn't allowed to tell you and Immaculate wasn't either. He even said that if we told any of you, you or the boys, that he'd make you all watch while they did it again and again. They rapped me in both places that day, and I was torn up really badly. I couldn't go through that again. He even made Mac watch. Said that if she didn't do what she was told that the same thing would happen to her. Just without him participating in it because she was his blood daughter."

She stopped for a minute to take a deep breath and let it out. She was crying hard from having to retell the trauma from when she was just a kid. When she was able to talk again, she said "As the oldest of us girls I have done everything that I could to protect my sister and myself from you, Dad, and Anthony Jr. Everything that I did to River growing up was to protect her. I know that it doesn't seem that way, but it's the truth" she said while looking me straight in the eyes.

"I knew what happened and that she didn't belong to Anthony. I overheard them talking and learned the truth and learned what he had planned for her. It was wrong to use an innocent baby like that. I was so excited when Mom was pregnant with her, I couldn't wait to have a real live dolly and Mac couldn't either. Do you know that we're the ones that named River? Mom kept putting it off because she thought that the baby was a boy, and she'd be handing him over to that psycho. But I had a feeling that it was a girl. I started to call her Ursula even before she was born. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I used to look up different facts about the movie. Do you know that Ursula is Latin for little she-bear? Ursula is also the deity of the sea and the sea witch. There are a lot of different myths that surround her. But I loved her and decided that I wanted the baby to be Ursula. Mac's the one that gave her the middle name River. She said that we had unique names and the baby should also. Imagine our surprise when they brought her home and handed her to a nanny to take care of. They didn't want us around her, but that didn't stop us."

She stopped again for a second to breathe and calm down some before she started talking again. Renzo was standing behind me, and he walked off for a minute. When he came back, he had a bottle of water, took it over, and gave her a drink of it. "Thank you," she said to him. He just nodded back to her and then came to stand beside me. I could see the look in his eyes and knew that today wasn't going the way that we thought that it would.

When she started talking again she said "I helped to raise River until she was three. Well, Mac and I both did. That's when things really changed and started to get bad. They used to just ignore the fact that a baby was in the house. They wouldn't go anywhere near her, but all of us kids except for Anthony Jr would. We loved her so much, she was our world. Our parents may not have wanted her, but we sure as fuck did. Hell, they didn't even make sure that there was food that she could eat. We did that, at five, six, and seven, we raised a baby. When she needed food, Derrick would sneak around and take money from both of them when they were drunk or high. They try to say that they don't do that shit, but they do. But Derrick would get the money and sneak it to the nanny, and she'd sneak around and get food for River. When she was three, they had a party with a bunch of their creepy friends."

When she stopped this time Loretta started to run her mouth. "You are nothing but a lien little bitch. Everything coming out of your mouth is nothing but lies. I can't believe that you are all believing this shit" she screeched. "I'm not lying, and I have Caleb standing right behind me. Err, well hanging whatever, he can back up every fucking thing that I'm saying. Now sit there and shut the fuck up. I am so done with you and your bullshit. At that party the guy that you showed us a picture of, he was there. I don't know what his actual name is, but he goes by Crowley. We called him Creepy Crowley. The looks that he used to give us girls made my skin crawl. But then the way that he looked at River" She stopped and took some deep breaths.

She had stopped crying but just thinking of that had her crying again. Renzo gave her another drink of water and then stood beside of her. I knew what he was doing, he was offering her support. "The way that he looked at that little baby was disgusting. I heard him talking to Loretta and Anthony about her. Said that he liked to get them young and train them. Lie fuck would I ever allow them to let him take her. So when they would have a party, I would lock her in a trunk and hide the key. Or one of the boys would hide her in a closet and hide the key. We did everything that we could to keep them from taking her. We even resorted to being mean to her when she turned four. We didn't want her to be abused by that man. Nonna didn't come around anymore because Mac shoved her down the stairs. What she didn't know was that she was trying to get her to leave and stay gone. Anthony was talking about holding her at gunpoint and making her sign everything over to him and Loretta before he killed her and then went and killed Nonno. So we started to be mean because we didn't know what else to do. When we tried to tell them at school what was going on at home, no one believed us. And if they did, they were friends of theirs and would tell them. So we protected each other the best that we could. When River was five, the night that we, that we."

She started to cry hard and was having trouble breathing. Renzo hunkered down in front of her and was talking to her lightly. Only they could hear. I looked over at Rodion and Nicco, I could tell that they were feeling the same way that I was. This girl had been through so much in her young life. She's been taking care of everyone since she was five. But no one had been taking care of her.

When she had calmed down, Renzo stood up and moved beside her. She took another minute and started to talk again. "Sorry, I've always hated what we did to her that night. I wasn't able to eat or sleep for a month because of it. What we did though, we did to protect her. From the looks and words that we said to her in the living room that night up until we shoved her down the stairs and cut her. We overheard Loretta and Anthony talking about the fact that she'd be gone after the party, That he was coming, and he'd write a check to them for one million for her, and then she'd be gone for good. We weren't going to let that happen. So we did what we did, hoping that it would get not only her but us as well out of that house. Instead, they had friends that helped them to keep us. But they weren't able to get River back and for that I'm thankful. She was finally safe and that's all that mattered. Over the years, when we would see River, we'd be mean to her. He said that if we weren't, then he'd sell us off just like he was going to with her. When I was sixteen, I ran away because I was pregnant by him. Because he kept rapping me whenever he could. I stayed gone a year, so that I could have my son safely. I have him with River's old nanny because she's the only person that I trust with him. I see him as often as I can, but it's not enough. I left him with her and came back because he left me a voicemail saying that if I didn't get back home, he had the guys lined up for Mac. I couldn't let what happened to her happen to me. I've tried so hard to protect them both the best that I could. Everyone thinks that my sister and I sleep around, but we don't. I know that they also think that we've had work done, but we haven't. We look the way that we do because of stress and not eating. We do wear colored contacts, but that's so that we can look at least a little bit different from the people who gave us life. The bull shit with Anthony attacking River was uncalled-for. He was trying to get her outside to kidnap her because the big boss still wanted her. We thought that with him in jail we could get away. He keeps a tracker bracelet that locks on Mac so that she can't get away. We thought that with him in jail we could get it off and run. But then Anthony Jr showed up and made us go with him to Nonna's house. He stepped in to threaten us. He's just like Anthony, pure fucking evil. I never wanted to hurt my sister though. If you don't believe anything that I said, then please believe that. I love her more than anything. She wasn't Loretta's daughter, she was mine."

When she was done talking, Venom walked over to Caleb and pulled the tape off of his mouth. When it was off, he asked him "Is everything that she said true?" "Every word of it is true. Since we were small kids, it's been the five of us against them, three of them. And I'm counting Aj in with them and River with us. We did what we had to do to protect her. I know that we may not have gone about it the right way, but we were kids. When you're a child, still a baby practically, and trying to raise a baby, it's not easy. Yeah, we hurt our sister, but our way of thinking at the time was that we were hurting her to save her. What he had planned for her, nobody should go through with that. He planned to start training her right away on how to please him. He was going to make her a submissive little pet right off the bat. I don't even want to think of the horrific shit he had planned for my baby sister. It still gives me nightmares just thinking about it. We want nothing more than to see those bastards all dead. And I mean all of them: Loretta, Anthony, Creepy Crowley, Boss, and every one of their friends. If I knew that all three of my sisters were safe, I'd do it myself. And I'm sure that Derrick would help me. We don't leave the girls alone now, we stay close to them at all times to protect them," he told us.

At some point when Fantasia first started talking, Enzo video-called the others and had them watching and listening in. Aries, Zeus, and their dads were on one call. My dad and brothers were on another call. Sal, Rosa, and Zain were on another. But what surprised me the most was the fact that Marcello was on another call and River and her mom were on there as well. My beautiful girl was balling her eyes out as Marcello held her.

After all of these years, she finally found out why her siblings were mean to her. And it was all to protect her and keep her from being sold off to a life of pure hell. Had they not done what they did, she'd probably be with that psycho. We never would've met her or had a baby on the way. They saved my future wife's life when they cut her that day. Because who knows where she'd be if he had her? She could still be there being tortured by him, or she could've been dead. Now I feel really fucking bad for having Venom cut the poor girl's fingers off. As if she hasn't been through enough in her life. I'm sure that her life will change though, and hopefully for the better.