I DONT LOVE HIM

"The MAFIA?!"

I shriek, my hands balled into fists at my sides, and stand up from where I'm sitting on the couch. Usually, I would have never used this tone of voice with my parents.

But then again, usually, we would also not be seated in our living room—which now, come to think of it, is not what a lawyer and therapist can normally afford—talking about something I have always thought just an urban legend.

"Calm down, Kay. Yes, we agree that that was not the best decision on our part," dad says calmly...way too calmly, and places his hand over mum's, who nods at me like she has been doing all night. There is no way she just agrees with all the bullshit he is spewing.

"But right now, they don't know about you, and we plan on keeping it that way."

I laugh, a hollow dry sound, and drag my fingers through my hair. Who the fuck are they?

"Okay. They don't know about me, great. What's going to happen to me if-when they kill you guys? What are you going to do?" I choke out, my voice cracking at the very end.

"It will not come to that, Makayla. And for your own safety, we are sending you far away from here. You're growing up, and it's about time you learned to be respons—"

"Oh, bullshit! Growing up my ass. When it comes to what I want, it has always been you're not old enough yet, so what has suddenly changed?" I yell, and slap my palm against the sofa.

Their wide eyed, disbelieving expressions tell me that I have their attention, and I clench my jaw to try and level my breathing.

"This is not about me. You're just trying to protect yourselves. You know that by getting rid of me, you're making yourselves invincible right? Because then you'll have nothing to lose. They'll have nothing to blackmail you with, right?"

Mum shakes her head and stands up to come to me, but dad grabs her hand and stops her.

"Kay, you should know...we did not know—"

"So why the hell am I the one paying for your ignorant bad decisions then, huh? Why is it me who has to go and start over, like I am the one who made the mistake? I am not just a fucking liability you know!" I scream at him, and I watch as his face changes from sympathetic to annoyed.

I know I am acting out of line, but can they blame me? This information is too much to process all at once.

Did he expect me to just smile and say it was all fine after finding out that they are criminals who now want me to just uproot my life because of their life choices?

And, they must think I'm really stupid if they believe I don't know that the only reason they're telling me all this now is because there is some kind of problem.