I came down the stairs with four red marks on my wrist and my aunt's voice still ringing in my ears, telling me to be grateful.
Dario sat behind the shop counter like he owned it, which, I was beginning to understand, he did.
Dario: Sit the fuck down, both of you, and bring your husband out before I have to ask twice.
Ottavia came out so fast her bun was crooked, and Aldo trailed after her like a man walking to his own funeral.
Then the bell over the door rang, and Carina came in with her coat hanging open and her cheeks pink from the cold.
Carina: Nico, what the hell is happening? Bruno put me in the car and wouldn't tell me shit.
Dario: Good. She should hear it too.
He took a folded paper from his jacket and smoothed it flat on the counter, and I knew what it was before he finished.
He tore it down the middle, then again, and let the pieces fall on the wood like it was nothing but a grocery receipt.
Dario: Your debt is settled. Every last fucked-up euro of it.
Ottavia: God bless you, Dario. I always said you were a fair man. I'll light a candle for you tonight.
She was already smiling, already counting it as a bargain struck, and my stomach turned right over.
Dario: Save your candle. There's something you should watch first.
He set his phone on the counter, screen up, and pressed it once with one finger.
Sound came first, my aunt's voice high and gasping, and then the picture caught up with it.
Ottavia and Aldo. Together. On the very counter where we sold candles and psalms, filmed from a corner I never once looked at.
Dario: Six years I've kept this. Six years of you two preaching purity in this shop with that little show on my phone.
Dario: You called her untouched. You couldn't keep your own hands off each other in a stockroom.
Dario: You sold me a lamb for slaughter with your mouth still wet from him. You're a pious old whore, Ottavia, and God isn't watching this shop.
Aldo made a noise like a hiccup and hid his face, and I stood there and felt nothing for either of them.
Dario: Turn around, Nicolette.
I turned, because my stupid feet had already decided not to fight him twice in one night.
Dario: You're not a payment anymore. The debt is gone. Now you settle as my bride, and that's a different thing altogether.
My mouth went dry and my heart beat so hard I could hear it in my ears, and nobody in that room said a word to save me.
Carina: Like hell she does. She's not a fucking contract, and you can't hand her a ring and call it charity.
She was between us before I could stop her, and I loved her and hated her for it in the same breath.
Dario: Careful, Carina. Your mother's medicine costs more than you earn in a month, and I only have to say one word to a pharmacy.
Her chin stayed up, but her hands were shaking, and that was the thing that broke me. Not the tape. Not the debt.
Dario: Come here.
His hand closed around my jaw and turned my face up to his, and his thumb pressed into the soft place under my cheekbone until I felt the bruise beginning.
Then his mouth was on mine, open and warm, and it was not short and it was not gentle.
I meant to bite him. God knows I meant to. Instead I kissed him back, my hand flat on his chest, and my whole face burned with shame.
Dario: There. She isn't even pretending anymore.
Ottavia: She'll do as she's told, she always does. Sunday, then. We'll dress her properly.
Carina: Nico, look at me. Say you don't want this and I'll have you out of this city before morning, I swear to God.
I looked at her, and then past her at him, and I didn't say one single word.
Because his word was the one keeping Carina's mother breathing, and he knew that I knew it.
So I stood in my aunt's shop with a stranger's taste still on my mouth and understood the worst of it. Nobody in that room was ever going to prove I was worth more than a debt.