Third Person

"I need help." Vito exchanged a quick look with Domenico, but instead of answering, he smiled slightly at Josephine. She exhaled before starting to walk back and forth. "I mean professional help. I know I can talk to you anytime, but—"

She didn't finish the sentence because she didn't know how to express what she wanted without seeming like she didn't trust Vito. "You won't have to pay anything! As soon as you get the power of attorney over me, you can access my inheritance and use it to pay the therapist," she quickly assured him. Shit, she actually wanted to explain why she would benefit from therapy first.

"Wasn't the money meant for college?" Vito asked, frowning. He didn't know how much her inheritance was, but in his father's last will, it was stated how much they would inherit if they attended college, and the money couldn't be accessed for any other reason. But even if that were the case with her too, he would pay for the therapist regardless.

"I don't know," Josephine admitted honestly, angry with herself for how she had approached the conversation. The money had been the sticking point because she wasn't sure if Vito would even have access to it. "But I'm still a long way from finishing high school, let alone what comes after that. And it won't help me pay for college if I'm not alive by then."

Josephine regretted her last sentence as soon as she said it. She stopped and saw both Vito and Domenico stand up on the other side. She nervously tried to avoid Vito's piercing gaze. That was a bad idea. How could she say something so careless?

"What do you mean, Josephine?" Vito eyed her more carefully, trying to assess her statement. He thought back to her attempt to shoot herself with Domenico's gun. It was definitely within the realm of possibility, and in this case, early therapy was even more urgent than it already was. "Do you have thoughts of ending your life?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that. Really!" Josephine looked pleadingly at Vito, wanting him to see she was serious. "It's just—you won't understand. But I'm not suicidal!" Vito remained silent, looking at her invitingly again. She sighed; she must have seemed crazy. "Until less than a week ago, I wasn't sure how I would survive the winter, let alone the next few years. And even if I did survive, I wouldn't have had a high school diploma to go to college. All I could do was plan my immediate future. I think therapy can help me deal with all the stuff in my head, because I know I can't do it alone."

Vito actually had a lot of questions he wanted to ask and things he should probably say, but he knew how difficult it must have been for her to demand something for herself and to stand up for her needs. Questioning her further seemed unnecessarily cruel. Besides, he was secretly glad that she had brought up the topic on her own initiative. "That's a very brave decision on your part, and I'm proud of you. You don't need to worry about the money; I'll sort it out with the inheritance. Do you want to find a therapist yourself, or should I do that?"

Relief flooded through Josephine. It was okay. He agreed. It was okay. They wouldn't throw her out. "Do you have a telephone in the house that I can use?"

"Thanks for the reminder; I would have forgotten it again." Vito leaned back and reached for something in the drawer. "Valentino bought you a cell phone, and we wanted to set it up for you and save the numbers before we gave it to you. Here—" He handed her a cell phone. It felt heavier than it looked, Josephine realized. It even extended over her hands, but that probably wasn't too difficult with her small hands. "You can find our numbers under contacts. Are you familiar with smartphones?"

Josephine shook her head and pressed a small button on the side. The display lit up and asked her to swipe to unlock the screen. When her parents were still alive, she was too young for one, and her foster parents didn't think much of it. They just wanted to ensure that she didn't have the opportunity to contact other people, she thought bitterly.

"I think she'll be fine. You can connect your watch to it, but Valentino can show you that at some point. Like the watch, we can also locate the cell phone in an emergency, and if you press the home button three times and hold it for four seconds, it will send a notification to Vito and me with your current location in case you need help. Do you understand that?"

She nodded and looked at the watch on her wrist. "You can locate me with this?"

"Of course," he replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Josephine didn't dare say anything more. Her first instinct was to take off the watch. She didn't like that they could always know where she was. They had no right to do that! Did they not trust her at all? Probably as much as she trusted them. She suppressed her instincts. If she ran away, she could always take off the watch. Still, now that she knew it, the watch felt heavy on her wrist.

Vito tried not to roll his eyes. His brother sometimes didn't have enough empathy to understand why not everyone would be happy about being monitored. "We promise we'll only use this if you go missing. I have one of those too." He pushed up his sleeve to show her his watch. "And my brother occasionally."

Domenico heard the undertone, but if there was one thing he could do, it was to ignore such sounds. "Speaking of brothers, have you spoken to them both?" he asked Vito. For him, the issue was settled. Why bother anymore?

"No, I think it's Josephine's decision whether she wants them to know. It's her story, not mine," Vito replied, looking at Josephine to explain herself. "We haven't told Matteo or Riccardo anything about your past because I would like to give you the choice. But I think it would be easier for us to live together if you told them."

"Can I think about it?" Josephine asked, biting her lip. Vito's statement was clear: she should tell them.

"Of course. However, there is still one small thing." Vito took a breath. "The two of them assume that we only make our money by running nightclubs. They don't know anything about the other part, and I would be glad if it stayed that way."

Her eyebrows furrowed skeptically. It was hard to imagine that the two of them really didn't know anything. Everyone on the street knew the Marinis! "How could they not have noticed?"

"It's possible that they suspect something, but they're both too busy with themselves. Plus, they're not the smartest in our family, as you'll find out later. So, do you agree?" Domenico answered in his usual blunt manner. Josephine nodded hesitantly. She was in no position to judge others, but she didn't like that so much of the older brothers' lives was kept secret from the younger ones. This inevitably led to the question of what else they were keeping secret.

_____________

"Do you think she has an eating disorder?" Matteo wondered out loud as he lay on his bed, throwing a ball up and catching it again.

"Possibly. But if I'm honest, I find everything about her strange. Why is she here?" Riccardo, already bored with being trapped in the house, swiveled in the desk chair. The question nagged at him. Ever since he found out about her, he kept asking himself that question. It didn't make any sense. If Domenico or Vito hadn't known her before, why take in a stranger who was clearly an ongoing problem? "Do you think she's our half-sister or something?"

Matteo caught the ball and stood up, looking at his brother in disbelief. "You can't be serious. When did Dad manage to do that between Mum's death and his stroke?"

Annoyed, Riccardo turned in circles again and breathed loudly. It was clear to him that the timing didn't quite add up, but there had to be some explanation! He hated being so uninformed; he always had. Even as a child, he felt left out of many things. Matteo called it paranoid. He was probably right about that. "Maybe he wasn't completely paralyzed. Maybe one of the nurses gave him a nice hour."

A ball hit him in the head. "That's ridiculous. Besides, even you might have noticed that she has absolutely no similarities to us. Dad loved Mum; he would never have slept with anyone else in his life."

Sometimes his little brother was sweetly naive, Riccardo thought. He didn't want to spoil the illusion, but love wasn't necessarily important for sex. Someday, when Matteo lost his virginity, maybe he would understand. So instead of answering him, he took the ball in his hand and threw it back. "I'll ask her," he decided, standing up.

Matteo quickly followed him. "Are you crazy? Vito said we shouldn't do that!"

Riccardo shrugged carelessly and grinned before opening the door. "One more reason to do it."

They left Matteo's room together, and Riccardo walked determinedly toward Josephine's room. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them! After all, he decided, he had the right to know the truth. She lived with them and would probably continue to do so for a while, so he was allowed to know what the story behind it was. He entered her room without knocking.

It was empty. Riccardo looked around, irritated to see that although there was no Josephine there, there was a thin mattress with a blanket on the floor. What was that supposed to mean? "Do you think she sleeps on it?"

"But why should she? She has a bed." They both looked at the bed as if that would answer something. But it didn't; instead, another voice spoke.

"The bed is too soft." Startled and caught, the brothers turned around. Josephine stood in front of them with a bottle of water in her hand. "But Vito wants me to learn to sleep in a bed again, that's why the mattress is on the floor," she explained as she walked around the two of them into their room. Her room. It felt weird thinking about that; she found herself walking to the window to sit on the sill.

Matteo caught himself first. "And where did you sleep before?" he wanted to know, sounding so irritated that she had to smile. Of course, for him, it was logical that you slept in the same bed. His world was just different from theirs. She breathed in, and even though she thought she was excited or nervous, she felt calm within her.

"On the street."





Hello there!

How are you? How do you cope with winter when the days go by so quickly where you live and it rains all the time :-) It annoys me, but I'm also looking forward to Christmas. If there is no update by then, I wish everyone a happy new year!

See you soon :-)