Page 150 of Disgrace

“Does Dad know you got this for me?” she asked.

John shook his head. “Nope. It’s also not about Dad. It’s about us. Sometimes, I think Dad just worries too much about us. He wants us to be safe, and happy, and fulfilled. In the process, his protective nature sometimes smothers us, too. And that’s just Dad—he is who he is, and we have to love him regardless, Lucia.”

“I do love Daddy, but—”

“You’re angry with him, too.”

A single tear dropped down Lucia’s cheek, but she didn’t move to wipe it away. “So fucking mad, John.”

“It’s cliché, kiddo, but what’s meant to be, will be, and fuck the rest.” John pointed at the paper, and said, “There’s your lifeline, Lucia. You want to talk to Renzo—you want to know? He’s right there. I’m sorry it’s not more.”

Lucia clenched the paper harder, and looked up at her brother. “This is perfect, John.”

He smiled. “That’s all I wanted to—”

His words cut off when a scream filled The Annex. A terrified scream that was accompanied by several other shrill shrieks. People began to scatter like horrified rats shoved in a very small space. One shoved John, which caused him to ram into Lucia. He grabbed hold of his sister with a fucking death grip to keep her from being shoved to the ground.

“What is happening?” Lucia asked.

John had no idea.

Another shrill scream echoed.

Someone shouted, “She’s got a gun!”

John’s blood ran cold. He didn’t have any reason to think this was an attack on him, or Siena, but for some reason, he just … knew.

It had to be.

His luck had run out.

“Don’t fucking move,” he told his sister when he shoved her behind a vendor tent.

“John!”

“Don’t move!”

John didn’t look back as he darted in the direction that everybody was now running from. The same direction that Siena had went in earlier to get his fucking jam.

Jesus Christ.

For jam.

He would be lucky if he could ever put the shit in his mouth again after today. At the moment, it only made him want to vomit at just the thought alone.

John rammed through the oncoming people—he barely heard their shouts of terror, and he faintly registered the fear on their faces. He was laser focused on one thing, and one thing only. He didn’t care about anybody else at the moment.

Siena. Siena. Siena.

His heart thundered her name. The organ practically jumped into his throat, and beat even harder there, too.

“You ruined us, you little bitch! Everything our family worked for, you ruined it! You disgraced our name, and our legacy and for what? So you could spread your legs for some Marcello—”

“Ma, put the gun down. Please, put the gun down. You’re scaring people.”

John pushed through the last few people, and came to an abrupt stop only fifteen feet away from the entrance of The Annex. Siena stood in a cleared circle with her mother only a couple of steps away.

Coraline Calabrese.