"Mom?" I called, fully turning to face her. She was unmoving, simply staring at me, but I didn't feel uneasy about it in the slightest.
I made the first move, walking towards her, when I heard Benjamin scream my name from the house.
"JASMINE!" I jumped in fear, turning to face him with a frown as he ran out of the house, raining words of horror and asking if I wanted him to die by Luciano's house.
"I'm starting to think you've been planted here to kill me. What the hell is your problem? I decide to close my eyes for two seconds, and you go ahead and do this?!" he snapped as he grabbed my hand.
Just then, I looked into the streets, where I had seen my mother looking at me, but she was no longer standing there.
"I saw my mother. She was standing right there," I told him, pointing at the exact place where she was standing, confusing Benjamin when he looked and found nobody.
"Maybe you were freaking out, and your brain tried to comfort you with something," he suggested, pulling me back into the house. "Don't try to come out here anymore. Not without Luciano's permission, at least."
I didn't protest. I just walked into the house as I stared into space, the vision of my mother still fresh in my mind. She looked so real, and she looked older. She looked just the way I would expect her to look if she were alive.
"I couldn't have mistaken her for someone else," I muttered to myself, now attempting to turn around and head back outside the gates. "I saw my mother, Benjamin! She's not dead!"
I started to fight to get out of the house, but Benjamin had a strong hold on me. He took me into my bedroom and glared at me.
"As much as I like you, Jasmine, I don't like it when you don't listen. I still have a brother to take care of, and that's why I'm in this business. The last thing you'll do is make me lose everything. I'm sorry, but I'll have to lock you in here."
"No, no, no! Please, I'm not going to run away! Benjamin!" I ran to the door and banged hard at it as I heard the key making turning noises and I was officially locked in the bedroom.
I slid down against the door, losing track of time as I cried and scrambled with my phone for minutes until I settled for calling my father.
"Hey, kid. How are you doing? You okay?" I didn't want to cry and let him know that everything around me was falling apart, but I couldn't help but feel my eyes brim with tears at the sound of his familiar and comforting voice.
I took a deep breath, silently warning myself to not let him know that I was not in the right state of mind.
"I'm so exhausted. Work has been hell," I said, wiping my tears and hoping to make up for how bad I sounded with the excuse of being exhausted.
"I think you should just head straight to bed and sleep it all away, but not before having a large meal," he laughed in encouragement.
"Oh, definitely. You think I won't eat before falling asleep?" I replied.
"Jasmine, you can talk to me if something heavy is on your mind, you know. I know you're all about work and preparing for your business right now, but if there's something or someone bothering you, you're always welcome to come back to New Orleans. We can figure it out together," he said.
"I'm fine," I assured, but before I could hang up, I decided to ask him about something that had been eating me from the inside for minutes now. "Hey, Dad?"
"Yes?" he responded.
"I just… Since Mom died, did you ever get any vivid view of her anywhere? Maybe you were walking around or just going about your day, and you saw her or someone who looked like her?"
I didn't know if his answer was going to be a factor for mine, but I had to get something out of it at least.
"I always get her presence every time. Sometimes I get lonely, and then this calming presence settles over me as if she's right there with me, you know. I wouldn't really say I've mistaken anyone else for her. Is there a problem?"
"No, I just… I just felt something," I lied, and there was silence on the other end. I couldn't help but believe that he was analyzing my answer and thinking whether to believe me or not, but he had no choice to settle for what I had told him.
"If you want to talk further about this, you should call me, okay? Go get some food, have a nap that's worth it, and then you can call me back for us to talk," he said.
"Alright, bye," I replied.
"Bye."
I hung up, holding the phone to my chest before I heard the familiar clicks of the key in its hole. I stood up, enabling Benjamin to open the door and poke his head into the bedroom.
"Come on down. I made us a meal. You can't refuse, I know you should be hungry by now," he told me, turning around and walking down the stairs as I followed him into the kitchen, where a chicken Alfredo pasta was set in two plates.
I was reminded of how hungry I was when I took the first bite and had to stop myself from wolfing down the rest of the food.
"Do you know if Carusso has arrived yet?" I brought up the topic that we had both been avoiding the whole time, causing Benjamin to lift one of his brows at me.
"It's strange that you even want to know the answer to that," he laughed. "Well, the thing is… Even if Carusso were in this building, we wouldn't know until it's too late. He moves like a river in its own element, and you wouldn't even know that you were drowning until you drowned."
The way everybody was talking about and reacting to Carusso D'Angelo made me not want to see him at all, but a part of me couldn't help but think that an encounter with him was inevitable. I could run as fast and far as I wanted, but I would eventually get exhausted.
After lunch with Benjamin, the door opened and Luciano walked in to find us in the kitchen. There was a frown on his face that I would have to bring myself to get accustomed to.
"We were just done with lunch. Homemade, since we can't order anything right now," Benjamin reported, and I almost laughed at how ridiculous it was for us to recount whatever had happened while he was away.
"We need to talk," Luciano said to me, beckoning for me to follow him up the stairs and into his bedroom.
"What do you want to talk about?" I asked, folding my arms and getting ready to walk out of the room if what he wanted to say was not for the best or favorable to me in anyway.
"I have gotten information that my father has arrived in Vegas." My heart dropped at his announcement, and I found myself wondering when I would get through a whole day without having to feel fear for my life.
"I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you to know that the man we're dealing with is more dangerous than I am, without even lifting a finger. He gets his job done for him most of the time, which is why we need to be more cautious of everyone, now more than ever."
"Do you think he's going to find us here?" I inquired.
"If he asks the right questions to the right people and manages to track me, then I'm sure he will find us here in no time. The one thing I'm worried about is when he makes up his mind to do things by himself without using spies. For him to travel all the way over here, it shows that he's really not playing with this, and Roman must have fed is mind with poisonous words."
"So, you're trying to tell me that no matter where I am or how guarded I keep myself, I'm still going to meet your father and be potentially killed by him?" I questioned.
"I will do everything I can to protect you, Jasmine. The contract already states that—"
"The contract! That god-damned contract is what got us in this situation in the first place!" I interrupted. "I still think you should get it terminated and just show it to your father so that we can get this over with."
"And you think he's just going to accept it and leave, now that he's here?" Luciano scoffed. "It was his plan all along. Either way, you would have been put in danger. If I had terminated it, he would have gotten a hold of you because he knew that I would not be obligated to protect you anymore. I have fallen for that trick one too many times to be foolish now!"
My body froze at that confession. It was the first time he had made a reference to the girls who had come before me.
"What does that mean? Are you talking about… Has this happened before? What happened to the people who came before me?"
"Nothing too bad, Jasmine. Drop it," he said as if he had just caught himself in the process of wanting to reveal a truth that would have rocked everything that was already upside.
"I'm already as shaken as I could possibly be, Luciano. I don't want you keeping secrets from me anymore. Of all the girls who came before me and signed this contract, did anybody die while involved in this?"
Luciano was silent, and I hated it. It didn't feel right that he was keeping something that crucial from me, especially if it was for his selfish reasons.
"Luciano… tell me the truth, and this is the last time I'm going to talk about it with you, I promise. Did anybody die?"
"Yes, Jasmine," he finally answered in defeat, and I suddenly wished I had not asked the question.
"I killed them."