The Woman at the Docks (Grassi Framily)

"Me?" I asked, voice a hiss. "Why did you do it? How could you do it?"

"Why does anyone do anything? Money," she told me, voice cocky. I wished I could say that was new for her. But it had been there for a while before I finally left to go back to the States. It was part of the reason I had been ready to go back. Because she'd become someone unlike the girl I had raised. Someone conceited and selfish.

"Money isn't a good motivator, Celly."

"No? Because I was pretty sure you and I had the same shit-eating upbringing. Always struggling. Always having less than everyone else. Never being able to go places, do things."

'That's not fair. We went places all the time."

To the park and window shopping. Whoopie," she said, annoyed. "Don't act like I'm the only one who felt that way. You looked at all those displays in all those stores with envy too."

"I looked at them as things to aspire to. When I was old enough to earn money. I looked at them like possibilities. I was never resentful to mom for not being able to give me everything. She did her best."

"Yeah, well, her best sucked, Rome."

"How can you be such a bitch? Do you have any idea what she went through? With Dad beating her constantly. And then having to work three jobs to keep us fed? All the while being terrified of being deported. And then having it happen? You are awful enough to blame her for doing her best in an impossible situation?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. If you can't afford them, you shouldn't have kids. She was selfish. And we paid for it. Well, I did. Not you, Saint Romina."

Wow.

This was her voice.

And that was her silhouette in the shadows.

But this was not the woman I had known.

How could she have turned so bad so fast?

Or had she always shown hints of it, but I had been too blind by familial love to notice it?

"I heard you fell in with a bad crowd after I left. That's why you are acting like this."

"Oh, please. I've been working schemes to make money since high school. Right under your nose."

"What kind of schemes?"

"All kinds. Shoplifting. Blackmail. A little pay for play."

"Pay for play," I repeated, sure I misheard her. Or, if I heard her correctly, then surely I misunderstood her.

"Beauty wasn't a curse for me, Rome. It ended up being very profitable."

"You got paid for, what? Sex? In high school?"

"Young girls always get the prettiest penny. I was always a sweet, innocent little virgin for all those idiots."

Oh, God.

God.

How could I have been so blind?

While I was giving her the birds-and-bees talks all during her high school years, she had sat there and asked sweet little questions. While she went out and let men pay her to use her body.

"Have I shocked you, big sister?" she sneered. "You were always so blind. God, I could have gotten away with murder, and you never would have wised up."

"Maybe that was true," I agreed, jaw quivering I was so angry. "But I caught on eventually. And I finally put a stop to your destructive behavior."