Right then, Salvatore Greco walked over, his hands scrubbed raw and red, a grim look on his face as he shared the latest findings with Mom. "She bled out from her liver. And..." he hesitated, "Her fingerprints were destroyed. Identifying her is gonna be tough."
Mom paused, her mind racing back to a similar case from a few months ago.
"There was a killing like this in Calabrese territory recently. Same method," she directed one of her crew. "Dominic, dig into that."
Standing there as a spirit, watching my mom work so intently, I couldn't help but think, "Mom has always been the person I looked up to, all my life."
The crew hadn't found much since this wasn't the primary scene. Eventually, about a thousand feet from the dump site, they stumbled upon a cake smashed on the ground, its frosting spoiled.
"Probably the victim's," one of the soldiers guessed.
Mom bit her lip, pulled out her phone, hesitated, but finally made the call. All she got was a busy signal.
She hung up quickly, her face clouding over as she muttered, "Where the hell is Valentina messing around now? Didn't even show up for Serafina's ceremony. She's becoming ruder by the day, completely ignoring me."
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with sadness.
I realized then, "Mom actually forgot that Serafina's ceremony was on my birthday."
On that birthday, Mom had left with Serafina right in front of me, not even bothering to say a word.
They rewrapped my body and sealed it in a black waterproof body bag.
Like handling a worthless piece of merchandise.
I was carried to the lowest level of the Ferraro Manor.
That was where the family disposed of their "shady" possessions.
Salvato was there.
He managed the family's underground medical facility and was the most familiar with the corpses.
The heavy iron door closed, cutting off all outside sound.
Cold white light shone on my remains.
"Identifying me will be troublesome," Salvato said, removing his mask, his tone as calm as discussing the weather. "The face is completely destroyed, and the fingerprints are gone."
"We'll have to go through the family's DNA channels; it'll take at least a few days."
He finished speaking and rewrapped the body shroud around me.
His movements were devoid of any extra emotion.
My mother nodded.
She didn't look at me again.
As if confirming that the body was no longer of any value.
She removed her gloves and turned to leave.