A woman who makes her living selling fish is pulled into the criminal underworld, where she discovers a talent for power and survival. As she climbs from the market stalls toward the top of a mafia empire, she must decide how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice to rule.
Looking at this child standing tall despite it all, heavy weight pressed onto my chest. In this damned world, so-called high society elders could be more vicious than stray dogs. Right then, I made my decision. I reached into the tin box by my chopping block,
pulled out a piece of chocolate wrapped in foil, and stuffed it into her freezing hand. I wiped the mud off her cheek. Call me mom. The girl froze, disbelief bursting in her eyes.
As long as Brianna breathes, nobody touches a hair on your head in front of The girl threw her arms around my waist, screaming with everything she had. Mommy! Looking at the child clinging to my side, my own buried past tore open.
Eight years old, my parents died in a gang firefight, stray bullets taking them both. My relatives labeled me a curse who brought death to her own blood. Ten years ago, because our family was poor, my brother and his wife sent me to live with a neighbor who had a tendency toward
In that dark hell, I endured endless neglect and torment. I worked from dawn till midnight, rewarded only with moldy scraps. On one bitter winter night, the wind cut to the bone, yet I had no cotton coat to shield I curled up in the corner of the cold, damp shed, staring at my frozen, injured fingers.
In that moment, I learned a lesson I'd never forget. In a world where the strong devour the weak endurance, only lets the demons eat you down to the To survive, you must be more vicious than the devil himself. That night, I used a piece of iron wire to saw through the ropes binding my hands and feet.