Page 59 of Niccolaio Andretti (The Five Syndicates)
NOTES FROM THE ADMISSIONS OFFICER:
While the student’s essay does not focus entirely on herself, she does show a selfless devotion to her sister that I believe will make her a successful student at Wilton. After all, we seek students with a natural drive and inclination for success, and in spite of her adversity, this student appears to have it in droves.
Furthermore, the student shows a level of self-awareness unusual for students her age. She questions the ethics of wanting to see her sister so badly that she’d be willing to do so—even if it means that her sister suffers in pain.
Most importantly, she’s honest to herself—and us—about these feelings (and flaws) and is able to channel them as motivation.
My only concern is that she, in living her life for her sister, may begin to lose herself. In the end, she cares so much for another being that she is willing to put that person before her. But is that not what we’d want in a lawyer?
Oh, my God.
Is she…?
This woman, who I referred to as a raging bitch the first time I met her, is gold digging to support her little sister. It’s noble. It’s unexpected. And it’s so, so stupid that I have the strongest, inexplicable urge to put a stop to it.
I started the search looking for something to use against Minka, and I found it. She has a sister under state care, and she’d like to get her back. That means she can’t afford any scandals. She can’t afford to go to the police and has been bluffing this whole time.
But I also found something I didn’t expect.
Common ground.
Everything Minka wrote in that essay, I’ve felt before.
I know what it’s like to have a younger sibling. What it feels like to put him before me and get burned by doing so. With Ranieri and even Naz, who now lays dead in my basement, I’ve gladly put them before me at one point in my life.
Also like Minka, the most significant day of my life can be boiled down to one day. The day I killed my Uncle Luca. And everything after that, every day I have lived from there on, has been a result of that fucking day.
By the time I’m done reading Minka’s essay, I’m staggered that this woman I’ve been giving a hard time—this woman whose life I’ve been making harder for no other reason than she entered it uninvited and fate keeps bringing us together—is someone I can relate to.
Before reading this, I was going to kick her out.
I was going to blackmail her into shutting her mouth and leaving my life for good.
But now?
I don’t think I can.
And fuck, a roommate—correction: a roommate that I’m attracted to physically and mentally—is the last thing I need right now.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Angry people are not always wise.
Jane Austen
I make it a few blocks before I start to second guess myself.
Aside from my short temper, I’m usually a levelheaded person, but when it comes to anything involving Mina, rationality flies out of the door, and I’m one hundred percent emotion.
I can’t help it.
That’s what happens when you love someone.
You think with your heart and not with your head.
Sure, sometimes I think I’m being rational, but after a bit of time, I’ll usually realize that I’m not.
This time around, that took about five minutes, and now, I’m walking back to Nick’s brownstone, feeling like a total idiot. I can’t go to Mina’s in the off chance someone actually does come after me. I’m not about to risk bringing killers to her doorstep.
