Then, in a blink, my parents were ripped away mid-stride while we were shopping. Strangers seized them and dragged them off.
They brought me to where my parents were being held and forced me to choose one of them.
The ringleader looked like he'd swallowed something rotten. His eyes were wild, manic, brimming with a sick thrill.
"No... please, no. What do you want? Money? I have money. I'll go get it for you, as much as you want. Just let my parents go. Please."
I dropped to my knees, begging, pleading for their lives.
One of the men dragged over a crate of cash and dumped it over my head.
"Money? I've got plenty of money. What I want is their lives. You know how many of my brothers died because of them?"
"If it weren't for your precious parents, I wouldn't have spent years running and hiding like a rat."
He grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of my skull and wrenched my head up, forcing me to look at Mom and Dad. He leveled a gun at each of them. "Choose. Or they both die."
"No..."
When I refused, he put a bullet through my father's leg.
My mother stared at me with unyielding pride, not a trace of surrender in her eyes. "Sweetheart, remember what Mommy told you."