Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
"You talked about me," I assumed.
"We did. And he told me, essentially, that if I cared about you, I would set you free. That it was selfish of me to claim you, to bring you into this life. So him being so nice right now, it was a little confusing."
"I think everyone deserves to be happy. And so long as everyone goes into it with open eyes, it's not exactly selfish. It would be if I didn't know that your life is dangerous, that it comes with risks."
"You're willing to risk that?"
"I think that whatever issues there might have been in security or whatever back then have likely since been remedied."
"That is true," he agreed, nodding. "But there are still risks."
"Life has risks. I could be hit by a car or fall down an elevator shaft or choke on a vitamin. At least if someone murdered me, you could avenge it," I added, trying for levity. "You can't take out your anger on an elevator shaft."
"So you think you can handle it."
"I think I can handle it."
"And you want me?" he asked, and if I wasn't mistaken, there was a hint of vulnerability there.
"Now, that I know," I told him.
"So, it's settled."
"It's settled. I mean... there is probably a lot of talking left to do. But later. Now, I want to rave about the food."
And so I did.
To Luca.
Then to Antony when he joined us.
Finally, bellies full to bursting—and me a little loopy from all the wine since Luca nursed his first glass, and I thought it would be a complete shame to let the rest of the bottle go to waste—we got up, making our way outside, down the steep steps. I am not ashamed to admit that I needed to lean into Luca quite a bit to make it down those stairs, made a little slippery from the salt water.
"Shit."
"What?" I asked, stiffening.
"I left my phone," he told me.
"I am not braving those stairs again," I told him, shaking my head. "I'll wait here for you."
Luca looked at me, then up toward the guard just fifty or so feet at the top of the stairs.
"Okay. Two minutes."
With that, he was gone.
And I stood there for a few seconds, enjoying my buzz. One brought on by both the alcohol and this new, exciting future we had decided on.
"How could you do it?" a voice asked, making my stomach plummet.
I was pretty drunk to stone-cold sober in the span of a blink.
My head whipped around, looking toward the shadows, looking for the figure that voice belonged to.
Because I knew that voice.
Celenia's.
"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."