Becky jumped up from her chair nervously, making Felix, who had gone back to talking to his daughter, look over at her again. “What’s the matter now?”
“Nothing, I just remembered something I need to take care of.”
“Right now? You knew Gia was coming; why didn’t you take care of whatever it was before?”
“Yes, Rebecca, that’s very rude. I thought you would love seeing your stepdaughter since you haven’t in a couple of days, but I guess I was wrong?”
Yes, try telling him how much you love and miss her now. She looked cornered, trapped. The way I imagine Gianna felt the last ten years of her life in this house. “You should run.” I mouthed the words to her while Gia and her dad went back to talking about school and how she was doing, but always coming back to how much she looked like her mother.
“Uh, where is the bathroom?” I looked around for an answer which came from Gianna.
"Thanks, I’ll be right back.” I took my time leaving the room and walked as lightly as I could past the door Gianna had mentioned, up the stairs to my real target. It was easy to find what I was looking for, but it meant a trip out to the trunk of my car since there was nowhere on me to hide what I’d taken.
I went back to the room and sat beside Gianna, who didn’t look as though anything untoward had happened while I was gone. I hated to leave her, but it hadn’t been for long, and it needed to be done. I looked at my watch after another five minutes as if I didn’t know what time it was by the location of the setting sun.
“Well, Mr. Fontane, Felix, it’s time for Gianna and I to head back home. My mother doesn’t like it when any of us are missing from the dinner table; it’s a family thing. I’ll bring her back to see you soon.”
“What about this weekend?” He was looking hopeful again.
“Sorry, can’t. I’m taking her to Virginia to see her mother’s mom and sisters.”
He blanched and looked down at the floor between his feet. “Mom, do something.” From the tone of Victoria’s hiss, it sounded like she was about to throw a tantrum. “What exactly do you want her to do?” I asked out loud for the benefit of Felix, who hadn’t heard.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. It just sounded like your stepdaughter was asking your wife to do something to your actual kid. Come on, Gianna, Ma’s chicken cacciatore waits for no one.” I raised my brow at Victoria when it looked like she was about to get up from her chair.
“Don’t be in such a hurry; your time will come soon enough.”
I had to get the words out fast because Gianna had finished saying her goodbyes to her dad and was making her way over to my side. I took her hand and left without another word. The ball’s in your court Felix, let’s see your next move. Of course, I hadn’t brought Jimmy here, not yet. It wasn’t time for his next act in this play. His upcoming job at one of the family garages in the city, the only place surprisingly that would hire him, meant that I would know where he is when I'm ready for him.
“Did you have fun?” I asked as soon as the engine turned on.
“Did anything seem odd to you back there?” Damn, her innocence is like a breath of fresh air. It’s also scary as hell that someone like her is alone in this world, a lamb among rabid wolves.
“I can’t say that I did. What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but didn’t you notice anything strange about Becky and Victoria when you told the story about your friend Jimmy?”
“Jimmy’s not my friend, just someone I’m helping out.” Jimmy is a thieving piece of shit, but from everything I’d learned, he hadn’t been a bad husband and father. Just poor, directionless, and lacking prospects as a high school dropout in one of the most career-oriented cities in the world.
It’s not hard to imagine why Becky had pulled a disappearing act. But how did she come to choose this place? Her life is like an onion, and there’s still layer after layer left to unfold. I’m convinced, almost certain, that there are worst things in her past than the mistreatment of her stepdaughter. I’m just afraid of what that truth will do to Gianna if or when it comes to light.
I know how I feel about Ma, the lengths I’d go to to avenge the wrong done to her. I don’t want that for Gianna, don’t want her suffering a moment of this hell. The weekend is going to bring with it some of what I don’t want her to hear, I’m afraid. I’ll just have to be there to help her pick the chips up where they fall.
I reached over the console for her hand, and it felt right in mine, so I absentmindedly lifted it to my lips and kissed her fingers before placing her hand on my thigh. She didn’t seem any worse for wear after her visit, but she’s never going there without me.
It’s obvious Becky and Victoria hadn’t changed and were still willing to step over the line in their disrespect of her. Which means Becky’s not even going to make the three months the courts are willing to give her. And Victoria, well, I’m just going to subject her to her own personal hell.
Had she been satisfied with her lot, had she not tried to erase the daughter of the house to take her place, she could’ve had a beautiful life here. But she’d gone too far, and what’s worse, she’d stepped into my orbit of all people and harmed a girl whose beauty inside and out is the first thing to touch my heart since I became what I am.
BECKY
“He can’t possibly know; how can he? What do you think he meant by all that?”
“You really are stupid. OF COURSE, HE KNOWS.” Victoria screamed and hit herself in the head the way she used to as a small child when she became frustrated. I hadn’t seen her like this in a while.
“Keep your voice down.”
I’d only just remembered that the housekeeper was still here. Felix had left not long after Gia and that boy, but I couldn’t be bothered with his movements right now. I paced back and forth in the parlor biting into the skin of my thumb that had already begun to bleed.
Why does it feel like the walls are closing in? I could almost hear the snaps of a trap as they close around my neck. “Don’t you dare. If you make this room look like yours, Felix will not stand for it.” I screamed at Victoria when she lifted a very expensive vase over her head to throw it.
“I don’t care; what difference does it make now? Didn’t you hear him? Everything is over. I told you, you should make Felix go get her, now look what she’s done. Do you know who Gabriel Russo is? Who his father is? He’s not going to stop. That guy has a reputation at school. He’s cold, unrelenting and he never forgives a slight. Kids have been afraid of him since the third grade. And they say the father is worst.”
Why is she telling me about school right now? Doesn’t she see the significance of what’s going on? “Victoria now is not the time to worry about school. We’ve got to come up with something before things go to shit. We might have to leave.” I whispered the last bit, which was pointless because her answer was a loud roar.
“I’m not leaving. I’m not running away from my life because of your stupidity. I haven’t done anything wrong; it’s all you. Don’t forget; I’m Felix Fontane’s true daughter; he adopted me.”