The hardest part will be giving Pop the slip once we reach Paris. I’m almost certain he’s going to have me watched every second, but I think I’ve found a way to get around him. I’ll get the twins to cover for me as well, and with the Jetstream at my disposal, it shouldn’t be that hard to do. A quick two and a half hours flight there and back, not counting the drive once I land.
It doesn’t matter what time I arrive at my destination so I can leave in the middle of the night once everyone has gone to bed and be back before they wake in the morning. I’ve played it out a thousand times in my head already, granted everything goes as planned.
“Is something bothering you, Gabriel?”
“Why do you ask?” She shrugged as I plopped down on the bed with the dog between us.
“I don’t know; you seem… distant. Is it the thing with my mom? Do you think something’s going to go wrong?”
“No, nothing like that, sweetheart. I’m just going over everything in my head so that there are no mistakes.”
“I hear you; I’ve been doing the same ever since we landed. Even though I told you to put it away until after the party and then the trip, it’s all I can think about since the day I spoke to Greta.”
“I know, but I’m glad you got to enjoy both; there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“What do you think my dad is going to say? Do you think he’d believe me, or will he brush it aside like he does everything else?” If he does, I just might throw his ass off a cliff.
“If he doesn’t believe you, what will you do?” She seemed stumped by the question, which means she hadn’t given it much thought.
I know in her naivete, she’s expecting things to go smoothly; that just goes to show how innocent she truly is. After all the disappointments from her dad, she still expects him to accept the truth and act accordingly. The truth is, that’s the thing that worries me the most. To me, Felix is already dead. To her, he’s the last remaining parent she has left, and in her heart of hearts, she wants the old Felix back.
I’d love to give him to her, but I’m not holding out much hope. It would be awesome if he stepped up and became the father she needs; that might help ease the pain of my leaving; but I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up going with door number one, which is to destroy him along with the other two and give her a clean break from her past.
I can do that now because she has her grandmother and her aunts and a whole lotta cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a child. I’ve done my homework there, too, digging into her family’s background to make sure she’d be safe with them. I could tell by the way she absently played with the dog’s fur that she was worried, though, and trying to put on a brave face.
It’s times like this that get to me when she looks so vulnerable that it hurts. She gave me a questioning look when I reached out and ran my fingers along her soft cheek. “You look tired; why don’t you take a nap?”
“Yeah, I am a bit tired. Stay with me.” She was out as soon as I lifted her higher on the bed so she could lay her head on the pillow.
BECKY
“You’ve been sprung, lady.” I rolled and sat up on the cot as the latest warden unlocked the door to my cell.
“What? What happened?”
“Your bails been made.”
“Don’t I have to go to court for that?”
“Listen, you wanna stay here? No skin off my nose.”
“Is my husband here to pick me up?” Now that I was getting out of here, my anger came back full force. I’d been lying there feeling sorry for myself, wondering why the hell Felix hadn’t come to see about me. A week and a half, that’s how long he’d left me in there to rot, and I can’t help but feel it has something to do with Gia and her lies of late.
I’ve run the gauntlet from fear to anger and back a thousand times, going almost crazy since no one was telling me anything. That phone call from Jimmy had only made my time here more stressful, not knowing how he found me, wondering if he’d shown up at the house. No wonder the ugly jumpsuit they’d made me wear was now hanging off me. I’ve lived on nothing but fear and angst this whole time.
“I don’t know who’s here to pick you up; I was just told you were free to go. You can collect your things upfront.” He didn’t even hang around long enough to listen to my complaints, of which I had plenty, just opened the cell and went about his business as if I didn’t matter. It was insulting, to say the least, but that’s becoming the norm here of late.
I made sure they returned everything I came in here with before stepping out into the waiting area, expecting to see my husband waiting for me and feeling that pit in my gut when he wasn’t. I had to endure the embarrassment of having the desk sergeant call me a cab, which he did with a smirk on his face.
There I stood in designer wear, thousand-dollar shades, and a five-thousand-dollar purse and no way of getting home, no loving husband or daughter waiting for me. The fact that I’d spent most of my time here yelling about what my husband was going to do to them for keeping me here is probably what put the smirk on his face.
I’d cussed Felix out in my head a thousand times by the time the cab pulled into the driveway and was fighting mad by the time I put my key in the door. The house was deathly silent; not even the sound of the television could be heard as I walked in. “Hello, anybody home?”
“In here.” I followed Felix’s voice into the living room where it came from, ready to blast him, and came up short in the doorway.
“What the hell is that doing here?” I thought I shouted the words, but they came out as little more than a whisper.
Anything I was about to say died in my lungs as I took in the sight of Felix sitting in a chair that he’d drawn up close to the fireplace where the life-size portrait of Adrienne hung over the mantle. “Hello, Becky, you’re finally home. Have a seat.” I looked from him to the portrait and back with my mouth hanging open, and my feet stuck to the floor.
There was a strange tingling in my fingers and toes, and I felt as if my head was about to explode. The air grew thick, and I found it hard to breathe as question after question tumbled through my head, but none made it past my lips. A phone rang somewhere in the room, and I vaguely heard the din of his voice as he answered.
“Perfect timing, your stepmother just got home; come on over.”
FELIX
“Who was that? Is that Gia and that boy? I just got home; I’m in no mood to deal with those two right now….”
“I told you to have a seat. I’m having a drink; why don’t you join me?”
“Felix, I’m serious. Because of them, I spent a week in jail for an honest mistake.”
“Mistake? What kind of mistake was that? Who gave you the right to sell Gia’s car?”
“I admit I was a bit hasty there; I was just upset at what they did to Victoria. Besides, it was that Russo kid who burned her car; it’s only fair.”
“I see. What about the rest of it?”
“The rest of what? It’s all nonsense. You yourself know how hard I’ve tried to be a good mother to Gia. I was her mother’s best friend… Why are you looking at me like that?”