Dropping my backpack and pivoting angrily, I fling back, “I was afraid he’d kill you, Hunter. I was terrified that the next time you disappeared, it would be for good. I was trying to protect you.”
I’m so overcome with hurt and anger that I can’t keep my composure, but Hunter stands there looking cool and unaffected as he tucks his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I didn’t need your protection.”
I draw a shuddering breath, angry at my own emotions for being so out of control. “What I did may have hurt you, but it wasn’t malicious. What you did today… that was just cruel.”
Hunter shrugs. “Never claimed to be a nice guy.”
I shake my head, looking down at the footbridge. “Well, not like you care, but for the record? I’m extremely disappointed in you.”
I expect him to shoot back something cruel at worst, casually indifferent at best, but he falls silent. The silence lasts for so long that I finally look up at him.
He’s looking off at the woods that lead to his house. “Well, you won’t have to be disappointed for very long,” he tells me, his tone more grounded, but a little hollow. Not hollow like he doesn’t care, but… something else. Something more serious.
I shouldn’t care. After what he just did to intentionally hurt me, I should walk away without another word, but it’s not in my nature. “What do you mean?”
“All the shit you kicked up caused a lot of trouble for my mom.”
I cock my head, glancing past him and narrowing my eyes in consideration. “I think it was allowing her husband to beat the shit out of you that caused trouble for your mom, but… go on.”
“Apparently, while my existence wasn’t enough of a draw for my father to ever come here, a potential public scandal is.”
I straighten at the mention of his father. I thought the girls in history were just peddling slush from the gossip mill. I didn’t think there was any truth to it. “Your dad’s here? I thought you guys didn’t even talk.”
“We don’t,” he says, bending to pick up an errant stick on the bridge, then throwing it as hard as he can into the woods. “We’re strangers, but his name’s on my birth certificate. I guess he’s some kind of big deal, and there’s already been so much scandal in his family that he won’t tolerate a bastard in America who ends up a ward of the state because his mom’s been ruled an unfit parent until she completes some bullshit parenting classes.”
“In America?” I question, eyes wide.
Hunter finally looks at me. “He’s European.”
“Don’t tell me he lives in a chateau in Paris,” I say, thinking of the gossip from earlier.
Hunter shakes his head. “Not a chateau, but he does have an apartment there. A place in Geneva, too, where his wife—who hates me—and two daughters—who don’t even know I exist—live in their family home. I guess my dad works in Italy though, so he has a house in Umbria where they won’t have to deal with me on the regular. Apparently… I’m being shipped off to Italy.”
My heart sinks and I feel a little light on my feet. “What?”
He clears his throat and nods, looking down at the footbridge. “Don’t speak a word of Italian so I’m not sure how that’s gonna work, but… I guess I’ll learn.”
“But… your mom only has to take parenting classes, right? And keep Dennis away. And then she can still parent you. Can’t she explain that to him? Why would he take you all the way to Italy—?”
“Because he said so, Riley. You’ve met my mom. Did you not notice she’s not very good at standing up to men she has feelings for on my behalf? He’s decreed that I’m going to be hidden away like a dirty secret in some fucking mansion in the Italian countryside, so that’s what’s going to happen.”
I don’t know what to say. My mind is racing nearly as fast as my heart, trying to absorb all this new information. Trying to find a way around it. Hunter may have been a real jerk today, but I don’t want him to leave. I especially don’t want him to be sent off to live with people who don’t even like him in a country he’s probably never been to.
“Maybe… maybe we can figure out a way around this. I can talk to my mom. Maybe she can talk to your dad. Your mom might not be able to stand her ground with him, but my mom won’t have the same problem. No one intimidates my mom. Even if he is some ex-prince of Italy, she won’t care. My mom’s unstoppable. I’ll explain the situation to her, I’ll—I’ll—”
Hunter shakes his head. “It won’t change anything.”
“You won’t have to go in the system, though,” I blurt, thinking as quickly as I can. “You could come live with us. If your dad’s whole thing is how it would look if you were put into foster care, then we’ll find a way around that. I’m sure there is something your mom could do to give my mom temporary emergency custody, or… something like that. That sounds like a real thing, right? I know there’s something like that, I don’t know the details, but we can figure it out. There won’t be a scandal. You’ll have somewhere safe to live and your dad can go back to pretending you don’t exist; everybody wins.”