"Is that a My Little Pony lamp?" He points to the lamp in the corner.
I cringe inside. "Maybe."
He walks over and picks it up. He carefully inspects it. It's in perfect condition. I just replace the bulbs once in a while. It used to be an incandescent bulb. Now I have an eco-friendly one in there, one of those cute pigtail bulbs, but it's still the same.
"You won't have My Little Pony lamps in your new room."
"About that." I shift my weight to my other foot. "Am I still going to college for this semester?”
His body is still. He looks at me like he's thinking about it. If my dad already agreed to give me up days ago, I can't imagine that he never thought about me attending school.
"We'll see," he says. "I'll think about it."
It infuriates me that he holds my future in his hands. I hope that my dad takes the opportunity to escape so that Iacopo can't find him. Then I'll leave.
Ironically, leaving and hiding from the Mafia might be worse for my school enrollment than staying with Uncle Iacopo.
"I told you to pack." He waves a hand at the suitcase next to me. "But you've only packed a single suitcase."
"Most of my stuff is at school." I pick up my suitcase. "I have enough for a few days. If you want me to move in for more than that and don't want me to stay in school, then I need to go to my room. I don't know how I'll explain this to Camilla."
Chapter Five
Driving Her
Iacopo
“You won’t have to explain anything to Camilla. I can send movers to your apartment.”
“Can I still go to class?”
It’s not really much of a punishment for her father for Kelly to go about her normal daily life like nothing’s wrong. This is revenge. On the other hand, I don’t have plans to ruin her long-term future, just control her near-term future.
“Not this semester.” And I know that she understands that I don’t have anything more to say about it. She trails behind me, carrying her single suitcase. We get into my car. George is nowhere to be seen.
My car comes alive. And then I’m driving home the woman who is the collateral for millions of dollars. She looks like she’s sleeping, but I know that she’s not.
I didn’t know if she would say yes. George is a sneaky bastard. She acted like it was a surprise, but maybe he warned her somehow. I’ve kept an eye on him for the past few days, waiting for Kelly to wander into my grasp. I look at Kelly, her eyes closed, her head resting against the seatbelt.
She’s always been a beautiful little girl. I guess that she’s a young woman now. I can see that she’s breathing more deeply now. Faking sleep has made her actually fall asleep.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. It’s not easy to turn off the idea that she’s a young girl I need to protect, despite her father’s betrayal. I remember when she was born. I remember when I came to her fifth birthday party. I remember buying her toys every time that I went to George’s house for dinner, especially after his wife was out of the picture. She literally thought I was a superhero, like something out of movies.
Revenge isn’t about her. It’s about her father.
I decide now that I’m not going to hurt her. It’ll be enough to cut off contact with her father. His imagination will do the work for me.
I rub my eyebrow. She’s in school. If I send her back there now, it’ll be easy for her to get in touch with her father, even if I assign a bodyguard. School is out of the question.
What am I expecting her to do at my house every day? I’ll have to give her some job. I shake my head. Life would be a lot easier if I were as heartless as everyone thinks I am.
My first step is going to be to put her in a bedroom and tell the movers to come with her. I'll have her withdraw from school tomorrow. The key part is keeping her apart from her father. Even if I treat her well, he'll think the worst.
If he tries to have her break free of me, I can set up some failsafes. If she leaves my house, alarms will go off.
She's a good girl, maybe a little wild, but I doubt that she'll just run away on her own. I have to make sure that her father doesn't try to convince her to do anything.
Then I'm in front of my home. I get out and look at Kelly, who is still asleep in the car. I think about waking her up, but I unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her into my arms. She turns her head to rest against my shoulder and I feel something that I haven't felt in years, a spreading warmth in my chest.