I plant a finger on her lips.
Everything she said is true. And she still doesn’t see.
Me.
“You don’t know me. At all.”
I get up and grab her hand, dragging her to the back door in my office. I open the door and grab her shoulders to push her forward. “Look.”
Her pupils dilate, and her jaw drops. Because in there, in that mid-size closet with a tiny window, a whole fucking pen filled with expensive bowls and beds and playthings exist. Along with a fuzzy little creature hiding in the cotton ball-shaped bed in the corner.
That bunny.
Chapter 27
Jill
* * *
Age 14
* * *
I look at the bunny chewing off something that’s on its foot. It seems stuck, and I don’t want it to suffer, so I get up close really gently to try to help it. There’s wire stuck around its little paws. No wonder it’s so agitated.
“What have you got there?”
Luca’s voice makes me shriek and fall on my butt. “Oh my God, don’t scare me like that!”
When I look up, the bunny is gone. Of course it ran off the second it heard my shriek. Dammit.
Luca snorts. “Chicken.”
Enraged he’d scare me like that, I punch his foot. He cries out in pain. “Fuck! Why’d you have to do that?!”
“That’s what you get for scaring me,” I retort, but my eyes immediately widen the second I notice where the bunny went. “Look at what you did!”
It’s right there, in the water up ahead.
Shit.
“What is it?” Luca asks, peering into the water like he doesn’t realize what he just did.
Asshole.
“A bunny. It got stuck, and I almost had it pulled out until you scared it away,” I hiss.
What do I do now?
I can’t just let it die in the water.
“A bunny?” he scoffs. “That’s why you’re behind the fence? Because of some bunny?”
How dare he? I get up and put my hands against my side. “It’s not just a bunny. And it deserves help.”
He shrugs it off like it means nothing. “Bunnies can swim.”
“Not when their paws might be broken,” I reply, watching the bunny try to claw its way up a branch. “And if you’re not going to help me, back off and leave me alone.”
I return my attention to the bunny, but Luca is not walking away even when I hoped he would. I try to reach for the bunny, but it’s no use. I can’t get close enough without ruining my dress. My mother will kill me if I get it wet at this fancy party.
Suddenly, Luca pushes me aside and pokes the bunny with a stick.
“Hey!” I try to push him.
Right then, the bunny falls into the water.
My heart beats in my throat, and I hold my breath.
Luca holds the stick like a dam to stop the bunny from washing away.
“Don’t hurt it!” I yell at him, but he shoves me away. “Asshole.”
He quickly flicks the bunny to the edge, out of the water. It’s soaked and crying, and he holds it close while looking at its paw. He rips off the wire and doesn’t stop looking while brushing down its fur like he’s searching for something.
“There. It’s fine,” he says.
My eyes fill with tears as he turns to face me. Maybe he isn’t such an asshole after all. “Thank you.”
His face suddenly turns sour. “I didn’t do it for you.”
Whatever. I take it back. He is an asshole.
Still, I can’t stop the grin from spreading. “Fine. As long as the bunny is safe.”
I try to take the bunny from him, but he steps away.
Goddammit. Of course this is all just another way to taunt me. “Luca … C’mon. Let me have it.”
A vicious smirk spreads on his lips. “No.”
Rage bubbles up to the surface. “I found it first.”
He only clutches the bunny closer. “And I saved it.”
What?
After all my effort, he now tries to make this about him?
He’s only using this against me.
“Luca …” I growl. “Give. Me. The. Bunny.”
“No.” He picks up the stick again and holds it out to me like he wants to strike me with it. “Finders keepers. It’s my bunny now.”
My jaw drops as nothing short of pure rage fills my body. “Luca!”
The stupid grin on his face is the one thing that always stops me from turning a blind eye. “Come and get it.”
Present
* * *
I’m flabbergasted at the sight of two soft, wobbly ears sticking out above a cottony pillow.
Is that … a bunny?
Without thinking, I hop toward it and grab it as it’s just about to open its eyes. The scraggy, old-looking bunny isn’t skittish at all, but meek as I hold it in my arms and look at it.
It doesn’t look like any random bunny Luca picked up from a store.
It looks exactly like the bunny I remember from years ago.
The one that I tried to help get out of the water while Luca snatched it away from me.