15
Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.
I spent hours last night at the salon trying to get my hair the right color. It’s hard to get red toned hair to platinum blond without either frying your hair or having it turn orange. Luckily, my hair is neither fried nor orange. It’s platinum blond, cut to just above my shoulder, and is slightly waved.
I haven’t decided how I feel about it. I’ve really grown accustomed to the long, reddish hair I’ve had since becoming Amelia.
When Aiden came to pick me up this morning, he looked at my hair for a while. He said it suited me, but I think he misses my old hair too.
Oh well. It’s just hair. And neither of them is my real hair color, so what does it matter?
We leave early in the morning to make the drive to visit Luke. We have to get there during visiting hours, and now that Aiden’s in his car and a little heavy footed on the gas, we make it in no time.
I have to get to the bottom of this whole file thing. It’s been eating me up inside and I can’t wait until visiting hours so I can grill Luke about why he would even have the information in the first place.
We didn’t tell anyone we were coming here. My mom doesn’t know anything about the Luke situation—unless Brian told her, but that’s unlikely since she hasn’t said anything to me. In any case, she doesn’t know that I’m visiting a jail to talk to Luke, and she especially doesn’t need to know why. The rest of our friends just think we’re having some couple time or whatever. Technically they’re not wrong, but it sucks that the only us time Aiden and I seem to have these days is when we’re running around either fixing problems or starting them.
Once we’re in the jail, they make us sign in and go through the security checks like last time. I’m not allowed to bring my bag in, so I leave it in the car and just bring in the file I stole from Luke’s apartment, holding it close to my chest as if guarding it from peering eyes. I’m lucky they let me bring it in, but they take all the staples and paper clips out.
A guard leads me and Aiden to a metal table—a different one from the first time I was here with Annalisa—and we sit down. I place the file in my lap and try not to look around at the other inmates talking quietly with their loved ones. Like last time, there’s a woman sobbing, and the sound makes my skin crawl.
I hate this place.
Luke’s on the other side of the door, the guard stopping him to remove his handcuffs, then leading him over to our table. He looks a bit better than the last time we saw him, but still tired looking and older than his twenty years. He has rough stubble along his jaw and dark circles beneath his eyes.
“Where’s Anna?” He looks back and forth between me and Aiden.
“She couldn’t make it today,” Aiden answers in his smooth voice.
“What’s up? Why are you here? Any news about where I was that night?”
Even though I don’t completely trust him since finding that file, I figure we might as well tell him what we’ve found.
“We got a video of you puking your brains outside Howard’s Convenience, but you walk off camera at 5:25. Still plenty of time to murder Greg.”
Did my voice come out accusatory? It sounded harsher than I meant it.
“I guess you don’t know where I went after that?” he asks, dejected.
“Do you?” Aiden asks.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Luke sighs.
I feel like I’m glaring at Luke. Am I? I just can’t look at him the same.
“Are you all right?” Luke asks, leaning in to analyze me.
Was I staring at him without blinking?
“We were searching your apartment for clues, and we found something . . . interesting,” Aiden answers for me, drawing Luke’s attention.
I pull the file from my lap and place it on the table. “Do you want to tell me why you have this?”
He takes the file and opens it, skimming through the contents quickly.
He looks up somberly. “Did you tell anyone about this?”
“Only we know,” Aiden answers, folding his arms across his muscled chest.
Luke sighs and turns the file toward us. “I started doing some research when I ran into you guys at the Tracks, when Anna made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with me.”
I tense. I knew it.
He continues, “I wanted to do something for her, to get back on her good side. It’s always just been me, Anna, and our mom our whole life. My dad was barely there for me, and obviously he wanted nothing to do with Anna, she’s not even biologically his. I figured maybe she’d want to know who her biological father was.”
This is not going where I expected it to.
Oh no.
Aiden starts to interject but Luke cuts him off. “Yes, I know that her biological dad raped our mom at a party and that’s how she got pregnant. But I don’t know . . . at least I could give her the choice to know him or not.”
Oh no. No. No. No. No. I want to unhear this entire conversation.
“There’s three men in this file, but as you can tell, most of it is about this guy.” He points to the picture I’d know anywhere. “I’m about ninety-five percent sure this one, Anthony DeRosso, is the one who raped our mom at that party. I wasn’t able to do too much digging into him before I got arrested, but I know he’s a real lowlife, that’s why I haven’t told Anna about it.”
The room spins. My life is a soap opera. Annalisa is my best friend. My best friend is Anthony DeRosso’s biological daughter.
Anthony DeRosso. Known to me as Tony Derando. The man ruining my life.
Aiden senses that I’m too shocked to speak even though he’s staring Luke down with an intensity that radiates throughout his whole body.
“Have you contacted him, this Anthony DeRosso?” Aiden almost spits the name out, as if it pains him to say it.
“Um, no. Why?” Luke hesitates at the noticeable shift in Aiden’s demeanor.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Luke says defensively. “I haven’t figured out how yet. Is it that terrible of an idea to contact him? I know he’s not a good person, but I think Anna should know.”
It’s a terrible, horrible, horrendous idea.
“Anna wants nothing to do with her biological father,” Aiden states with authority. I can’t seem to find my voice. “If this man is her biological father—”
“I’m pretty sure he is,” Luke interjects. “I was digging through our mom’s old stuff. He’s mentioned a couple times. There’s a picture of them together at a party too. I just wish I knew where Anna’s birth certificate was. I’m sure Mom would’ve listed the biological dad, even if he was, you know—”
“If he is Anna’s biological father,” Aiden continues, “contacting him will only make things worse. For everyone.”
Especially me. Especially my friends. They have no idea the pain and danger they’d be inviting into their lives by contacting Tony—Anthony DeRosso. How would he act at finding out he has another daughter? The whole reason he snapped is because his daughter, Sabrina, died in a car accident my father caused.
Luke leans back in his seat and purses his lips in thought. “I just want what’s best for Annalisa.”
“Getting involved with this guy is the worst thing you could possibly ever do for Anna! He’s a psychopath!”
Luke’s eyebrows draw together at my outburst, and I feel Aiden’s reassuring hand on my leg under the table.
Calm down, Amelia. You’re acting all suspicious.
“A psychopath? You know him?”
I clear my thoughts and try to think of something that sounds logical.
“I only know what Anna’s told me,” I say. “This man brought her into the world by raping her mother. I’m assuming he’s committed more crimes since then.” I know he has. “A man like this would bring nothing of value into Anna’s life.”
Aiden’s eyes narrow. I have no idea how he’s managing to be articulate and thoughtful. I feel like the room’s spinning; I can barely process my own thoughts.
“So to clarify, you don’t have a way of contacting him?” Aiden asks.
Luke shakes his head. “Getting the information I have was hard enough.”
For the first time since we started this conversation, I feel like I can breathe a bit. Luke doesn’t have any contact information. He couldn’t contact Tony even if he wanted to. All he’s got are some pictures and a name Tony doesn’t even go by anymore. I take a calming breath without trying to make it obvious. My life isn’t going to crash down around me.
“But I’m going to find it,” Luke adds confidently.
What?
“What?” Aiden echoes my thought out loud.
“Anna should be given the choice if she wants to know him or not. She deserves a shot at a real family. Maybe he’s changed his ways and isn’t a terrible person. I’ve changed.”
Tony hasn’t changed! He’s a terrible person!
My head whips over to Aiden, my eyes wide, practically pleading for him to do something—to fix it.
“Have you not been listening to anything we’ve been saying?” Aiden’s tone is low and cutting. “We’re her family. She doesn’t need a criminal to add to her problems.”
Luke crosses his arms and leans back in his seat. “I’m a criminal. You’re visiting me in jail, and she still wants me in her life. Give her some credit, maybe she’ll want to get to know her biological father if she’s given the chance.”
“Luk—”
Luke cuts Aiden off. “My mind is made up. When you guys prove my innocence and get me out, I’m going to do everything I can to track him down. Anna deserves the choice.”
No!The last thing Annalisa deserves is to have Tony in her life. Do I tell him? Do I tell him who Tony is, what he’s done? He’d listen then, right? He’d have to see that it’s a mistake inviting him into Annalisa’s life if he knows everything Tony’s done, everything he’s capable of. I gnaw on my lip as I consider it.