I nod into his chest. “Thank you,” I whisper, my voice overcome with emotion.
When he pulls back, he gives me a sad smile. “I love you. Be strong.”
“Sunshine, please,” Dad begs again.
“Take him away,” I tell Phoenix. “I never want to see him again.”
Phoenix nods in understanding, then grabbing Niles by his arm, pulls him down the pathway and out of my life.
Closing the door behind me, I press my back against the hard wood and take several deep breaths, needing to calm myself. My face falls into my hands, and my cheek throbs, reminding me I was just hit. I walk into the bathroom where the mirror is and check it out. My cheek is bright pink but doesn’t show any signs of bruising.
With my heart thundering inside my chest like a war drum and my head pounding to the beat, I head back to the main room, needing to call the one person who’s always had my back. My mom.
She answers on the first ring. “Cara mia! How are you? I’ve been waiting for your call.”
The sound of her voice has me falling onto my bed in tears. “Mom,” I sob uncontrollably, all of the built up adrenaline hitting me hard. “I need your help. I need you to come get me.”
By the time I finish telling her all that’s happened, and the little I know, she’s crying as well. “I’m going to call your grandfather. He’ll know what to do.”
“Please hurry, Mom,” I beg.
I hang up the phone and curl into a ball on the bed, hugging the soft pillows. I’m not sure how long I cry for, but when there’s a knock on the door, my head is pounding, and my eyes are burning from the little bit of mascara I put on that’s now running.
Thinking it’s Phoenix coming back to check on me, I swing the door open, only to find it’s Aris, Kostas’s brother, the playful flirt I met at the bar last night. I shoot him a glare, and he flinches. Good!
“What the hell do you want?”
Aris raises his hands in mock surrender. “I didn’t know.”
“So, you’re telling me when we were talking, you had no idea who I was?” I tilt my head to the side and throw a hand on my hip. “You didn’t know I was my father’s daughter?”
“At first, no, but once we started talking, I put two and two together…”
I grab the edge of the door, about to slam it in his face, when he slides his foot in the doorway to prevent it from closing. His eyes land on my cheek, and he steps closer, widening the door.
“Who did this to you?” His fingers come up to touch my face, but I take a step back. “Who did this to you?” he repeats.
“My—Niles,” I say, refusing to ever refer to him as my dad again.
Aris’s jaw ticks. “He’s lucky he already got on that plane.”
“He may have physically hurt me, but what you guys are doing is even worse.”
Aris flinches at my words, as though I’ve slapped him like my father slapped me. His eyes plead with me to understand. Understand what? That he’s not the same monster as they are? But when his gaze softens, I find my heart does too.
“I didn’t know what my father and Kostas were planning,” he utters in a tone that begs for me to understand. “I swear. I only came by to see if you’re okay.”
I assess his features in an attempt to get a read on him, and for some reason, I believe him. His brows are furrowed in worry, and his lips are pursed in a concerned frown. I think back to earlier, during breakfast. When Ezio announced I was to marry his son, I had assumed he meant Aris. When I looked over at him, he genuinely looked as confused and shocked as I did. And then when his father clarified it would be his eldest son I would be marrying, Aris looked almost…angry.
“I’m not marrying your brother,” I state. “So, if you’re here to try to talk me into going along with this craziness, you can leave now.”
“That’s not why I’m here. I told you…I came by to see if you’re okay. Why don’t we walk down to the bar and get a drink?”
Figuring it’s probably better to have Aris as an ally than an enemy, I nod once. “Let me grab my phone.” I need to make sure I’m available when my mom calls back.
After grabbing my phone, I take a quick detour back into the bathroom to clean up my face and hair, so I don’t look like a hot mess. Then I slip on my wedges and grab my purse. It’s probably best if I bring it everywhere with me in case I need to run at any moment. It’s all I came with, and it holds everything I have. A little bit of cash, my credit cards, my license, and my passport. My passport! Why didn’t I think about that before? It won’t be easy, but at least I know I have a backup plan.