Anyway, she never needed to know about that. I’d make sure she never found out I ever had any feelings for her. I was her enemy and her kidnapper. She better keep thinking she was my enemy too. Business would work out better than way.
She finished eating, and I ordered a car to pick us up at the front door. We sat on opposite sides of the seat on the way into town. She seethed in silence. Good. I didn’t want to talk.
“I’m… sorry, Dominic,” she finally blurted out.
I looked around at her. “For what? You haven’t done anything… yet. Just make sure you keep it that way.”
“I’m sorry about… about your parents.” She lowered her eyes, and my heart twisted. She really was beautiful, and she wasn’t too shabby at turning on the charm when she wanted to.
“You don’t have to apologize. You didn’t kill them.”
“I’m… just sorry… about my dad. It was a rotten thing to do, and… I feel bad for you and Dante. I can’t imagine how awful it must have been for both of you.”
I faced front. Now I knew this was an act. She was trying to butter me up. “The family took care of us. We never wanted for anything.”
She looked out the window on the other side of the car. “I never knew. I never knew my dad was capable of something like that. I thought I had a perfect life until…”
“Well, now you know where we all stand. Now you know none of us has any reason to take it easy on you, so you can drop the pathetic, damsel-in-distress act. I ain’t buying it, and if you think any of the past will blind me to what you’re up to, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Her jaw dropped. Good. Stupid bitch. I never should have stuck up for her.
She crossed her arms over her chest and turned back to the window. The less she talked on this trip, the better.
“I remembered everything that first night.” She started talking in a different tone. She murmured in a flat, lifeless husk that sounded like it came from a million miles away. She didn’t sound like she cared about me anymore at all.
“After you guys left, I couldn’t get the smell out of my head. It was everywhere, and I remembered everything. I remembered how the four of us used to be when we were younger. I remembered everything about Archhurst and everyone who used to work for Don Antonio. I remembered how they used to come to the house and the four of us would hide behind the door to eavesdrop on their conversations. I even remember Luca telling us to stop whispering so he could hear. He said he had to learn this stuff so he could take over the family when he got older.”
I turned around in spite of myself. I watched her from the side, but she didn’t notice me. Was she talking to herself? Was she talking just to have someone to talk to?
“You want to know something funny?” she murmured. “I used to think we were all gonna get married when we grew up. I thought I would grow up to marry all three of you—you and Luca and Dante. Isn’t that silly? I was that young I didn’t realize it was all a pipe dream.”
My heart contracted again. “Really? Me too.”
She spun around with a gasp like she just realized I was in the car with her. “You did?”
I nodded. “I used to think the same thing. When I was six or seven, I used to think me and Dante and Luca would all marry you. I thought something like that was actually possible just because I wanted it so bad.”
The expectant moment of connection evaporated from her features, and she hunched in her seat.
“All those dreams died a long time ago, and I grew up. You vanished out of our lives, and Dante and Luca and I grew up real fast after that. Luca went real hard and started working non-stop to learn his father’s business. His uncle Diego helped out for a few years before Luca got old enough to take over. Dante and I worked for him all the time. Neither of us wanted anything like that to ever happen again.”
She turned back to the window. “I don’t blame you for thinking I was trying to snow you, but I’m really sorry about what happened to you. I would have done anything to stop it from happening. I wish…”
The car pulled off the expressway and started winding through town, but neither of us spoke again.
I wished too. I wished none of it ever happened. I wished the four of us could keep living in a fantasy world of childhood, but that never would have happened.
Maybe waking up and facing reality would have been a lot harder if the four of us grew up together. Who knows?
The chauffeur steered into the parking garage, and I got out. I opened Ariana’s door for her. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“I told you. You’re going to get some clothes. Luca is attending a gala with the other families on Saturday night. We need to get you cleaned up before then so you can make your first appearance in society as his date.” She hesitated and cocked her head to study me. “What?”
“You called him Luca. You didn’t call him ‘Padrino’ or whatever.”
“So, what? His nameisLuca.”
“Are you allowed to call him that?”