I pout. “But I need him.”
He scoffs. “I’m not going to take offense to that. For now, you’re stuck with me.”
“Sorry. You know what I mean.”
“What I know is that he wants to keep you out of this for as long as he can. What’s up with the soldiers?”
“He’s going to need them.”
“Yeah, well, he wants to talk to you about that.”
I take a sharp inhale. My heart pulses at the thought of a chance to talk to Gio. I just want to hear his voice. I miss him so much.
“When?” I ask hopefully.
“Look at you two. Scheming already,” Gwen says as she walks into the room.
I’m stunned at first. She looks so different. She has chopped off her long locks for a Caesar cut and it’s dyed platinum. She’s wearing violet-colored contacts as well.
If I didn’t know her voice so well, she might have fooled me. I tear up and run to hug her. She tugs me into a tight embrace and rocks me back and forth. I break down and release the sob I’ve been holding in.
I hadn’t realized how much I needed Gwen too. I lost everyone at once. It’s been hard to cope with.
I pull away and look Gwen in the eyes. “Will you be staying with us?”
She looks at me sadly. “No, I had to create a new life. I have a new husband and home.”
“Husband?”
“You remember Martin.”
I give her a side glance. I never got the impression that Martin was into women. As a matter of fact, when he hung out with Mom and Gwen it was as clear as day he wasn’t.
Gwen winks at me. “You give the illusion needed for the environment you want to control. Always remember that.”
“What about the company? The women who need you?”
“I’ll still run the company. Martin is completing the sale of it into my new name. I’ll be up and running in a few weeks.”
“I can come work for you, right?”
She bites her lip. I look at her pleadingly. Her shoulders sag.
“You’re too young for field work, but I guess you can help out around the office and training gym… after you finish your schoolwork.”
“Will I be going back to school now that Jace is here?”
She pulls a sad face. “No, you’re going to continue homeschooling. Jace will be in and out of the country for a bit.”
“You’re leaving me again,” I say this to Jace as I turn to him.
“Only when I have to.”
I mope over to him and wrap my arms around his waist. He holds me tightly in his arms. For the second time I note he’s gotten taller. I wonder if Gio has changed.
At least I have Jace, for now. It’s not the same, but it’s something.
Gio
“I’m proud of you. You did the right thing,” Nonno says as we sit in his study.
“So why does it hurt so much? Nonno, I’m so afraid I’m going to lose her before I can make all this right.”
My grandfather sighs and gets up to go pour a drink. He pours one for himself and then another. Ambling back to his seat, he hands me a glass.
“Drink up and listen.” I throw the drink back and wince. “Good boy. I didn’t understand these people when I first got to know them. What America has done to their culture is an ugly thing.
“The world paints a picture of them, and we all blindly believe it. So I went along with the rules and thoughts of them being beneath us. Then word got back to me about your mother’s friends.
“I kept an eye on things and learned your mother had more loyal friends in the Blacks she involved herself with than she did in her own home.
“I paid a friend to oversee her care and while taking my money, he was taking the money of another to harm my daughter. This man is dead, but your mother is alive because of her friends.
“You were in love with Ny from the first time I saw you two together. I’d come for a visit and your mother threw a party. Everywhere she was, you were. Jace wasn’t that far behind, watching.”
“I think I remember that.”
He nods. “It was cold, and you took off your little jacket to cover her. Then there was a puddle, and you didn’t want her to dirty her little white shoes, so you took your jacket and placed it over the puddle but made Jace hand over his jacket to keep her warm.”
Nonno’s eyes light up as he chuckles. “I say this to say. You have been determined from the beginning to keep her safe and happy. Changing our world for her will be a light thing in the end. For now, you can’t allow anyone to know she’s your weakness. If they want to think you are in love with a boy, allow them to believe that.