Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Izzy.
“They caught him!” Specs informs me on the way over to my dad’s house. The hunters came through. I think the entire criminal world has sighed in relief now that Alana’s not going to hunt Mike down.
With my dreaded ex in custody, we’re moving back to the apartment. Drew’s a little pissed that he’s losing his sweet setup at the safehouse. At least Alana let him keep the PlayStation. But it feels like I can finally breathe, and maybe things with Lance will work themselves out.
It’s Thursday night. Not the typical time I see my dad, but when he calls, you go. What I’m not expecting is to walk into a room filled with the other men in the family. Joey sits on the couch, phone in hand, engrossed in something. My brother straightens some books on a shelf. He does this whenever he’s trying to appear busy. He might be a total fuckup, but everything is straight in the house. Sometimes I used to move the picture frames to the left to mess with him.
Dad waves me in and motions to the chair across from his desk. “Izzy, baby, come on in.”
“Is everything alright?”
Last time I saw them, they dropped the bomb that could ruin us all. But now that’s over, and a new dread takes its place. Because there’s a darkness on Dad’s face, the kind I only see when he talks about work.
They would keep me safe. They promised. And now that vow has been kept. My stomach tightens, and I grasp onto the end table to keep me stable.
“There’s been some movement on various fronts that may or may not involve your ex. We’ve got a few loose ends to tie up. Joey and I will be working on that,” Dad says, but the ringing in my ears blocks out the rest of the words.
Donnie moves a picture of the Four Families in a silver frame. “And Joey’s firing you.”
They’re sending us away. We’re going back. Back to the summers of 104 and air so thick it feels like your lungs are swimming. They brought me home to keep me safe, but it had nothing to do with me. It was all to preserve the organization. Now that’s done. And they’re sending me back.
My eyes slam shut, and I squeeze the tears back in.
This is temporary.
At the end of the day, all that matters is Drew. We don’t need them. We don’t need Lance. He was never mine anyway. He can go back to protecting Lena Goodlove on the red carpet.
I can re-enroll Drew back at his old school. That’s a better place than that fancy school anyway. If we leave tonight, he won’t have to do that stupid wax museum thing he doesn’t want to do.
Yeah, that’s how I’ll pitch it to him. “Good news, you don’t have to do any public speaking! Let’s pack up for the third time in a week.”
Joey tosses his phone on the coffee table and adds, “My office manager is returning to work in a week. Normally, I’m all about family. But I’m not about to fire a new mom so my cousin can have a job. I’m an asshole, but not evil.”
“Uh-huh.” The sound escapes.
“But you can stay in the apartment rent free,” Joey rushes to say.
What?
“You aren’t sending us away?” My voice sounds so small.
The men exchange glances like they’re splitting money after a job. Dad raises his eyebrow. “Why would you think we’re sending you away?”
I shake my head, the years of pent-up trauma and questions circling in my mind. “Because I’m a failure. Aunt Rita said I fucked up all the plans the Four Families had. You didn’t want me to keep Drew. I ran away before you could kick me out. This was all temporary.” I crumble.
Before my knees hit the ground, there are two arms around me. My dumbass brother pulls me into his chest and does the same thing all the men in my family do whenever someone’s crying.
He panics.
“MOM!” he screams.
I smell her before I hear her. Her perfume and a dash of garlic and onion from dinner clings to her. “God dammit, Donnie, what did you do?”
He squeaks, “I didn’t do anything.”
Mom’s arms wrap around me, and she pulls me into her chest. “Shhh shh.” She strokes my hair, but I’m too far gone, sobbing and hiccupping. “What happened?”
Dad’s voice edges with anger. “She thinks we were going to send her away.”
Mom rocks me back and forth like she did when I was little. “Where did she get that idea?”
“My fucking sister!” There’s a crash of something hitting the floor, and I hear the telltale whoosh of papers flying everywhere. Every new shattered object makes me flinch against Mom.
Dad’s temper tantrum continues until Joey asks, “Was this before or after Rita went to rehab?”
What? I see the pain all over Mom’s face. “Oh, Izzy. Didn’t you know Rita was…? Honey, Rita had a lot of problems. Why would you believe her?”
I motion to Dad, who’s in the process of throwing books off his shelf. His damage is localized, no projectiles. It’s eerily similar to the reaction I got when I told him I was pregnant. “He was so mad,” I whisper.
Mom continues to rock me and stroke my hair. “Of course he was upset. We all were. No one wants their kid to lose their entire future because of one night. Yes, your father said some very stupid and hurtful things. And he’s spent the last decade punishing himself.”
But Donnie snaps, “It was fucking bullshit you ever left in the first place. No one wanted you to leave.”
“Nonna wants you here.” Joey hangs his head. “She prayed for you every night.”
“But I ruined everything. The Four Families had plans for all of us, and I destroyed them.”
Mom groans loudly, and the crashing stops.There’s the stillness when you aren’t sure if you’re in the eye of the storm or you’ve survived the worst of it.
“Oh shit,” Dad mumbles from the other side of the room. He shakes his head. “They were really stupid plans. And there’s no way Nonna or your mom would allow it.”
“Because he and his stupid ass friends got drunk and came up with the dumbest plan in the history,” Mom says, not even bothering to hide her annoyance.
Dad mumbles quietly, shrugging his shoulder. “Well, it’s not really that stupid. It was how things were for hundreds of years.”
Mom huffs and throws her free arm up in the air. “That’s how he tried to pitch it to me. Because it was done for centuries before indoor plumbing and electricity.” She shakes her head and sighs, “Still doesn’t mean it was a good idea.”
Dad leans back in his chair. He looks small and old. His hair is mostly gray. Deep creases cut around his eyes. “You were supposed to marry Thiago.”
“WHAT?!?!” My head whips up so fast I think I pinch a nerve.
Dad waves his hand like all my shock and concern doesn’t matter. “We had a complete system worked out. You were going to marry Thiago, and Uri would marry Waverly. Italian, Mexican, Irish, and Russian families joined together.”
Again, Mom’s annoyance leaks through as she taps her toe on the floor. “So fucking stupid.”
Joey shakes his head and huffs out a knowing laugh. “Um, yeah, that was never going to work. First of all, Thiago? Really? And Uri’s a no-go.”
Dad reaches for a carafe of brandy and pours it into a crystal glass, two items spared from his tirade. “This was before we found out Uri’s gay.”
Donnie snorts, “Wait, you JUST figured that out? We all knew back when we were teenagers.”
Joey sighs. “And I thought Waverly wasn’t supposed to be wrapped up in this.”
“And Thiago has been with his wife for like ten years,” I remind them. The absurdity of this plan unravels at my dad’s feet. Mom shakes her head in her patented “I told you so” manner.
“Eight, but yeah. Like I said, it won’t work.” Dad takes a long sip before putting his drink back on the desk, looking over at Mom, and moving it to a coaster. His gaze fogs over. “There’s nothing holding the families together.” He shakes his head. “But that’s a problem for down the road. We still have Nonna and my generation, so we’ve got a few good years left in us.”
“If the families fall apart, it’s my fault?” I whisper.
A pillow smacks me in the head. “Didn’t you hear what your dad said? Their stupid plan was never going to work. It has nothing to do with you.” Joey still holds his fluffy weapon of choice. “We all fucked up these plans, not you.”
Donnie gets off the couch and starts to pick up the books scattered around the room. “Listen, if Thiago married you, we wouldn’t have Maria. And THAT kid is the best return on investment we’ve ever gotten. Not only is she damn near the cutest kid on the planet, but she’s best friends with an Olympian and Alana’s goddaughter.”
“I wouldn’t bank on lifelong friends with the Olympians. Kids switch friends faster than they change their underwear,” I say, crossing my arms. But still, the fact that she links both Alana and the richest family on earth does give her more street cred at the age of five than anything I have at twenty-seven. I call bullshit.
Dad gives me a halfhearted smile. “Drew’s gonna be a teenager soon.”
Well that’s a horrifying idea. I hate it, and I need to invent a time machine so that it doesn’t happen.How hard could that possibly be?
But Dad shakes his head like he knows what I’m thinking. “That’s when you’ll need us the most. It takes a village. Or a herd or…something.” He swirls his brandy around. “You know the secret about parenting? No one knows what the hell they’re doing. But you get through it together. I mean, at least I didn’t send you to Russia to freeze homosexuality out of you.” He points at me with the glass in his hand. “For the record, we all told Uri’s dad that was a terrible idea.” Dad sighs like he’s confessing to a priest. “None of us are parents of the year, but we’re trying.”
Wiping my nose with the back of my hand, I pull myself off Mom’s shoulder, one question lingering. “If you’re not sending me away, why did you call me here?”
Joey rubs his neck, shifting from side to side. “I didn’t want to fire you over text.” He pauses and adds, “Oh, and Nonna sent baked ziti because she was worried you wouldn’t have any food at the apartment when you returned from the safe house.” He jabs his thumb over his shoulder. “It’s in the fridge in the garage.”
Mom clasps her hands together. “And I’ve got a sweater I want you to try on. If you don’t want it, I’ll give it to Waverly.”
Dad sits on the edge of his desk, his anger a distant memory now that Donnie is picking up the wreckage. “We won’t be at Family Day at the school. We’ve got some cleaning up to do.”
Donnie starts stacking books on the shelf, one by one. “So we need you to show Mom how to use the camera.”
Mom crosses her arms and pushes herself deeper in the couch, grousing, “It’s two buttons, I know what I’m doing.”
Joey shakes his head and chuckles. “Auntie, every picture you’ve taken is blurry, or has your thumb in it. And the faces all cut off at the nose, lots of pictures of off-centered shoes too” He leans over to me and pseudo-whispers, “Give yourself half an hour. She doesn’t get it by then, take the pictures yourself.”
“Glad you’re sticking around, sis,” Donnie says with a wink.
Food, sweaters, tech tips, and unemployment. That’s why I’m here. “You know this was way more traumatic than it needed to be.” I grab the pillow off my lap and stand. “I’m going to take a nap.”