Chapter 19
THEA
Two weeks later…
The nausea hits me just as I reach for my toothbrush.
I grip the edge of the sink and breathe through my nose, willing my stomach to settle. Nausea has been affecting me for the past few days.
Food poisoning, maybe. Stress, more likely. God knows I’m dealing with enough of that.
I splash cold water on my face and wait. Slowly, the feeling passes, as it always does.
I straighten up and study my reflection. I look tired and pale. There are shadows under my eyes that weren’t there two weeks ago—two weeks since I learned that my name isn’t my name, since I watched Gabriel kill two men in my apartment.
Two weeks of falling into a strange, but comfortable routine.
He touches me like I’m precious, makes love to me like he’s claiming something that was always meant to be his, holding me afterward like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
And I let him. Because despite everything—the lies, the danger, the impossible situation I’m in—I want him.
Another wave of nausea hits.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Suddenly, I hear shouting downstairs. A woman’s frantic voice echoes.
I step into the hallway and make my way to the stairs. I look down and see none other than Liza.
She’s thinner than I remember, older, with gray streaking through her dark hair. She’s wearing jeans, a cardigan, and boots, all clearly expensive. She’s struggling against the grip of the guards, her eyes wild with fear.
Then she sees me.
“Thea!” she lurches forward, but the guards hold her back. “Thea, please tell them that this is a mistake.”
Oscar appears from the sitting room, clipboard in hand, his expression neutral, as if there’s nothing strange or surprising about what’s happening.
“Miss Thea,” he calmly says. “I apologize for the disturbance. We’re just getting Mrs. Andrin settled.”
“Settled?” I stare at him, dumbfounded. “What the hell is going on?”
“Mr. Moretti requested that Mrs. Andrin join the household staff. She’ll be working as a maid, starting today.”
That doesn’t make any sense. I look at Liza, then back to Oscar. “He brought her here? To work?”
“Si.”
Gabriel hunted down the woman who raised me, then abandoned me, and dragged her back here to scrub floors in the house where I’m… what, his lover? His property?
“Where is he?” I demand.
“Mr. Moretti had business in the city this morning. He’ll be back later this afternoon.”
“Thea, please,” Liza begs, tears streaming down her face. “I don’t know what he told you, but I was trying to protect you.”
By abandoning me? Leaving a simple note telling me I was on my own? By insulting my body every chance you got?
The questions pop into mind. But I keep them to myself.
“Take her to her quarters in the staff building,” Oscar tells the guards. “Second floor, the open room.”
“Wait.” I step forward. “I want to talk to her.”
Oscar hesitates. “I’m not so sure about that, Miss Thea. I would recommend giving her a few hours to acclimate to her situation.”
“I want to talk to her,” I repeat, my voice a little louder. “Alone.”
He studies me for a moment, as if trying to determine whether or not he’s going to allow it.
“Very well. You may use the sitting room. I’ll have tea brought in.”
The guards release Liza. She stumbles forward, catching herself on the edge of a side table. I gesture for her to follow me.
We walk in silence to the sitting room, and I close the door behind us.
For a long moment, neither of us speaks. I still can’t believe she’s really here. It’s been years since I’ve seen her.
Finally, Liza breaks the silence.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “So, so sorry.”
I feel anger. Suddenly, I’m back to the day I came home to that empty house, a note waiting for me letting me know I was on my own.
I stay standing, my arms crossed.
“I never wanted this,” she continues, her voice breaking.
“Any of this. When your, when Masha died, when they told me what happened, I thought I could keep you safe, give you a normal life. But I was scared. Every day, I was looking over my shoulder, waiting for them to find us. And as you got older, when you started looking so much like her…”
“You left. Abandoned me.”
She flinches. “I thought that, if I disappeared, if I took Sissy and just vanished, maybe they’d stop looking. Maybe you’d be safe.”
I have no idea how much of this, if any, to believe.
I remember the years living with her, the comments she made about my body, the way she tore me down, the way she hinted that I was a burden she had to bear.
“Did you ever think to tell me the truth, instead of just leaving me?” My voice is cold.
“You were eighteen,” she says. “An adult. Ready to go out into the world, to make your own way.”
“In other words, you put in your time and got away the second you could. You left me alone, with nothing. No family, no explanation.”
“I know.” She looks up at me, her eyes red and swollen.
“I know it was cruel. I know I should’ve done better.
But I was scared, Thea. I knew it was only a matter of time before you tried to find out the truth about your past. I feared that when you started turning over stones, finding the creatures that lurked underneath, they’d come for you.
They’d come for me; they’d come for my daughter. ”
I want to scream at her; to tell her how much it hurt coming home to that empty house, realizing that the only family I knew had disappeared.
But I’m too tired. And too nauseous.
“Why did he bring you here?” I ask quietly.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. His men showed up at my apartment yesterday. They told me I had a choice: Come work for Mr. Moretti, or—” she swallows. “Or face consequences for misappropriating funds meant for your care.”
I know what that means. As a kid, I’d always wondered how Liza had lived so extravagantly—new designer handbags and coats every season, a trip to someplace luxurious with Sissy (leaving me home with a sitter) every spring and winter.
Not to mention that she’d paid for Sissy’s college straight out of pocket—she hadn’t had to take out a dime of student loans.
Liza wasn’t poor. But she sure as hell wasn’t rich. And now I know where the money came from.
“He’s punishing you,” I say.
“You’re damn right about that.”
“And you’re just going to accept it? Work here for him as a maid?”
“What choice do I have?” she lets out a bitter laugh. “The truth is, I’m goddamn lucky he’s letting me off the hook so easily for all but stealing from him. He owns me now. Just like he owns you.”
“He does not—” I stop. Because she’s not wrong. “It’s different.”
“Is it?” Liza studies me. “You’re wearing the uniform. You’re living in his house. You’re—” She pauses, something shifting in her expression, as if she’s on the verge of saying something she’s not sure she should. “You’re sleeping with him.”
It’s not a question. She knows.
Heat floods my face. “That’s none of your business.”
“Thea—”
“You don’t get to judge me,” I snap. “You left me. You don’t get to have an opinion on my life. And I’m not in the mood for any advice, if that’s what you’ve got in mind.”
“I’m not judging you. I’m worried about you.” She stands, taking a tentative step toward me. “Gabriel Moretti is a dangerous man. Whatever he’s told you, whatever promises he’s made…”
“He saved my life.”
“Did he? Or did he just put you up in a nice, pretty cage?”
“You do your work,” I say quietly. “You follow Oscar’s instructions. And stay out of my way. Understood?”
Liza nods, her shoulders sagging. It’s strange—there’s no fight left in her. It’s like she’s just given up. This isn’t the headstrong, bossy Liza who raised me.
“Good.”
I turn toward the door.
“Thea.”
I pause, not looking back.
“What?”
A sigh. “I really am sorry,” she whispers, “for everything. I know I can’t fix what I did. But I need you to know that I never stopped caring about you, even after you left.”
“If you really cared,” I say softly, “you wouldn’t have abandoned me.”
I leave before she can respond.
I find Oscar in the hallway.
“Oscar, can you make sure she has everything she needs? Uniforms, supplies, a schedule.”
He nods slightly. “That is all part of my duties. Don’t you worry, Miss Thea, I’ll ensure that her onboarding is a smooth process.”
“Thank you. And Oscar?”
“Si?”
“Please make sure that she doesn’t come near Gabriel’s wing or my room.”
He nods, understanding.
With that, I head back upstairs, my mind spinning.
Gabriel brought Liza here.
The nausea hits again. This time, I barely make it to the bathroom before I’m retching in the toilet.
When it passes, I sit on the cold tile floor with my back against the wall and try to make sense of my life, and what the hell is going on with me.
But I can’t. Because nothing makes sense anymore. I don’t know who I am, what I want, or what I’m becoming in this house.
And I still feel as if I barely know the man I’m falling for despite every instinct screaming one word:
Run.