12. Ella
12
ella
By seven p.m., the last of the daytime staff clocked out for the day, along with any remaining volunteers. The only other person in the building was Ben. He liked to take time at the end of the day to check in on the animals and update his notes.
I got up to stretch and pace the small studio once again. Usually, I liked my space. I liked being alone. It was when I felt most at peace.
Not today. I hadn’t been able to concentrate properly since Dom had stopped by with his brother, who also just happened to be a cop.
I had nothing against policemen. My father had had quite a few on his payroll. They were like everyone else, doing what they had to do to put food on their tables and roofs over their heads. I certainly wasn’t going to judge them for that. Working for my father ensured the food was good quality and their homes were in the nicer sections of town.
Vinnie Cerasino wasn’t like the officers I knew. He was an honest cop. I could see it in his intense, assessing eyes when he looked at me. He was curious about me out of concern for Dom, which was a positive in my book. Family should look out for one another.
Regardless, I wasn’t worried about him. Ella Ferris hadn’t done anything to warrant the interest of the Cecilton Police Department. No, the simmer of anxiety causing me distraction was because I hadn’t seen Dom again afterward. I’d expected him to stop by my office to say good-bye or, like yesterday, to find his way back to my little studio. But here it was, late in the evening, and niente . Nothing.
I’d never been good at lying to myself. Not when I’d told myself I could go through with the marriage to Giorgio. Not when I’d resolved to be a dutiful daughter and put my family’s needs above my own. And not now, when I tried to convince myself I wasn’t disappointed because I hadn’t seen him again.
That worried me. I couldn’t allow myself to get close to anyone—and especially not to catch feelings for a man like Dom. Nothing good could come from it.
Distracted by my thoughts, I poured boiling water over my cup of ramen. The meal seemed even more unappetizing than usual. I blamed Dom. Last night’s meal had been truly spectacular. I hadn’t had ossobuco that authentic since I’d left home, and our family chef had come straight from Calabria.
I poked at the limp noodles, shoving them under the water to soften, and thought about Dom’s family. Over dinner, he’d told me that his grandparents had emigrated from Tuscany, which was a good eight hours from Calabria, if I remembered my geography correctly. I’d only been there a handful of times and only under supervision, but I had pleasant memories.
After a few bites that tasted like salty cardboard, I dumped the rest of the ramen and left the haven of my studio. I looked with appreciation at the fresh coat of paint in the corridor, the new doors that had been hung, and the totally renovated family greeting room, where those looking to adopt could spend time with potential adoptees.
I went into the main kennel area next, blinking in awe at the transformation. The walls had been painted here too—a light, soothing grayish-blue. Recessed lighting had been added along the walls, providing a soft glow. Speakers had been mounted at various intervals, and calming music played over them.
“They did a good job, didn’t they?” Ben asked, suddenly appearing beside me.
“They sure did. How did they get all of this done so quickly?” I asked.
“Many hands make light work,” he said with a smile. He bumped my shoulder with his. “See what can happen when we have an angel on our side?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t start.”
He laughed. “I’m sorry. Couldn’t resist. I was just about ready to head out. Do you need anything before I go?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“All right. Make sure you lock up.”
“I always do.”
After Ben left, I made my usual rounds. I visited the dogs and gave each one individual attention. Took everyone out one last time. Made sure they had fresh water and handed out the bedtime snacks they’d come to expect. Then I turned the lights down low and wished them pleasant dreams.
I stopped by the main entrance on my way back to the studio, double-checking the windows and doors. Satisfied everything was locked up tight for the night, I moved to the side entrance. As I reached for the lever handle, it started moving on its own.
I backed up against the wall, my blood turning to ice. Who was trying to come in through the side entrance? While several of the staff had keys to the front door—where the doorbell camera was, incidentally—Ben and I were the only ones who had keys to this one.
Which told me that whoever was trying to come in either didn’t know that or did know that and was trying to avoid the cameras.
My heart raced, but I didn’t panic. I ran quickly to my studio, grabbed the pepper spray and Taser I kept there, then moved quietly back to the door, pressed my back against the wall behind the door, and waited.
Was I about to discover the source of that feeling I’d been having lately? The sense that I was being watched?
It didn’t take them long to pick the lock. Only a scant few heartbeats spanned the time I had gotten into position and the slow opening of the door. I made a mental note to get a better lock.
A slight figure in black appeared, creeping forward on silent feet. A woman?
“Stop right there,” I said in a low, menacing voice.
The figure froze. As she began to turn around, I recognized the familiar features. The finely sculpted nose. The dark eyes that widened as she took in the Taser held in one hand and the palm-sized canister of pepper spray in the other.
She put her arm out and hissed, “No!” just as I realized my mistake.
A hand the size of a hubcap curled around my throat and slammed me back against the wall. The back of my head hit hard enough to make me see stars. He, too, looked familiar, but he’d packed on even more muscle since the last time I’d seen him.
“Tullio!” the woman who looked like Pia exclaimed. “That’s Lessa! Let her go.”
The guy looked at me, then at Pia, who nodded. A second later, my feet touched the floor again, and I greedily sucked in air. I’d forgotten how massive her personal bodyguard was.
“It is you, isn’t it?” Pia said, peering at me closely.
I leaned over, rested my hands on my knees, and nodded, even as true panic set in at the implications of my cousin being here.
She came over and hugged me fiercely. “I knew it was you!”
“Is anyone else with you?” I rasped.
“No, it’s just Tullio and me.”
“How did you?—”
“Is there someplace we can talk?” Pia asked.
Pia was right. The corridor wasn’t the best place for this conversation. After a brief inner debate, I nodded and led them to my studio. No one else was around, and I couldn’t think of a safer, more private place to have this discussion.
To her credit, Pia kept her opinions to herself as she looked around, her eyes pausing briefly on the twin bed, the mismatched table and chairs, and the ancient hot plate. There was no hiding the sympathy in her eyes though. The place was a far cry from the luxurious mansions we’d grown up in.
“This is where you live?”
“At the moment,” I said vaguely, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my cousin had found me. “Do you want some tea or something?”
“Do you have anything stronger?”
I wished I did. A glass of quality alcohol might calm me enough to process her sudden appearance. “No, sorry.”
“Then tea is fine.”
“Tullio?”
Still a man of few words, he shook his head.
I added water to my electric kettle and turned it on, then busied myself with mugs, tea bags, and a small box of sugar cubes. The kettle beeped, and I took everything over to the small table, where Pia had taken a seat. Tullio remained stiff and alert at the door.
“I understand why you did it, you know,” Pia said quietly. “But I’m not sure I can forgive you for letting me believe you died.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I said, feeling genuine regret. “I couldn’t tell anyone, especially you. You would have been the first person they came to with questions. You had to believe I was really gone.”
“You’re right about that,” Pia said. “Stefano was beside himself. He kept asking me if you’d said anything that might indicate it wasn’t an accident. At first, I wondered too. But then after a couple of years, I gave up hope. I thought that if you’d survived somehow, you would have contacted me.”
The pain that had taken up behind my ribs intensified. “There were so many times I wanted to,” I admitted, “but it was safer for you, not knowing.”
Silence stretched between us before Pia said, “It was planned then?”
I nodded and stared into my mug. I could only imagine what I would have felt like had she done what I had. But I liked to think I would have understood. “I couldn’t spend the rest of my life with Giorgio. It was my only way out.”
“You took a hell of a risk, Lessa. How did you pull it off?”
That was a long story, and for that, we would definitely need something stronger than tea.
Before I got into that though, I needed answers of my own. “I’ll fill you in on the details later. First, I need to know how you found me.”
“Completely by accident,” she said, frowning slightly.
“Tell me.”
“I follow some animal accounts on social, and the algo put pictures of hot firefighters with shelter dogs into my scroll. There was this one guy—total smokeshow—with a black-and-white puppy that popped up with a link to buy a charity calendar. I clicked, and it brought me to a shelter website. I was scrolling through the pics of the fire, and that was when I saw it. Saw you rather. I thought I was seeing a ghost.”
Oh God. Despite my efforts, a picture of me must have made it out there somehow. “Show me.”
Pia pulled out her phone, tapped the screen a few times, and then turned it my way.
The photo had been taken the night of the fire. I was in the back of the rescue unit. Dom was leaning in close, placing Daisy in my lap, and for that one split second, my face was turned to his and visible in the glow of flashing lights.
I looked at the account. It wasn’t the website Gina had built, but the poster had tagged the shelter. I swiped through a bunch of other photos of that night. I was in several, but that first one was the only one where I was identifiable. After seven years of staying under the radar and being so careful, one unguarded moment was all it had taken to ruin everything.
I suddenly felt exhausted. “Does Stefano know about this?”
Pia shook her head. “No one does. I can’t see anyone else in the family following cute animal accounts. And even if they did,” Pia continued, “I don’t think they’d recognize you.”
“You did.”
“That’s because I know you, cugina . We’ve always seen each other. Not the masks we wear for everyone else, but who we are underneath.” She snorted softly. “My own father wouldn’t recognize me without my hair and makeup done.”
She had a point. Appearances were very important to our family. What we wore, how we looked, the cars we drove. Even now, I took in Pia’s perfect hair. The diamond studs in her ears and the delicate chain around her neck. The designer slacks and black silk top. Dior, if I wasn’t mistaken.
Escaping that life had freed me from all that, as evidenced by my outfit. In contrast to her high-end clothes, I was in stretchy, off-the-rack, discount-store yoga pants and a light cotton print T-shirt that extended to mid-thigh.
“So … are you going to tell me who he is?” Pia asked, cutting into my thoughts and reclaiming her phone.
“Who?”
“The hot firefighter in the picture. The one who’s looking at you like you’re his entire world.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot. “You’re imagining things.”
“Am I?” She smirked. “That glow on your face says otherwise.”
Glow? I did not have a glow. Perhaps I had a bit of color in my face due to the exciting turn the evening had taken, but that was all.
“He’s just a guy. A real ladies’ man,” I clarified so that she understood how there couldn’t be anything there. She knew how I felt about womanizers.
She narrowed her eyes, but wisely said nothing more on the subject. “I want to hear everything. Come back to the hotel with us.”
“I can’t. Someone needs to be here for the dogs. How about tomorrow?”
“Fine. Tomorrow morning, say nine-ish? I’ll order a big breakfast. And, Lessa, if you don’t show, I will come looking for you.”