33. Serena
Serena
“Are you going to tell me where you’re taking me?" I asked. We were driving in the car, but Enzo wouldn’t tell me where we were going.
Apple and Charles disappeared three weeks ago. Besides helping Minnie mourn for her son, it was as if he had never existed. Charles had already been a ghost in Harper’s life, and now it was true.
Apple was a different story. Days after she disappeared, her firm made the news—she was the ringleader of a Ponzi scheme, stealing millions from investors.
There was a warrant for her arrest, but no one could find her.
Still, it was a constant worry she’d sneak back in and come for Harper, or me. Day by day, that worry eased, but I knew it would always be present in some way until I knew she was out of commission.
One day, I’d tell Enzo to find her. Then I would tell him what I wanted to do with her.
We drove slowly down a dark street, streetlamps flickering, giving an eerie vibe. The area was deserted.
The neighborhood was run down. Chain-link fences lined the sidewalks, blocking entry to the boarded-up buildings. A broken-down car, with its front and rear bumpers missing, was parked half on the street, half on the pavement.
Enzo stopped the car in front of a small house on the corner. The lot was larger than expected, a strip of overgrown grass running between the cracked pavement and the disintegrating stoop.
The house itself was falling apart. The front door hung off its hinges, a section of siding was missing, showing the boards beneath. Windows were boarded, and the ones that weren’t had been smashed in, sharp glass shards left on the sill.
Enzo climbed out, came around, and opened my door. I stepped out into the chilly night, eyeing him warily.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“I have something to show you,” Enzo said and ushered me into the house.
The stairs creaked as we walked up them. It was dark and dank inside. The air was stale, like there hadn’t been anyone here in years.
“A lot of horror films start this way, right before you lose your mind and go on a killing spree” I whispered.
“What are you talking about?” Enzo stopped walking.
“Haven’t you seen any horror films? It always starts with the wife,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well, let me know when you’re ready for the ring.” Enzo turned and headed toward the back of the house.
My stomach flipped. That was the third time he mentioned a ring. I wasn’t ready for that yet, but soon, I knew I would be.
He opened the door to the basement and hesitated. “Once you see what’s down there, if you want nothing to do with it, then we walk away. You know nothing. You saw nothing. It’s up to you.”
“Okay. Just saying, I think that’s verbatim something a man said in a movie right before he ran through the city with a machete,” I said, and followed him down the steps.
“I need to monitor what you’re watching. It’s putting wild ideas in your head.” Enzo huffed out a laugh.
I hit the bottom, and Enzo turned on the overhead light. It flickered, barely lighting up the room. But what it did light up made me freeze.
A woman was tied and gagged to a chair in the center of the room. Her usually long brown hair had been cut short and was matted, darker with grime. Cuts lined her arms and dirt streaked her face.
Apple looked at me with so much hate in her eyes. I almost took a step back to get out of her line of sight.
Almost.
But then I remembered myself, where we were, and what she had done to me.
All the fear and anger that had lived in me for the weeks she tormented me came bubbling up. The woman who had spread lies about me, making it nearly impossible to make friends with any of the moms from school.
The woman who did everything she could to demean and belittle me whenever she could.
The anger overwhelmed me, blinding me to anything else. I marched across the room, raised my closed fist, and slammed it into her face.
The impact hurt my hand, but I ignored it, hitting her again.
I grabbed her face, gripping it tight between my fingers, and made her look at me.
“This ends now. No one will ever see or hear from you again.” I pushed her face away and backed up. I didn’t bother removing the gag. There was nothing she had to say that was worth hearing.
I turned my back to her and walked to Enzo. Placing a hand on his chest, I let his heartbeat steady me. “What now?” I asked.
“Whatever you want.” He took my hand and pulled me back up the stairs. He closed the door, locking it behind him.
He took us to the front yard and held out a lighter.
“Light it up, drop it down over there.” He pointed to a spot on the grass next to the front steps. “Then, we walk away and never concern ourselves with her again. A threat eliminated.”
I thought it over, flipping the lighter in my hand. Was that what I wanted?
Yes, it was. I knew I wouldn’t feel one ounce of remorse over it. I wouldn’t think back and second-guess my actions, wondering if there had been a better way.
This was the better way. She didn’t deserve to go to jail at some luxury Club Fed.
I flicked the tip, lit the Zippo, and walked to the dry spot. I threw it down and walked back to Enzo, taking his hand.
Quietly, we got back into the car and started down the street. A loud BOOM shook the car, and the sky turned orange and red as the house exploded.
I smiled to myself, feeling like I could finally relax.
“Charles is still out there,” I said, musing as the cool fall air floated through the car.
Adrienne and her team at Bridge City had quietly inserted themselves in the manhunt. After dropping Charles and Apple somewhere in Eastern Europe, they’d track them, waiting for Enzo’s signal to bring them back.
Or at least Apple. I wasn’t sure what had happened to Charles yet. He hadn’t contacted Minnie, as far as I knew, but he also hadn’t made any purchases from his bank, according to Adrienne, who sent in daily reports.
It didn’t matter where Charles was, because while he was mean, antagonistic, and bitter, he was never truly the threat that Apple had been. And now she was nothing but burned ash in a basement.
“He is. When you’re ready, we can handle that, too.” He held my hand, rubbing his thumb along my knuckles. “Whatever happens, we’ll do it together.”
I smiled, kissing him as we drove home.
To Harper. To our life.
On top of the stairs, I leaned on the railing and stared out over the expansive backyard at Enzo’s villa. When he brought me here last time, I hadn’t had a chance to explore, opting to spend my time getting to know Enzo instead.
When he suggested we get out of the city and come here, I couldn’t pack our bags fast enough.
For weeks, I expected the cops to break our door down and drag me out in cuffs.
When I finally expressed my fears of getting arrested to Enzo as he held me one night, he promised to take care of it.
Two days later, news of Apple’s death made the news, with speculation aimed at the people she had stolen from.
My name was never mentioned. No one asked to speak with me. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, I was in the clear.
A tiny yell made me search for the cause of the noise. I found it easily.
At the patio near the pool sat a large table with an umbrella overhead, and a child-sized replica right next to it.
My shoulders shook as I laughed at the scene.
Harper was wearing a crown, a princess dress, and plastic heels. She had her favorite tea set out, along with a mix of fake pastries and real ones.
All of that was normal. What I wanted framed was the group of grown men crammed into the tiny seats wearing princess garments. Donovan had clip-on earrings, Angelo had a crown, and two other men had somehow squeezed their feet into Harper’s plastic heels.
“Amazing.” I turned and found Minnie a foot behind me, her phone up, snapping pictures of Harper and the guys. “I’m framing that.”
I wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug. While what happened to Apple made headlines, Charles’ name was never mentioned.
I assumed he was in hiding, somewhere different from Apple; otherwise, he would have shown up by now.
He could stay there for all I cared. There was a worry I had that he would pop up at the worst time and cause as much destruction as he could, but I’d cross that bridge when I needed to.
Minnie pulled back, motherly affection on her face. “You look so happy.” Her eyes went glassy. “Love looks good on you.”
I laughed, pulling her through the massive doors that were left open and into the kitchen. Harper was having too much fun having teatime with the guys; I’d bring her up when she was done.
“This place is amazing. It’s like stepping into an Italian Villa,” Minnie said as she dragged a hand across the countertop. “I know Statuario marble when I see it.”
Enzo walked into the kitchen, with Charles Senior following.
“Thanks for coming. There is something Serena and I wanted to talk to both of you about.” I side-eyed Enzo. What was he talking about?
He came over, grabbed my hand, and motioned for Charles and Minnie to follow us.
Enzo walked down a hallway, through the door that led to the garage, and to a door in the back corner.
When he opened it, I expected to see another hallway, since I knew there was a small building on the other side of the garage that I hadn’t explored yet. The house was too big, and this was only my second time here, so much of the house was still a mystery to me.
Instead, some stairs led down. Enzo flicked a switch, and the lights came on, illuminating our way down the steps.
Enzo went down, and while this was probably a good time to ask questions, I followed silently instead.
The room was made of concrete and smelled dank. There was a tool chest against the wall that Enzo leaned against.
A tarp covered part of the floor and the back wall.
In the center of all that was a man, tied to a chair, with a black bag covered his face.
That was fine. I didn’t need to see the face to know it was Charles.
I heard Minnie’s sharp intake of breath as she came up next to me. She brought her hand to her mouth, her hands shaking. Charles Senior crossed his arms over his chest, looking madder than I’d ever seen him.
“It took time to extract him from his hiding spot properly, but no one knows he’s here. We don’t need him hanging over our heads, wondering when he’s going to show up and try to implode our lives,” Enzo said, his voice carrying a dangerous edge.
Charles must have been able to hear us. While Enzo talked, he shook, trying to stand or rock the chair. Enzo must’ve gagged him because he tried to yell, but it came out muffled.
“If it were up to you, what would you do?” Charles Senior asked. Minnie turned to her husband with a surprised face.
“I’d kill him, make it look like an accident, so there’d be a record,” Enzo said with no emotion.
“No.” Minnie’s voice broke on that one word.
Charles turned to her, his face softening.
“He’s taken it a step too far. We tried, for years, to make him see the light, baby.
If Enzo hadn’t gotten to Harper first, he would have kidnapped her because he knew it would have hurt us.
” He leaned his forehead to hers, the most tender I’d ever seen him be toward her.
“He’s only going to try and hurt us. I don’t know where we went wrong, but we need to let him go. ”
Minnie’s back was to me so that I couldn’t read her face, but her heartbreak radiated off her.
She pulled back, her voice cracked. “I can’t ask you to hurt him. But he needs to go. We can’t keep protecting him when all he does is hurt us.”
I closed my eyes, my heart squeezing in my chest. That had to be one of the hardest decisions Minnie had ever made in her life.
Enzo nodded, walked over to Charles, and pulled off the hood.
Charles’ mouth was covered with multiple layers of duct tape. His face was a mess—dried blood under a broken nose, two black eyes, a busted lop, sweat and dirt clinging to his skin.
Enzo shrugged. “He tripped.”
I took one last look at the man I had hoped would step up and be a parent. Be a dad that Harper could rely on, and have that cherished father-daughter relationship.
Then I went up the stairs, knowing that was the last time I would ever have to look at him again.