Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
GINO
Both Mateo and I run after Ryan. We’re both nervous he’s going to go somewhere we can’t find him.
I see Ryan running to his car.
“Stay here,” I yell back to Mateo. I can see my sister and Juliet behind him, trying to figure out what’s going on.
Before Ryan peels out of the driveway, I jump in the passenger seat.
“What are you doing, Gino?” he grumbles.
“Going with you,” I tell him.
“Why? There’s the potential that my family has something to do with this,” he replies, the sound of hurt lacing his tone.
“All the more reason for me to come with you. I’ll have your back like you’ve had mine,” I reply.
He swallows. “Okay, but I’ll need to tell you something as we drive, about my sister.” Then we drive off.
After we get out of the driveway. I look at Ryan, waiting for him to say something, and I see him white-knuckling the steering wheel.
“She might have been paid to drop them off,” I say.
“No, it was probably my dad,” he replies.
“Why do you say that?” I question.
“My sister, she’s…” he trails off. “She’s sick—well, I guess not sick.
But she’s had immunity issues her whole life; she was born with a rare intestinal condition that requires her to take a lot of medication, and she’s had a lot of surgeries.
She was also born with a heart condition that she had surgery for as an infant, so she just needs to be careful with certain things.
That’s why I know she wouldn’t have walked here. ”
He swallows, pausing, letting what he said sink in.
“Ryan, why didn’t you say anything?” I ask, shocked.
“I found my dad shortly after Mateo went missing. I kept it quiet. I didn’t want you all to ask too many questions when I was trying to get to know him. I met my sister a few months later. My dad didn’t tell me the extent of her illness until she and I started getting close.”
“How sick is she?” I ask.
“If you’re asking if she’ll die, the answer is no. Her condition isn’t life-threatening, but she just needs some extra help and has to be careful. She sees a lot of doctors and has a lot of appointments; that’s why she’s homeschooled,” he says.
We spend the rest of the drive in silence.
“This is your dad’s house?” I ask as we pull into the driveway of a beautiful Victorian mansion.
“Yeah,” he says as he parks the car and gets out.
He walks to the front door and pulls out his keys. Unlocking the door, the house is quiet. I follow him into the house.
“Sophie, you here?” he calls out.
Then I see her, a blonde woman maybe five feet tall, walking towards us.
“Hey Ryan, what are you doing here?” Sophie asks.
“Is Dad home?” Ryan asks her.
Her face falls slightly.
“No, he and Mom went into the city for the night,” she says.
“What?” Ryan replies.
“Yeah, they do that a lot.” She shrugs.
“I’m sorry?” he asks, and the tone he uses, I think he might actually kill his dad after this.
She snorts. “Remember how I told you I get left home a lot? You know I can’t go anywhere.”
Then she sees me.
“Hi,” she squeaks out.
“Hey, I’m Gino.”
“Gino Esposito?” She looks at me in shock, and her mouth drops.
“Yes?” I reply. How does she know me?
“How do you know his name?” Ryan asks her.
“Dad talks about him a lot. Well, and Juliet. You know, months ago someone dropped flowers off for her here. Weird, I know, so I borrowed one of Dad’s cars and drove them over.” She looks at me. “I hope that was okay?”
“That’s fine. Why would your dad know us?” I ask.
“I’m not sure, but I know he has been on the phone a lot with people about you ever since Ryan came around,” she says.
I turn to Ryan. “Did you ever tell your dad about any of us?”
“I mentioned you all were my friends, but I never told him specifics. I didn’t think he knew anything about the mafia stuff; he's a luxury realtor, he shouldn’t know anything about any of this,” Ryan says.
I swallow.
“Sophie, why aren’t you with your parents?” I ask.
“They leave me here a lot. They think I can’t do anything with my condition. Even though every doctor has said that if I keep up the supplements and medication I’m taking, I’m fine and can go outside,” she groans.
“Ryan, can I talk to you for a second?” I ask.
Sophie gives a soft smile and walks away.
He sighs as she walks away, then he starts talking.
“You know, if I knew about her sooner, I would have made sure she got to be a kid. She’s eighteen now, and she hasn’t gotten to experience anything a normal eighteen-year-old has.
She wants to go to college, but our dad says she’d get sick if she was outside.
The doctors disagree and said she’ll be fine.
She’ll just need to be careful since her condition is so rare they don’t know how her body reacts to certain things. ”
“Any idea how to get in contact with your dad to draw him out?” I ask.
“No, but she might.” He calls his sister back into the room. “Soph, I have an idea if you’re up for it?”
She walks back over to us and smiles. “Of course, I’m up for it if it means I can leave this house.”
“Grab your bag; we're going to Gino’s,” he says to her.
“Really?” You would have thought he just gave his sister tickets to her favorite musician by the way she reacted.
“Yeah,” he smiles back at her.
“Okay, give me five minutes,” she says, then she runs out of the room.
“What’s she getting?” I ask.
“Her medical bag with some of her extra supplies she might need if something happens or if she doesn’t come back here,” he tells me.
“I’ll wait by the car.” Then I leave the house.
Ryan has always been quiet and brooding, as Juliet says.
But he had a rough life before moving to New York.
He grew up in a small town and didn't have a lot of money growing up.
The second he was offered a scholarship, he left without a second glance.
By getting to know him, I know he regrets not telling a soul when he left town in the middle of the night.
A few minutes later, Ryan and Sophie walk out of the house, and Ryan locks the door. We all get into the car. Then we start the drive back to my house.
I glance back at Sophie, and she looks like a kid in a candy store looking out the window.
Once we pull into my driveway, I can see Ryan visibly relax. Almost like he’s been wanting to get Sophie out of there for as long as he’s known her.
Once he parks, he exhales deeply.
“Okay, I didn’t look closely at your house when I brought those flowers, but holy shit, your house is nice,” she says.
“Thank you,” I reply.
“Your wife did a great job,” she says.
“Uhh—” I start.
She looks at me with wide eyes. “Wait, is Juliet not your wife? This whole time I thought she was.”
Ryan snorts. “You know that’s the second person who has assumed you and Juliet were together the first time they met you.”
I groan and get out of the car with Ryan and Sophie right behind me.
We all walk through the threshold of the house, and the sound of everyone talking comes through the entryway.
“I think you should call your dad,” I say to Ryan.
He nods and pulls out his phone.
We might have brought whatever this fight is right to our door.