Chapter Eighty Petra
Chapter Eighty
PETRA
The bachelorette party ended in slow chaos. By the finish, we were scouring Fortune House for a drunk Adrianna, who it seemed Ophelia had taken upon herself to put to bed.
I’m back in my beach cabana when Leopold finally comes to see me.
‘You’ve been avoiding me,’ I accuse.
He shifts uncomfortably. ‘The wind’s picking up,’ he says. ‘The wedding guests can’t land.’
‘You need to be careful the police don’t crash in,’ I tell him. ‘Silky overdosed. Police might put it together that you supplied her with drugs.’
‘And? So what?’ says Leopold tersely. ‘Of course I supplied Silky’s drugs. Third time she got beat-up by a street dealer, she nearly lost an eye. Silky couldn’t do rehab just then. She just couldn’t.’ He shrugs. ‘They can arrest me, for all I care.’
Sometimes Leopold’s bravado is frightening, even to someone like me.
‘I care,’ I tell him. ‘I covered for you. Told the police I didn’t hear a speedboat the night Adrianna was kidnapped.’
He blinks, confused. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Your cocaine deliveries?’ I remind him. ‘You had drugs delivered nightly by speedboat. I told police I heard it, then changed my story when I realized it could get you into trouble.’
He runs a hand through his hair. ‘I’ve got bigger problems,’ he says. ‘Everything Adrianna has been through, and now this.’
‘Everything she’s been through?’ I can’t help but sound a little contemptuous. ‘Leopold,’ I say, ‘you do everything for her.’ I sound bitter, because I am.
Leopold shakes his head, and sits on the bed. ‘I messed up when she was a kid. Didn’t see her much. That morning, three years ago … When we woke up, and Adrianna was gone … You start thinking about all the ways you let your kid down. All the lost time, you know?’
I don’t know. But part of my role with Leopold has always been to listen. He isn’t the kind of man who would book a therapist.
‘When Adrianna started school,’ he continues, ‘her mom, Athena. There were things she told me. Like Adrianna was begging to come home. I ignored them.’ His brown eyes seek mine out, part smiling, part guilt.
He sighs. ‘But Adrianna never liked to be ignored. She somehow got connected to my direct line. Little eight-year-old kid. Don’t ask me how.
She was smart.’ He makes the same little smile of reminiscence that always gives me a nameless ache somewhere.
The part of him that will never be mine.
Since Athena died, she’ll always be on a pedestal.
Leopold has conveniently forgotten that their marriage was far from perfect.
‘Adrianna was crying,’ he says. ‘Like really crying. I could almost hear the snot coming out of her goddamn nose. She said, “Daddy, you have to get me out of here. Please come get me.”’ There’s a distant look in his face.
‘She said a bunch of other stuff I don’t really remember.
The food was bad, or whatever. Other girls were mean.
’ He takes a long, shuddering breath. ‘You know what I did?’
I don’t. But I know he’s going to tell me so I keep a dutiful silence, waiting.
‘I got mad. Really mad with her. Called her a brat and entitled. Said she was lucky to even have food. Told her she didn’t know what mean was.
I grew up with guys who’d nail your hand to a park bench ‘cause you had a Polish surname.’ His eyes are on mine now, imploring.
‘I messed up. First time in my life I didn’t know what to do.
Honestly. I didn’t have any experience of boarding school or any of that stuff.
I didn’t know what was usual. Hell, I didn’t even know what a normal childhood was.
’ He shakes his head. ‘Wish I go could back now, and take her out of there, like she wanted me to.’
‘No, you don’t, Leopold.’ I take both his hands. ‘We all hated that school at first, but it made us strong. Adrianna is lucky to have a dad like you, even if she doesn’t appreciate it.’
There are a lot of emotions in Leopold’s face. We’ve always bonded over being immigrants. Being strong. But there’s something in his expression I’ve never seen before.
‘Tell me the truth, Petra. Simone got access to parts of Silky’s court case. The whole school thing. Did they do that stuff to Adrianna and Georgia?’
I felt my jaw stiffen. ‘No,’ I lie. ‘They didn’t.’
‘It’s just … Isn’t it weird? What Silky said happened in school. And Adrianna’s kidnap …’ He looks at me. It’s the first time I’ve ever lied to him, and he knows it.
‘We loved each other once, didn’t we?’ he says sadly.
‘Right up until you asked me to marry you,’ I tell him. ‘You might think yourself a New Yorker, Leopold, but having a mistress is part of the look.’
He looks at the floor, then back at me.
‘I wish I had,’ I tell him. ‘I wish I had married you.’
‘Then why didn’t you?’ He sounds angry, suddenly.
I give him a small smile. ‘Penance,’ I say. ‘I couldn’t have done that to your daughters. It wouldn’t have done either of us any good. And it’s too late now. Besides,’ I cut him a small smile, ‘you don’t have any money.’
‘I gotta go. Need to figure a way to land those guests in a storm.’
‘And if you can’t?’
His face is grim. ‘I honestly don’t know.’
I move toward him, sliding my hands around his waist, and pushing my body close to his.
‘You’ll figure it out,’ I whisper in his ear. ‘You always do.’
He doesn’t respond how he usually does, and a flash of shock and hurt echoes through me.
I push it back down, concentrating on keeping him distracted as I kiss him goodbye.
Leopold doesn’t see me reach behind him and slide the gun from the bedside table.
He always keeps extra firearms close by on Elysium.
‘I’m going for a walk,’ I tell him. He nods distractedly, and I gauge his lack of interest.
There’s plenty of time for me to slip down to the panic room without being seen. So long as I’m back before dawn, Leopold will never even notice his gun was missing.
I’m not about to let Holly get hold of those documents and tear the Kensingtons apart. Leopold will never appreciate everything I do for him.