AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Should I bring her inside…?”
I swallow a few angry remarks before I find something worth actually saying.
“Just send someone to make sure she doesn’t wind up in the pool.”
He falls into step with me.
“So,” he says, carefully, “Is Vera off the engagement party guest list, or will she be attending as the entertainment?”
I don’t have it in me to match his humor.
“I’m about to tear through this whole house and pour out every fucking bottle.”
“Being sober hardly makes her any better,” Marcel points out. “Maybe a little more coherent. Not sure that’s a good thing.”
“Do you know where Nate and Lana are?”
“No,” he admits. It’s not his responsibility to know when he has a thousand other little things to keep track of.
“At this rate, I’m about to have to add babysitter to our list of ranks.”
“I can—”
“No, forget it. I’ll find them.”
We go our separate ways.
Vera is rabidly convinced I will raise Nate into a soldier and get him killed. I am just as convinced that with a mother like her, he’ll never grow old enough for me to have the chance.
The kids aren’t in the split bedroom they share with their mother, nor in the kitchen or even the entertainment room. A garish and obnoxiously loud YouTube video plays to an empty room.
I climb higher in the house, my temper fueled by concern like gasoline to fire. Every empty room grates against my annoyance, until I reach the third floor, where too many voices drift from Contessa’s bedroom. The door is cracked open a sliver, spilling gold light into the hallway. Inside, the room is brimming with more life than I’ve ever seen.
Contessa, Ava, Vinny, and Lana crowd in front of the vanity mirror, surrounded by all the shopping bags from earlier today. The girls—and apparently Vinny— are fussing over makeup.
Nate has stripes of lipstick like war-paint on his face, and he jumps up and down on Contessa’s bed while Ava pathetically pleads with him to stop.
Contessa doesn’t seem to mind, grinning ear to ear as she brushes something soft and powdery over Lana’s cheeks.
Anger drains out of me like a lanced wound.
I push open the door.
All faces turn to me. Vinny’s eyelids are bright blue.
The joy in the room cools a few degrees at my arrival.
“Mr. Mori,” Contessa smiles, the only adult who does not flinch. “How nice of you to make your appointment at my makeup studio. Come in.”
I’ve felt more comfortable held at gunpoint, but I step into the bedroom regardless.
“Why are they in here?” I growl, ignoring Contessa’s attempts to roleplay.
“It wouldn’t be a very good makeup studio if I didn’t have multiple customers, would it?”
She crosses over to me and feigns inspecting my hands.
“They saw all the bags being brought up from downstairs,” she whispers under her breath. “They followed Ava and Vinny, and then we heard the yelling through the window. I didn’t know what to do, so I just tried to distract them.”
