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Rome’s eyes were intense.
And the longer I waited to tell him what I needed to tell him, the harder it got.
“If I’d known that it was possible…” I paused. “Here.”
I handed him a photo from today, and his eyes flicked to it.
The moment he saw it, his entire body went still.
Everything. His breathing. His gaze. His entire demeanor. All of it went deathly still.
“No.”
One word.
One syllable.
Half of my entire world.
“I can’t do it, Izzy,” he whispered.
I knew he was going to say that.
When his eyes met mine, I offered him only understanding.
“I know,” I told him sadly. “I know.”
I wasn’t mad.
I wasn’t upset.
I wasn’t anything.
“I just wanted you to know.”
With that, I walked out of his door and out of his life, not once looking back.
With no other options left to me, I walked home, wondering the whole way what in the hell I was going to do now.
Out of all the possibilities that were left to me, the one that reared its ugly head wasn’t the one that I ever expected.Chapter 20Someone really should’ve asked me before ruining my life. I need to be prepared for how life is going to fuck me.
-Izzy’s secret thoughts
Izzy
I never wanted to drive Vanessa’s car.
It made me want to vomit.
Not because it was in bad shape or anything, but because of what it had once represented to my brother.
But I was left with no other option.
I couldn’t stay.
Rome didn’t need to see me every day and be reminded of what he’d told himself he couldn’t have.
I loved him too much, and having lost something so precious myself, I knew exactly where he was coming from.
I wouldn’t do it to him. I refused.
Which was why I was leaving.
Or attempting to leave.
I’d just pulled my car into my driveway when something shifted on my front porch.
Narrowing my eyes, I was surprised to find one of my nephews—Oscar’s son, Ruben—there. On his right was a girl about his age—the same girl I’d seen in the grocery store with Rodrigo and that woman a while ago, and the same girl from the pictures I found at the senator’s house.
I got out of the car and walked toward them, a sick feeling building in my gut.
“Ruben?” I asked.
Ruben stood up so abruptly that the girl leaning on him nearly went flying down my porch steps.
“You came back!” he exclaimed.
I frowned. “Yeah…for now anyway. Why?”
“Can I go with you?” He paused. “Can we go with you? I overheard Dad’s phone call with you this morning. We’re both eighteen as of yesterday.”
I frowned. When had that happened?
Had I been so caught up in my own life that I’d forgotten something so important?
I didn’t remember them being eighteen.
The last time I remembered, Ruben had been sixteen…
“Ruben, you’re not eighteen.” I paused. “And your birthday is in December.”
I sighed, knowing that I was right, and feeling relieved that I hadn’t missed his birthday. I may not get along well with his father since he chose our parents’ side over mine, but I did love his kids, and I had since they’d been born.
It was just hard to have a relationship with them when their parents wouldn’t allow it.
Ruben seemed to deflate.
“If I don’t leave, he’ll kill me,” the girl whispered.
I felt those words in my chest.
“What’s your name?” I asked softly.
“Diana,” she answered immediately. “He calls me Missy, though.”
I felt like I’d been struck in the chest.
I knew exactly who she was talking about and wished to God that I didn’t.
Rodrigo had called me Missy as well.
That’s not how that is done, Missy. Try again.
Missy, is that how we act in public?
What do you think, Missy? Should you be allowed to eat today?
I fucking hated him.
And I hated it more that he was treating this young woman exactly like he’d treated me.
If she got the nickname, she was likely getting all the other bullshit that came with it.
The demeaning words, the ridicule, the beatings.
“Diana…”
“He’s going to kill you, too,” she whispered. “I heard him talking on the phone. He was talking to his partner at the firm. You’re not safe here, and neither am I.”
No matter how much I wanted to, I wouldn’t take her with me. I’d be a fugitive then, too.
“I’ll tell you where I’m going,” I whispered. “And if you happen to get there on your own? Well, then what a coincidence.”
Ruben and Diana both sagged in relief, but both got up to leave only moments after that.
“Be safe.”
Ruben’s eyes met mine. “We will.”
***
Two Days Later
I looked around the small house with a sad smile on my face.
“This is perfect,” I said. “You really didn’t have to do this.”
I looked over at the woman who’d worked alongside me for my parents for years.
She had quit a couple of months before I did because her grandmother had gotten very sick, and she then decided to stay at home after her grandmother passed away because she’d met a man here who she felt was worth pursuing.
