ONE
GIA
Everything unraveledthe day Gianna Balzano found out her Aunt Susan died. First of all, she didn’t have an Aunt Susan.
“Yes, you do,” said the man on the phone. “I can explain. She was related to you by blood on your father’s side?—”
Gia spoke over him. “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong number.” She scrubbed a hand over her face, more concerned with her killer headache than anything this guy had to say. Dealing with bullheaded arrogance was a waste of what little energy she had.
As if she weren’t aware her father had no siblings.
“I’m not mistaken,” the man said with careful patience. “You’re exactly who I need to speak to, Miss Balzano. Susan Lockwood was very clear in her final wishes. I’m sorry to bring you news of her passing, especially if this is the first?—”
“No, you listen. I don’t have any aunts or uncles.” How dare he lie about someone’s death, offering pretend condolences? Gia sat upright in bed, and her head throbbed, vision tunneling for a split second. “How did you even get this number?”
Whoever the hell this guy was, he’d called her private cellphone. Very few people had Gia’s number, and none of themwould hand it out. They knew better than to risk the consequences.
Like the rest of her family, none of Gia’s personal contact details were publicly available, and she wasn’t involved in the Balzanos’ legitimate businesses, so no one could have found her that way. But the man on the phone knew she was a Balzano, meaning he had an angle. Everyone surrounding her family had an angle. Ambitions. Some sort of scheme.
“Gianna,” the man said, his voice turning tender even as it betrayed a hint of steel. “I’m not talking about your father, Franco, I’m talking about Jeffrey. Your biological?—”
Gia hung up.
Her hands shook as she blocked the number, and she couldn’t tell if it was from anger or the sheer force of her headache. Probably the headache. Weirdos trying to get to her family through her wasn’t exactly new. It had just been a while since she’d dealt with anyone like this.
Gia turned off her phone and lay down, pulling the blankets over her. She’d had one of her episodes last night and needed rest.
With a sigh, she pulled a small bottle from her nightstand drawer, fished out a pill, and swallowed it with water. She closed her eyes and waited for it to kick in.
Gia’s migraines were of a rare intensity and often led to blackouts in her memory. Her triggers were variable and hard to predict, often leaving managing the aftermath of a headache as her only course of action. After what happened last night, she’d be exhausted and jittery for the rest of the day at least. Overexertion wouldn’t do her any favors.
As happened far too frequently, Gia couldn’t remember anything after last night’s migraine had set in. Salvator had said she’d retreated to her room and slept, so at least she hadn’t passed out in the library or somewhere else embarrassinglypublic, like the time he’d found her slumped at the kitchen table.
Gia strained to remember going to her room. All she could recall was walking through the south wing of the house, past the library and her father’s office, on her way to the home gym.
So much for her plans to get on the exercise bike.
Eventually, the pill kicked in and her head cleared. She should tell Salvator about the strange phone call so he could look into it, but again, that required energy.
Gia rolled over and clutched a pillow.Susan Lockwood. There was something familiar in the name now that Gia wasn’t so distracted by pain and the presumptuous nature of the man on the phone. Lockwood wasn’t a common surname as far as Gia was aware. Where had she heard it? Maybe she’d read it in a book.
She fell into a half-doze as her mind ran in circles around the name.
Lockwood…
Gia’s tired eyes flew open, and she froze. Lockwood wasn’t the only familiar name the man had mentioned.Jeffrey. The mysterious Susan’s brother, Jeffrey Lockwood.
That’s the name of the man who tried to kidnap me.
Gia’s heart pounded, but for once, her head gave her no trouble. An old memory surfaced, one Gia had pushed away for years. A sensation like a scratching fingernail dragged down her spine, and the smell of pine trees hit her out of nowhere. She’d been small, only five, on a day out at the park with her nanny and then…a feeling of dread. That was it.
It wasn’t much of a memory, but who could blame her for repressing a day that had started with an attempted kidnapping and ended with something far worse?
Gia tried to bring up other details, but couldn’t. The onlything that rang clear was the name ‘Jeffrey Lockwood’ as it echoed through the cavernous halls of her mind.
Was she remembering correctly?
Gia recalled the story of that fateful day more than the actual event. Not that her family ever talked about it now.
