“Yes. There’s a lot of wealthy people here today. A lot of them have ties to the mafia. Word will get back to your father. He doesn’t deserve good things and you should never assume he’s a good man.”
“I don’t. He’s a stranger to me. But you judge him while you keep me prisoner. You’re not a good man either, Leo.” I stand up and walk out of the booth before he can say something to stop me. Leo hurries after me without a word.
I’m shocked by the sudden onslaught of people around me. It’s a huge amount, coming out of the theater to use the bathroom or get food. Some people stand around and talk.
I’ve never been around this many people before. It makes my chest squeeze in panic. Before I know what’s happening, I slump against the wall, trying to catch my breath.
“Emma?” Leo asks, sounding concerned for me but that’s ridiculous. He can’t sound concerned for me when I know in fact he does not care for me.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I snap. “I am innocent. I am not my father’s daughter. I am not the enemy.”
He stands back, staring at me with shock. “Emma…”
“You kidnapped the wrong girl.”
Leo opens his mouth to speak when his eyes flick behind me and narrow. “Your father is here.”
Spinning around, I see that Alessandro is approaching us with determination. “Isn’t this what you wanted? You wanted to bring me here to get his attention.”
“Yes but I didn’t think he’d just show up here. Your father is proving to be more difficult than I thought.”
“Leo Detti,” Alessandro says, stopping once he reaches us. “I see that you have my daughter. Give her back to me.”
“I thought you said she wasn’t your daughter.”
Alessandro’s eyes narrow. “You’re mocking me. Trying to get a rise out of me. But I won’t have it. So I will be taking my daughter back and then we can cease this fight.”
“You’ll back down if you have Emma?” Leo scoffs. “I don’t believe it. She’s the only thing keeping you at bay. The only thing preventing you from shooting this opera house up at this very moment.”
Alessandro sets his eyes right on mine. “Come with me, daughter. I can bring you back home.” He holds his hand out to me but I take a step back.
“I don’t know you,” I whisper. “I don’t know you.”
Leo frowns. “You’re not getting Emma back. She’s mine. She’s my wife.”
“So I heard. But that’s easily rectified when you’re dead. Now, do you want me to start shooting this place up? Because I will. Or you can give me back my daughter and we can all go our separate ways.”
“You’ll just come back for me and Gabriel. We all know it. I am not giving you Emma.”
Leo’s words make my stomach tingle. They sound protective but they’re only possessive. I am nothing to him, I remind myself. I cannot forget that.
“I know where you live,” Alessandro says. It sounds more like a threat than a fact. “I will come for my daughter.”
“How do you know she’s even your daughter? Emma claims that she doesn’t know you.”
Alessandro looks me right in the eye. “Because she looks exactly like her mother.” I startle. Being compared to my mother is not a compliment. “Now, give me back my daughter,” he says to Leo. “Before I kill you.”
“You’d kill me right here in the middle of the theater?”
“I’ll do anything if it takes to win.” He nods at a man standing behind him, who steps forward and takes out a small knife, jabbing it towards Leo.
Leo just barely backs away in time to avoid getting stabbed. I gasp. Leo dying would solve my problems and yet… it wouldn’t really. I’d still have no money or ID. I’d have nothing.
But I can’t stand here and let these men debate my life. I need my freedom. It’s why I fought so hard to escape my mother.
When the man goes for Leo again, I take a step back. Alessandro’s eyes are glued to Leo and not on me. Leo punches the man in the face, drawing all the attention of the people around us. Security guards come running over and that’s when I take my chance.
I walk away from the crowd gathering around Leo and my father and walk right out the front door. I only take one deep breath before I start running.
