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“True.”
“Goodnight, Vanessa.” He didn’t embrace me before he walked away, keeping his hands in his pockets. He moved back to the house just as my parents walked to the car.
My mom wore a slight smile on her face, and my father didn’t have any expression at all. We got in the car then drove back to my apartment, spending the entire ride in silence. I was tempted never to share this story with Bones, but that psychopath had a way of figuring things out anyway, even if he was in another country pulling off a covert assassination.
We reached my apartment fifteen minutes later, and my parents walked me to the door. My mom hugged me and kissed me goodbye before she stepped away so my father could move in next.
“Button, could you give us a second?” My father opened the front door to my apartment and let me walk inside first.
“Sure,” Mom said. “I’ll wait in the car.”
I stepped inside my living room, unsure what my father wanted to say that he couldn’t say in front of my mother. I had a different relationship with each of my parents, but they never operated in secrecy. I’d always seen them as a united team.
My father sat on one of the couches, right in the area where Bones usually sat when he watched TV. The two men couldn’t be more different from one another. My father had tanned skin and strong Italian features. Bones was white like milk, with bright eyes that looked like the tropical ocean.
I sat beside my father, unsure what he wanted to say. “Everything alright?”
“Yes.” His hands came together, both of his palms flat like he was praying. He usually had a drink in his hand, and when he didn’t, it was like he didn’t know what to do with himself. He looked at the rug on the floor of the living room. “You don’t like him.” I assumed he was talking about Matteo. Otherwise, I didn’t have a clue what he was referring to.
“I wouldn’t say that… He’s very nice. He’s been nothing but respectful toward me.”
“You know what I mean, tesoro.”
My father and I never had these conversations, and now they seemed to be happening more often. It was strange.
“I can intervene if you need me to. I don’t want him to bother you if it’s not something you want.”
“I don’t need you to do anything, Father. I can handle it myself.” He’d always taught me to be strong and independent. I had to fight my own battles and not rely on a man to do it for me. By allowing my father to fix my problems, I wasn’t upholding a lesson he ingrained in me a long time ago. “Matteo is a nice man. I just don’t see him like that, I guess.”
“Because of this other man?”
My heart actually stopped beating. My mother told him about my relationship, but I didn’t expect my father to actually bring it up. When it came to my romantic life, he steered far away.
“Your mother mentioned it,” he said quietly. “Mentioned that you loved him…”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Yeah…but he wasn’t right for me.”
“Why not?”
I loved and respected my father, but it felt strange talking about this. Mom was different because she was also my friend. My father would always be the overprotective and terrifying father who chased off any man that looked at me twice. He reminded me of Bones in some ways. “He just wasn’t…”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, not at all,” I said quickly. “I ended things with him. I didn’t see a future.”
He kept staring at the ground. “I know this is awkward…I’m not trying to make it that way. You usually talk to your mother about these sorts of things, which makes it easier for both of us. But if you’ve really fallen in love with someone, maybe you should trust your instincts.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a smart girl…woman.” He closed his eyes for a moment as he corrected himself. “You have high standards for all things. I don’t know this man or what it is about him that you don’t like, but when it comes to love, you don’t have to like everything about him.”
If only my father knew the truth, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“There were a lot of things your mother didn’t like about me…but she still loved me.”
My father’s crimes were petty compared to Bones’s.
“I just want you to be happy. When you’re with Matteo, you don’t seem happy…”
The only time I came close to that sense of joy was when Bones looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered. It was when he shared his bed with me, when he sat across from me at the dinner table. I was stupidly and hopelessly in love with a man who despised my family…and being with him made me truly happy. “Again, Matteo is very nice. But I don’t see anything happening with him.”
