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Me: I’ll do that in just a minute when I’m not in the bathroom where it echoes. I don’t want to wake up Luciano, he had a long night.
Carina: All right, but do it soon. He’s losing his shit over the fact that you’re gone even though he’s the one that sent you over there. Kisses. See you soon.
Me: Smooches.
I signed off and finished up in the bathroom.
I listened at the door to make sure Luciano was still sleeping. Peeking over to the bed, I found him dead to the world before I snuck over to the closet.
All these clandestine actions were making me feel like a spy or something.
The closet would muffle my voice and was large enough that I could be inside without feeling squished.
“Hello, Father.”
“Is everything going well over there?” he asked politely.
If we were in the same room, he would’ve had whiplash from the look I’d thrown his way.
“Not really, Father, something has come to light that needs our immediate attention. They think that our family is into human trafficking. Is there any truth in that?” I moved to stuff a t-shirt under the crack at the bottom of the door to help block the sound.
“Bria, you know everything about the family business. No human trafficking could be done without you noticing it. You’ve gone over the books many times, when would this have been able to take place?”
I shook my head because none of this made any sense. “No, I never saw anything that would suggest that in any way.”
“You’ve already turned on your family. Accusing us of such horrible things and ready to give us over to the enemy.”
And there went the politeness and concern. Why did I know that wouldn’t last long?
“Father, you know that I’ll always be loyal to our family. That’s why I’m in this situation to begin with. And I know there are things that you’ve kept from me over the years. I just wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing anything that I didn’t know about. When defending our family, I wanted to make sure that I had a good reason for doing so.”
“Your defense brings tears to my eyes,” he said, but I knew they were just words. He couldn’t care less if I defended the family.
“That’s probably why I got a message about Angelo wanting to have lunch this afternoon. Your sister and I will see you today at noon.” His voice held a hint of affection for the first time ever, maybe I’d misjudged him.
I wouldn’t bet my life on it though. My father only cared about himself and the role he obtained.
“Come guarded. This is a family lunch, but you can’t ever be too careful,” I warned just as the door was flung open and I disconnected.
Luciano crossed his arms. “When someone that is considered a Romano warns others that are being questioned, that’s the same as a betrayal.” He waited for me to defy him.
I stood up, ready to take my punishment. It wasn’t like I wouldn’t get it for something else, no need to get out of them. “It’s a good thing you were already planning to punish me for my other ‘crimes’ then.”
“Hmm… since you didn’t deny it, I’m going to suspend punishment until we’ve had another two or three hours of sleep. Then after lunch is over, I’ll consider if that is the right moment for taking care of it.” He took my hand and pulled me back toward the bed.
Instead of bending me over and spanking me, he pushed me onto the bed, lifted the covers, and curled up next to me, spooning my back.
Unwilling to worry anymore about things I couldn’t handle, I allowed sleep to overtake me, knowing that the man behind me held my future in his hands.
* * *
A few hours later, we showered quickly without any playtime and headed down to face the families.
We reached the front door just as my father, mother, and sister were being shown in.
I gave them each a quick kiss on the cheek because we were a loving family in public if nothing else. Since we were little, it was drilled into our heads that family business stayed behind closed doors. The doting father, loving mother were for the eyes of outsiders. The only true portrayal was between Carina and me. That was never a love and devotion I had to fake.
Luciano was introduced to my mother and sister since he’d previously met my father.
