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You could stay here, the voice in my head whispers. For a while, at least.
Marco walks in while I’m staring outside. “Still thinking of leaving?” he asks.
I turn around, shocked that he appears to be reading my mind. “Of course I am,” I tell him. “I can’t stay here.”
“This again. Why not? Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know. Just not here.”
Eva and a couple of maids come in, carrying trays of food. A plate is set down in front of me. Eva piles up bacon and eggs for me. Marco sips at his coffee, watching me in silence.
I dig into my food. I get the feeling that when he starts talking, I’m going to lose my appetite.
“You look good,” Marco says out of nowhere. “That outfit suits you.”
“Thank you.”
“What do you know of your father, Anna?”
“So we’re getting right down to it, are we?”
“I don’t waste time with small talk when it is not needed. What do you remember of your father?”
“Not much. I haven’t spoken to him since my mom died.”
“How long ago was that?”
“I was five. It must be what? Fourteen years ago now.” I feel the ring on my finger, thinking back to the few memories I have of her.
“What happened to you when your mother died?”
“Dad put me in the care system the day of the funeral, told me I gave him bad memories. I remember it better than anything else he ever said to me, how it made me feel. You make me think of your mother. I can’t have you around, Anna.”
“That must have been awful for you.”
I look up to see if he’s being sarcastic, but his face is warmer than before, his eyes softer. “It was,” I say when I realize I’ve not replied for a very long time.
He resumes his meal for a moment before stopping again. “What happened after that? Where did you end up?”
“One foster family after another until I turned seventeen and then I was given a job at Frank’s. Told that was all the help I was ever going to get from the government. Been there ever since. Well, until I got fired for refusing to go down on him.”
“Not a nice guy, then.”
“No, he wasn’t. My roommate told him I’d been stealing, and he believed her.”
“Had you been stealing?”
“Of course not.”
“So what did she say that?”
“She was only doing it so I would lose my job.”
“Why did she do that?”
“Because employment was a condition of my tenancy and she wanted to move her sleazy boyfriend into the apartment.”
“So you lose your job, you lose your tenancy.”
