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She’s right, I do need to do that.
But needing and doing?
Different things entirely.
There is a row of photographs on the mantelpiece, and I go over and study them. Then I frown. Picture after picture of Giulia and her daughters. “Bambi?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You’re not in these photos. It’s just your mom, Isabel, and Rieta.”
“I said I know. Isabel likes just photos of her family.”
“But you are her family!” Mia’s not in any photo in the apartment. Now that I think about it, Mia’s in barely any of the photographs that Giulia has put up around her own house either. The ones that do feature her are family shots where Mia is in the background. There are none of just Mia, or even Mia with her sisters.
Mia strides over, rips the frame out of my hand, and slams it down on the shelf so hard that I think the glass is going to shatter. “Can you please focus so we can finish and get out of here?”
“Mia—” I reach for her, but she throws me off angrily.
“I don’t need you trying to screw me right now, Laz.” Her eyes are wilder than I’ve ever seen them before.
“I’m trying to comfort you.”
She thrusts an armload of white and yellow decorations at me. “I don’t need your pity. I need you to hang this bunting.”
There’s a nauseating taste in my mouth as I hang the cheerful decorations around Isabel’s apartment. At least my brothers acknowledge my existence as they tell me I’m a fuck-up. The way Mia is being excluded is twisted. She didn’t even do anything wrong.
I get angrier and angrier watching Mia fiddle with the decorations and make them perfect for a sister who treats her like dirt, until I rip the box out of her hands.
“It’s done. We’re leaving. And you’re not coming to this party.”
“What?”
“I’ll tell Giulia you’re sick. You have a headache.”
As I hustle her out to my car, she tells me, “Laz, I’ve been dealing with this all my life. I don’t need your pity or your interference. I need you to let me do my job at Peppers so I can get the hell out of here as soon as possible.”
“Over my dead body,” I growl.
“That can be arranged. If you get in my way, I’ll tell Mom exactly how you know I work at Peppers and all the gory details about the dance you paid for. If she doesn’t believe me, I’ll ask the bouncer to back me up. Jimmy is on the girls’ side, whatever they ask for.”
“You’ll be screwed.”
“And so will you, and whatever plans you have for your money. Mutually assured destruction.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder and gazes at me over the top of my Camaro. “Your move, Laz.”
* * *
Mia goes to the party.I go to the fucking party, and I watch as Mia pours drinks and hands around cheese plates like she’s staff, not family. All the while, I’m stewing on her threat to tell her mom everything. Tomorrow night, dozens of men are going to be drooling all over Mia, and she’s going to be rubbing her bare snatch in their laps while she coos at them that she loves their tattoos. My blood pressure shoots through the roof.
When I’ve finished my glass of red wine, I pull out my phone and approach Isabel, who’s seated on the sofa like a queen. Her leg is in a cast and the bruises are slowly fading from her face.
“Let’s get a photo of you and your sister.”
Isabel looks around for Rieta and notices she’s on the other side of the room talking to some cousin.
“No, your other sister. You do know you have another sister, right?” I snap my fingers at Mia who’s walking toward the kitchen with a trayful of dirty glasses. “Waitress. Time for a photo with your dear, darling Isabel.”
Mia shoots me a dirty look and disappears into the kitchen.
