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“You don’t look kidnapped to me,” Mattia says bluntly. “Something’s happened here.”
“And I know what it is,” I say.
“Then you better spit it out,” Mattia says, as if he’s accusing me of being involved.
“Jay told me what my father did before … to send Edoardo to jail for all those years,” I say. “I think he’s doing it again. My father is vindictive and powerful. I think he’s trying to get rid of Edoardo again.”
Mattia and Jay immediately begin to discuss a plan of action, but I don’t want to wait that long. I also know that if I say something, they won’t want to hear it. So, while they are caught up in their own conversation, I quietly slip out of the front door.
I walk as quickly as I can and catch the elevator, the doors closing just as Jay runs toward me. He’s too late, and he will need to take the stairs in order to catch up with me. Even at his fastest, there’s no way he’ll be able to beat me to the building’s front door. I am on the street and in a taxi right before Jay comes bursting through the building’s front doors after me.
“Aria, stop!” he calls. “Where are you going? Let me come with you.”
He is too late. The taxi pulls away before he can make it to me.
I don’t know what I will say to my father, but strangely, I am the calmest I have ever been. For the first time in my life I am so angry that I don’t know how I’ll handle this. I want to hurt my father, but I don’t know how. All I know is that I must tread carefully with him, so I let the calm rage take over. I need that clarity now more than ever.
When the taxi arrives at my father’s mansion, I take a deep breath before stepping out onto the driveway. Then I wait. And as expected, my father’s guards have me surrounded within seconds.
“I need to speak with him,” I demand.
They lead me to his office, where he has already been made aware of my arrival. I didn’t even have to lift a finger to get here.
“It’s good to see you, Aria,” he says with outstretched arms.
“Shut up,” I snarl, avoiding his embrace. Instead, I march into his office and sit down at his desk, waiting for him to join me.
“It’s for your own good, Aria,” he says, taking a seat in his chair.
“I know that you put him in prison all those years ago,” I say, cutting right to the chase. “He sat in there for twenty years as an innocent man.”
“Innocent? That depends on who you ask,” my father responds.
“He never committed those crimes,” I say. “That makes him innocent of them.”
“Innocent according to that case, sure,” my father laughs. “But not innocent in my eyes. He tried to take something that was important to me. That makes him guilty.”
“And now you’re trying to do it again,” I say, staring blankly at him.
My father doesn’t say a word. He reaches for his cigar and lights it. It is a trick he taught me years ago, that if you want to command a room, then take your time with everything. Show everyone around you that you are in control.
It won’t work on me. Not today.
“He took something important from me again, just like last time,” my father says. “And so, just like last time, he must rot in prison for it.”
“Why?” I bark. “You kicked me out. You didn’t want me. So, why are you doing this?”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he says plainly. “How do you think it makes me look to have you living with my enemy? I won’t have either of you make a fool of me.”
“You would rather have me out on the street with no care, no money, and no job?” I say. “Because that was the only other option after you kicked me out. He took me in and took care of me. He did not kidnap me.”
“I know,” my father laughs. “And I don’t care.”
My father takes a long drag from his cigar and smiles brightly at me. Then, he slides the photos of me in the island villa with his guards outside.
“Doesn’t that just look exactly like a kidnapping to you?” he asks.
“You had me followed,” I say bitterly. “Even after you said that you don’t want me. Why?”
