AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shrugged. Lifted the bag of crafts things I had bought for her half-heartedly. “I got you a few things. Thought you might be going stir crazy in here. But now I guess Maya has already covered that.”
She leaned forward to take a peek inside the bags and her eyes lit up. She opened the door to let me in and took the bags.
“Mom never liked me being into crafts when I was little,” she said. “Said it made too much mess. Ha! Now I’m going to make a big mess for her all over the house and see how she likes it.”
Her voice was filled with rage and bitterness.
I perched on the edge of her bed, not knowing what to say to that.
She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “I suppose you think I’m childish?”
I shook my head. “Not really. Plenty of times I was mad at my mom and did some petty things growing up.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “Leave my room a big mess if she told me to tidy up. Push curfew. Come down late for school whenever I knew she was already running late for an appointment. Stupid stuff I knew would really press her buttons.”
I laughed a little sadly. How petty it had all been, but how important it had seemed back then. Before life blew up. If only we had both known what was coming.
“Bet your parents were never as bad as mine,” she muttered, sitting on the floor to tip out the contents of the bags and examine them with interest.
“Ooh! Diamond paintings. I always wanted to try one!”
I couldn’t help but be a bit pleased to note that the Harrods bags from Maya sat unopened in one corner.
“I don’t know. Your mom seems to really love you.”
She scoffed loudly.
“You have no idea what life is like in this family. So what if my parents loved me? It doesn’t make up for everything else. Everything is screwed, no one understands. My friends think it’s one big laugh that my family has dangerous connections. They want to think it’s funny. They don’t want to hear the truth. Nobody really knows what it’s like. So if you’ve come in here trying to make out like you understand me, you don’t.”
She kept her back to me, her shoulders stiff. It kind of reminded me of her mother.
But she hadn’t thrown me out, and that meant something.
I cleared my throat, my heart beating uncomfortably fast at the thought of talking about things I had tried not to think of in years.
“My dad was a criminal too.”
She glanced back at me, and laughed as if I was making it up. “Yeah, right.”
“Not the same as your dad. Not the mob or anything. His was fraud and money-laundering. He ended up in jail.”
She swivelled to face me, looking surprised. “No way?”
I nodded. “He died there.” My voice choked off. I blinked hard to keep away my tears. I had to press the bridge of my nose, not wanting to bawl and embarrass myself. The pregnancy hormones were sending my emotions way out of control.
Chiara looked uncertain now, like she hadn’t expected this. “I’m sorry about your dad,” she said.
I nodded, cleared my throat. “It was a heart attack. Just a couple of weeks after he went to prison. The stress of the trial and everything, I guess.”
I wanted to weep now, thinking of the last words he had said to me in court after he had been found guilty and sentenced to ten years. “Don’t worry about me, honey. Look after your mom for me. I love you.”
He had reached out to squeeze my hand, but they had dragged him away.
“My mom and I had no idea what he had been up to,” I said. “I only found out recently he’d been blackmailed into it… But I’m not sure that makes it any better, really. But the thing is, he was the best dad. We loved him so much. I loved him—”
My voice cut off as I wiped the tears that were now streaming down my cheeks.
