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With a sigh, I turn off my bedside lamp and slip under the covers. “I’ll keep trying in the meantime.” Trying to get comfortable, I stick my hand under my pillow to fluff it when I graze something, sending a shock through my body as a gasp leaves my mouth.
Jason’s instantly on high alert. “What? Are you okay, Siena?Siena?I’m on my way!”
His words shake off my shock, and I sit up in bed.
“No, it’s all right. I’m okay, sorry.”
He releases a shaky breath. “What’s wrong?”
Quickly, I turn on my lamp and throw my pillow across the bed, frozen in a mixture of horror, shock, and awful déjà vu as I stare at what’s revealed. “There’s a note.”
Jason processes for a second. “I’m going to need more context.”
“Under my pillow. There’s a note.”
“From Gia?”
I can’t be frustrated that he’s confused since I’m not really giving him much to work with. “No. My mom used to do this thing where she would leave cute little notes under our pillows for us to find before bed. I found one when I first got here, and I was so confused about what it meant. I never heard from her again after that, and I certainly wasn’t expecting another note. But here it is.”
“What does it say?”
The innocent folded-up strip of paper sits starkly against my white sheets, mocking me.
“I don’t know. I didn’t open it.”
“Are you going to?”
It’s a simple question, but not so simple an answer. I should rip it up into pieces and throw it out and forget I ever saw it. Mom leaving notes like this is only messing with my head, and I have enough to worry about. I shouldn’t add mental torment over her to the list when Officer Liu is harassing us, literally following Jason as we speak, and Brandon keeps glaring holes in my head over his phone. I pick it up, ready to toss it in the trash without reading it.
Don’t open it. Don’t open it. Don’t open it!
I open it.
“‘My darling Siena,’” I read out loud before I lose my nerve. “‘I’m in town. Meet me at Roast Haven Café tomorrow at noon, and don’t tell your father or aunt.
Kisses.’”
Jason and I sit in silence as we digest Florence’s note.
I have to silently read it over a few times for the shock to wear off and the words to actually sink in.
“You okay?” Jason asks; his deep voice, which is normally so soothing, does nothing to calm my inner turmoil.
“What the hell iswrongwith her?” I explode, jumping from the bed and pacing. “She can’t just waltz in and decide when it’s convenient to see me. She didn’t even reach out when I was arrested, and I know she knows about what happened because custody was signed over to Dario, and shestillnever bothered to check in on me. And now she’s all,Hey, it’s totally last-minute, andI haven’t seen you in forever, but I’m demanding you cometo a secret meeting tomorrow? The absolutenerveof that woman!”
“She didn’t say anything about Gia, did she?” Jason asks, and I stop pacing, instead immediately charging out of my room and into Gia’s. Before getting ready for bed, I checked her location on theFind My Friendsapp on my phone—something we’ve recently started sharing with each other after the motel incident—and she was still at Lindsey’s.
“Not on the note,” I tell Jason as I flip the light in Gia’s room on. It’s a mess, like normal, but an organized mess. Her bed is crumpled and unmade, and I flip over the pillows. Nothing. Mom was in the house, but like last time, I don’t think she was in Gia’s room.
Realization dawns on me. “Oh, shit. At dinner, Gia said she thought she saw Mom pulling out of our street as she was pulling in, but she chalked it up to seeing things because she misses her. If Florence is in town, maybe she saw her as she was leaving our house! Dario wasn’t home then, it’s completely possible!”
If Florence was a few minutes later or Gia slightly earlier, they would’ve crossed paths right here at Dario’s.
“She didn’t leave a note for Gia,” I tell Jason, arranging Gia’s bed back to the perfect amount of messiness before retreating to my room.
“Are you going to tell her?”
“No, I can’t. I don’t trust Florence or her intentions, and if I tell Gia, she’s going to get caught up in hope and expectations for things that will never happen.” As much as I tell Gia Mom doesn’t care about us and to let her go, I don’t want her to be crushed with the realization that Mom actually wants nothing to do with us, especially because it’s so clear Gia just wants to be a family. I’m not going to tell Gia because I need to protect her.
