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“So when you say you had to stay in the car,” Sofia said, stuffing some more fresh fruit into the fridge, “I’m assuming you meant you were in some way forced to be in there.”
“Handcuffed,” I admitted.
“Handcuffed,” she repeated, looking at me, then Judah. “By his father?” she guessed.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“What a dic—“ she started, then caught herself, “dill pickle,” she settled on, making me snort-laugh.
“Pickle,” Judah agreed with a firm little nod that had us both chuckling.
“Totally a pickle,” Sofia agreed, going back to the table to grab several different kinds of meats, and bringing them to the fridge. “What happened then?”
“Aurelio wanted to free me.”
“Of course,” she agreed.
“But I couldn’t go with him.”
“Because your son wasn’t there,” she guessed.
“Yes.”
“So, his father was, what? Your… husband?”
“Ex,” I clarified. “I’d left him for… a lot of reasons,” I said and the look in her eyes said she understood, “before I found out I was pregnant. Then I did everything I could for him not to find me because I knew how much he wanted a son to… train up to become a monster like him.”
“But he found you and dragged you back then kept you under lock and key.”
“Yes… it’s weird how much this doesn’t shock you,” I decided as she stacked her arms with boxes of pasta to bring to the pantry.
“You know, when you grow up in a family as big as mine, many of whom are in the Family, you learn to accept what would be extraordinary circumstances to normal people with a nod or shrug.
“I mean, I have a cousin who is now married to an employee of his who’d seen him pew-pew someone,” she said, careful to not say anything that Judah might not fully understand but repeat anyway, “then had her blackmail him about it. Oh, and another one who was having brunch or lunch or whatever at this place and two guys came in with pew-pews and the woman who worked there jumped in front of him and took the… you-know-whats herself. So you can say we all have a willingness to take crazy situations with a grain of salt.”
“I… yeah, I can see that,” I agreed, nodding. And those were only a couple examples. I couldn’t imagine what else might have gone on in her family over the years.
“So, then you escaped…” Sofia prompted.
“In a delivery truck,” I agreed.
“Good for you,” she said, nodding. “And you came right here?”
“I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go,” I admitted. “I had no money or IDs. And Judah was crying and hungry.”
“Well, you came to the right house then. My brother is a really good cook,” she said. “And he makes me keep this place stocked for anything.”
“Makes you?” I asked, confused.
“Oh, right. Well, this is my job. I do this for a lot of the single guys in the family. And for non-family members. I kind of… manage the household. Keep an eye on the stocks of everything, so no one runs out of anything. And, of course, grocery shopping. For the ones who actually cook, anyway. A bunch of them mostly just make me pick them up coffee and rely on the moms and aunts to drop off frozen meals for them to heat up when they’re sick of take-out.”
“Aurelio doesn’t have any frozen meals,” I said.
“No,” she agreed. “Believe me, our mom would send them if she could, but Aurelio tells her to give them to Milo instead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him willingly chop a vegetable or boil a noodle in his life.”
“So, how long have you been here?” she asked as she continued to stock the fridge, freezer, and pantry.
“Almost since the shooting,” I admitted.
