“I know. Hence the cage.”
“There’s no way I could make it even halfway across that.” She shakes her head. “Huh.”
“What is it?”
“She wasn’t suicidal that one day. She was trying to jump across then.”
I set her things in a neat pile on a table in the hallway and say nothing. She’s likely right, but I don’t want to admit that Sofia played me like that.
“She was that desperate to get away from you?” Elena walks back over to the living room.
“I guess, but it’s not like I’m torturing her or anything. I simply told her not to speak and don’t try to escape. She breaks these rules all the time, so I don’t know what to do about that.”
“You told her… not to speak?”
“Yes.”
“Well, maybe that’s why she jumped. Do you not realize how psychotic that is?”
“She’s a prisoner, Elena. Believe me, she is getting luxurious treatment compared to any other poor soul who has shared that label with her behind the walls of this place. And it’s not like I can treat her like a princess.”
“Yeah, but she’s just a pawn in all of this…”
I shrug. “Plenty of other prisoners were innocent too. And besides, I like my solitude. I can’t handle someone talking to me all day.”
She pauses, analyzing me the way she does. I don’t like it. I have seven years on her, but it didn’t take long for her to read me better than I can read myself.
“Sometimes I worry about you. If it weren’t for me, I think you’d waste away in your home all day in that spare room, living in complete solitude. Are you close to anyone else besides me? Do you know what type of burden that puts on me?”
She’s complained about this before to me, and I know if I don’t shut it down, it’ll only end up in a fight. And besides, I don’t understand why she’s trying to fix me when it’s clear that she’s going through something. The bags under her eyes, always looking like she just got up from a nap, make me wonder…
“Are you ill?”
“What?” she hisses.
“You look tired…” Her eyes narrow at me. “I mean, you’re still wearing your robe, and it’s nearly five.”
“Did you not hear anything I just said?”
“Yes. You wish I were more social, and that puts a burden on you. But I don’t know why. And besides, I have Sal, Gio, and Dante…”
“Dante!? He’s literally incapable of feeling human emotions. And Sal? He’s a social butterfly that gets along with anyone.”
What she says about Sal worries me because she’s right. I consider him my closest friend, but where am I on his list of important people? Fifty? A hundred?
I don’t even know what to say to defend myself. I can’t even throw it back in her face; Elena’s significantly more sociable than I am, always inviting various wives over for wine or tea. Attending parties.
But I hate that she’s making this into a problem that it’s not.
I’m happy.
“Are you seriously angry with me?” I ask. “You’ve been acting distant ever since the wedding.”
“I’m fine, Sandro.” She gives me a fake smile.
“Right.” I nod my head slowly. My sister’s place has always felt like a second home to me, and for the first time, I feel like I don’t belong. And I don’t even know what’s wrong besides her being angry with me for not socializing enough. But why does that even bother her? I don’t need people like seemingly everyone else on the planet.
I point my thumb towards the door. “Guess I should get going, then. Make sure that Sofia hasn’t chewed through a wall to escape or anything like that.”
