On shaky limbs, I pulled myself and Boyan up. From the cleft in the door, Micah’s bedroom door stood wide open. I stared at it, remembering how he’d refused to let us in, then left us.
The sound of approaching footsteps crunching over broken glass, ceramic, and wood broke my focus. I hugged Boyan to my thighs. Even Lou scooted closer, wrapping her arms around my calf. A face appeared in the crack.
I flinched, and the kids instinctively wailed harder.
“Anyone hurt?”
I burst into a mix of snot-ridden tears and laughter, sagging down the wall. Renzo Iannelli’s voice was the best sound in the world at that moment. Where those piercing green eyes used to anger me, today they calmed me. They let me know everything was going to be all right. His presence—strong and imposing—his demeanor—to the point and cold—everything I hated about him and usually scared me made me feel safer than ever before.
“Ms. Burch. Talk to me.”
“No,” I said shakily between heavy sobs. “We’re okay. We’re…okay.”
“Good.”
“Are they…?” Dead, I wanted to ask.
“Don’t ask what you don’t really want to know.”
I nodded, more for Lou and Boyan than myself. They didn’t need to be scarred any more than they already were, but also because his lack of denial gave me the answer I wanted. Monster, murderer, ravager, scourge…all things I had called him in my monthly letters. All things I was thankful he was today.
“My people are going to come through here. Sit tight. Don’t worry.”
“Okay.” It shocked me how much I trusted him to keep us safe.
When footsteps thudded up the stairs and through the hallway, we sat through it, barely a whimper escaping from the kids. Renzo gave his men orders for cleanup, but he never strayed far from the bathroom door. Even after they left, he stayed with us, talking down our panic, little by little, instructing us on exactly what to tell the police. Once I was well enough to move the console and unlock the door, he called them. When they arrived, he didn’t leave. When they took us to the hospital, he joined. When the police officers and social workers came to pick us up, he made sure they didn’t separate the three of us, promising we’d have a home with him soon. The kids cried happy tears into his shoulder. I think I was still shell-shocked or maybe confused. Was it a good or bad thing? Was it something I wanted or should want? Could I let myself want that?
Renzo Iannelli was there with us…until suddenly he wasn’t, and we each felt his absence keenly.
The cops had been in Renzo’s pocket. I’d witnessed it the day I blew up his car. I’d heard it the day Noah was killed. Suddenly, that wasn’t true anymore. They arrested him that night for second-degree murder, despite my testimony and his own that he arrived on the scene after the Hayeses were killed. He hid his shock and confusion well, but it was there in the narrowing of his eyes and the pursing of his lips. When he demanded tospeak to Chief Jack Bowman, the arresting officer’s reply made the furrow in his brow deepen.
“Who do you think requested the arrest warrant?”
They cuffed him in front of us while Lou and Boyan wailed and pleaded not to take him away. I watched numb as they dragged him away and expedited his trial. I watched on TV as they condemned him in court and sentenced him to twenty-five years based on Micah’s testimony. I watched as they marched him away in orange, cuffed in leg irons.
For months, justice was all I wanted. This was my revenge, yet it felt wrong after everything that had happened. He ruined my life, but he also pieced it back together. That seed of unrighteousness I’d been feeding since Noah’s death sprouted roots and grew.
I didn’t see him again for seven years, but we wrote to each other. For years, that was more than enough…
Letters
Chapter 21
Ainsley – fifteen / Renzo – twenty-eight
Dear Ms. Burch,
Due to current circumstances, I will be unable to fulfill my promise to adopt you and your foster siblings. This duty will be passed on to my cousin, Salvatore D’Amico. The paperwork is already in process. Do not make a fuss, and remember our agreement.
Sincerely,
Renzo Iannelli
MADCAP
I never thought I’d be disappointed you got caught, but I guess foolishness isn’t reserved for kids.
I also never thought I’d be conflicted when it came to you. You stole the most precious person in my life, yet you saved three people no one else saw. One life for three. Maybe I’m putting more value on what you did than I should. After all, it was all part of an agreement. Or was it?
