And I can’t very well do that if I end up in a pile of broken bones and crushed metal on the side of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Or worse yet, at the bottom of the Hudson River.
So I force my foot to let up on the gas, even though I’m desperate to get back home. Desperate to start trying to fix?—
Shit.
How can I fixthings?
My fatherlied. He had Sofia arrested. He accused her of stealing jewelry that had been in my mother’s family for over a hundred years. And then, in a false act of generosity, he forced my sweet, scared girlfriend to leave the city.
Fuck.
FUCK.
I punch the dashboard, welcoming the resulting flare of pain in my hand.
He lied. Not just lied, he planned the whole thing. Planted the evidence. Paid off the witnesses. He framedher.
My chest feels like it’s cracking in two.
And there, in the center of it, torn and bleeding, my heart.
God. I can’t stop thinking about what Sofia said. How she waited there, in the detention center, so sure I would come. How scared she was. How confused. How hurt.
I punch the dashboard again.“Dammit.”
She’ll never forgive me. How could she?
“You’re making this into a bigger deal than it is,” my father insisted. “She didn’t serve time aside from a few days in juvie. And I did you a favor. If you’d stayed with her, you wouldn’t be where you are now. You’d be slaving away as some underpaid federal worker instead of running a multi-million dollar company. Living in some crappy house in the suburbs instead of Manhattan. And you’re happy with your life. So don’t act like I did something that terrible.”
I showed up at my parents’ house in Scarsdale just past ten, not wanting to wait until tomorrow to see my dad. I couldn’t wait, not knowing the confrontation I was about to have. I had to know right away. And a phone call wouldn’t have been enough. I needed to look my father in the face. I needed him to really know how serious I was about getting the truth.
So once I got Sofia settled back at my place, I called Knight to come over to watch over her. “I won’t leave,” Sofia said wearily when I told her Knight was coming. “It didn’t work the last time. And I’m too tired to try again.”
But that wasn’t why I wanted Knight to come. Even though my condo is extremely safe, I still didn’t feel right leaving Sofia alone. Not when she was still hurting, scared, upset… And she’dmet Knight before, so it wasn’t like bringing over a complete stranger.
“I’ll be back in a few hours,” I told them as I stood in the doorway, keys in hand. “An hour each way, give or take, plus however long it takes to deal with my father.”
“I’ll be okay,” Sofia replied. But I didn’t miss the flicker of fear in her eyes.
Fear that my dad would convince me she was lying?
Fear of being alone with Knight?
Or fear of being without me?
Ha. As if she’d be afraid of being without me after what I did? After what myfatherdid?
When I got to my parents’ place, I didn’t bother with pleasantries. I just told my father we needed to talk. Immediately. While he sputtered about unexpected visits and how late it was and setting up a meeting for next week, I just grabbed his arm and marched him into his office. As soon as the door shut behind us, I jumped right into it.
“I want to know everything,” I told him, “about Sofia’s arrest. Not what you told me back in high school. But therealstory.”
“This again?” He huffed at me. “Are you serious, Nico? You came here at ten at night to ask me abouther? You know the story. We went over it already.” Then he changed tack. “You didn’t just say hi to her, did you? She fed you some sob story and now she wants money for some purported wrong. Is that what it is?”
“No.” I leaned over his desk and pinned him with thedon’t fuck with meglare I perfected in the Army. “I think you lied about it. And I want to hear the truth.”
“You know the truth,” he started. “She stole?—”
“No. She didn’t.” I was ninety percent sure by then, and I was certain I could make him give up the last ten percent. “I talked tothe pawn shop owner. The one who claimed Sofia sold him the stolen jewelry. And do you know what he said?”
