Juliet wanted ballet, she'd get ballet.
"Daddy, are you listening?"
"Yeah."
"I said the slippers need to be pink, not white. Carolina says pink looks better—"
"Fine. Pink."
"And the skirt! It has to be the puffy kind, not the regular—"
I pulled the phone away, checked the time, cut her off.
"Juliet."
"Hmm?"
"You need to sleep."
Silence on the other end for a beat, then a dramatic sigh. "Okay... Daddy, come home soon."
"I promise. Goodnight, princess."
"Night, Daddy."
I hung up, slid the phone back in my pocket. The smell in the room was still there, the man at my feet was still there, but something in that phone call had lightened, just briefly—like someone had cracked open a window in the darkest corner of this city, let in light that had no business being there.
I bent down, hauled the man up from the floor, dumped him in a chair.
"Where were we?"
Got backto the Upper East Side close to one in the morning.
The second the door opened, Carmen was already waiting. She took my coat, movements smooth like she'd done this a thousand times, but I caught her eyes—that look. She'd been with me three years. I knew that expression. Something to report, didn't know how to start.
"Juliet asleep?" I loosened my tie, undid my collar.
"Yes. Sleeping hard, but..."
Carmen stopped.
I stopped unbuttoning. Looked at her.
"But what?"
Carmen took a deep breath. "Miss Colonna came by."
My fingers froze on the second button.
"What the hell for?"
"She said she wanted to see Miss Juliet." Carmen's voice dropped low, each word carefully measured. "I tried to stop her, but she said she was just dropping off a gift, would only stay a minute. And Miss Juliet... she hadn't seen her in so long, wanted to play with her for a bit."
"And?"
"I was in the kitchen fixing Miss Juliet's snack. When I came out..." Carmen's throat worked. "Miss Juliet was crying. Crying hard. Took me almost an hour to calm her down. She kept saying, 'Don't tell Daddy.' I asked what Bianca said to her. She wouldn't say."
My fingers curled into fists, one by one. Then uncurled, one by one.
