Page 6 of Devious Lies

Mami is still in shock, but she is levelheaded about this. About getting me to safety. And I love her for it.

“Maybe he’ll leave me alone,” I try to come up with an excuse to stay.

But we both know he won’t.

“No, mija. I know all about Matteo. Your father told me. He is cruel and depraved. He is not a good person. I don’t want him around you, Mia.”

“I don’t want to go,” I whisper, and we are both crying now.

“I know. It will be okay. Papi would not want you to stay here with that man after you. I've heard about Matteo. He does not have a good reputation with women. I know you are innocent, mija. Matteo would break you.”

She hugs me tight, and I am sobbing. I feel like a small child. I just want to curl up on her lap and have her make the hurt go away.

But that’s not fair. My mother can’t go up against Enrico Sanchez’s son.

The only way is for me to go.

“I’m scared. What if I leave and he does something to you?”

“Nothing will happen to me, Mia. Sanchez promised me I would always be protected,” she offers me a sad smile.

“But what about, Papi? Will we ever know what really happened to him?”

“Sweetheart, your father was killed by the same men who killed Carmine. His death won’t go unanswered. Meanwhile, you go. Live your life free from all this.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” I cry, leaving the fat, soggy tears where they fall.

“You’re not leaving forever. You’ll come back, and we will stay in touch.”

It breaks my heart, but she’s right.

So, that night before I leave, I set up a dozen aliases and fake social media accounts and show my mother each and every one of them.

I might be abandoning her, but I need a way to contact her.

The tears don’t stop as I pack a bag, and they fall even harder when she hands me a duffel bag stuffed with cash.

“How much is this?”

“Sixty thousand dollars and a new identity. Papi always had papers for us all, just in case. Maria Mendoza. That’s your name now. You finish school wherever you land, and you keep me updated. I love you, mija,” she says, clutching me tight.

I thought she was falling apart before, but I should have known better.

Like most women, my mother is stronger than others give her credit for.

She’s a goddamn warrior, and I hope like hell I inherit half her strength and grit.

“I’ll be back, Mami. It’s not forever.”

“I know, now go. Be safe,” she says and kisses my forehead.

It’s so damn hard, but I turn my back and I leave the only home I have ever known.

CHAPTER ONE-LUC

Being a fool for a woman was my father’s downfall. When I was barely ten, he left my mother for a waitress at his favorite dive bar.

He just left one day. Packed a suitcase and walked out the door, leaving me alone with no male role model and my sister to die in an alley from her drug addiction seven years later.

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