Page 57 of Captivated

“Mom? Do you agree with this?” I turn to see my mother crying on the couch, holding her composure as best as she can. She loosened her signature bun when the conversation started and even untucked her blouse—all indications that this is rattling her nerves as well. When my mother is not put together, portraying the poised and perfect woman she displays to the world, I know life is forcing her to cower to its will.

“Pfeiffer, as much as I don’t want to see you go, I think your father is right. We can’t take the risk, darling. You are our world, and a world without you in it, is one we don’t want to fathom.” She stands and then retrieves a manilla envelope from her purse, handing it over to my father.

“This should cover you for a few months, or longer.” He hands the envelope to me, my hands shaking as I nervously open it. A stack of cash that would take more than a few seconds to count, a new ID, keys to a car, and other papers I can’t completely identify stare back at me.

“What is all of this?”

“Your new life. Your new identity. It’s the only way I know I can keep you safe.”

I extract the ID, scanning the information.

Piper Davis. Resident of Colorado?

“You want me to go to Colorado?”

My mother nods her head. “I have a family friend that lives there, very under the radar and wouldn’t be traced back to us. With a new name, you will have the opportunity to still take the NCLEX and become a nurse, Pfeiffer. I don’t want this horrid situation to derail all of your hard work and your dream. Please, just do this… for us. Once we can get a handle on the situation, you can return home.”

“How… how long do you think this will take?”

My father sighs. “It could be a while, sweetheart. I’m getting lawyers involved quietly right now to see if we can take legal action against Mason and the Montevallo’s, but without concrete proof your life is being threatened, we have little to go on.”

“What about Mason? What do I do?”

I haven’t spoken to him really since I overhead his conversation on the phone and we had dinner at the Italian restaurant that the coined Montevallo’s own. That was five days ago, and so much has happened since then. As soon as I told my mother about the phone call I eavesdropped on, she called my dad to warn him about Mason’s intentions during their lunch. Sure enough, he propositioned my father for money that day, saying it was for an investment he was looking into that would make them both a lot of money—a piece of property that they could turn into a high-rise condo building they could create from the ground up. My father asked him for time to think about it and then looked into Mason’s extracurricular activities later that night when he had him followed.

Being so busy with nursing school and both of us leading practically separate lives, it seems that Mason had taken up with some questionable company in an underground gambling ring, ran by Theo Montevallo, the son of Theo Sr., a very well-known businessman on the East coast who apparently makes his money in other ways than just his restaurants. I wouldn’t classify him as a mob boss, per se—but the name is known high and wide as a family with power, money, and connections—the trifecta of qualities to avoid when you aren’t actively looking for trouble. But apparently Mason was a regular in their underground gambling ring and had been for years, betting large sums of money in poker games, coming out on top for a while. And like anyone with a gambling problem, when he began to lose, he was convinced he was just on the other side of a win, so he started borrowing, taking out loans, and soon wracked himself up over a million dollars in debt.

When the collector called him that day looking for his money, Mason was already on a thin rope with the family. Apparently he was also convinced thatmyfamily could help unbury himself from his mountain of debt by manipulating my father into giving him the funds as an investment. Clearly using his poor judgment, I don’t think he realized that by dropping our name he would put us in danger—although maybe he did. He obviously knew who he was dealing with and what the Montevallo’s are capable of. Either way, his complete disregard for my family’s safety and well-being, as well as our relationship, was such a life-altering wake-up call to me that I had been with a man my entire adult life—the past eight years—that I never truly knew.

I want so badly to take the blame, admit that I suspected something or that I should have asked questions about what he was doing with his spare time while I was so concentrated on school. But the truth is, I never imagined it would be something like this. I figured he was spending time with the boys we grew up with, our circle of friends from the country club that he would usually golf with on the weekends or catch a beer with sometimes in the evenings. The last thing I could anticipate was a secret gambling problem and owing money to the wrong people.

“You don’t worry about Mason, dear. We will handle him.”

“He’s going to wonder where I went, what happened…”

“And we will tell him enough of the truth to understand the fury we feel that he threatened your life, even if that wasn’t his intention.” My father moves to refill his glass and then sits down on the couch beside my mother.

“I’m going to miss you both, so much. How do I do this? How do I just move on with my life and pretend all of this nonsense isn’t going on at home? I’ve never lived anywhere else. What about my friends? Our family? Won’t they all ask where I’ve gone?”

My mother grips my shoulders and stares intently in my eyes. “You look forward and focus on your goals, Pfeiffer. Nursing—that’s all you’ve ever wanted. If you stay here, that may not be a possibility. Don’t worry about everyone else, we will think of something. But here,” she reaches down to her purse again and retrieves two phones. “You can use these to keep in contact with us. One is for your father and me. The other is for Rachel. I will get this number to Rachel, but listen—you cannot tell her where you are, do you hear me? Only your father and I will know where you end up…”

The sinking feeling in my gut only magnifies as my eyes bounce back and forth between my parents, the only two people on the planet that I care about more than life itself. And in that moment, I know what I have to do.

I have to do this for them. I have to do this for myself. I cannot let Mason’s stupid decisions jeopardize my future.

This will all get resolved—it has to. Losing me would destroy my parents, and I can’t do that to them, knowing how much they have sacrificed and supported me throughout my entire life.

“Okay. I’ll go.” My voice is low as I utter my decision—and then I break, lunging for the two of them as arms and hands tangle in a mess of desperation and love.

“This is the best thing for now, Pfeiffer,” my mother finally speaks after a few minutes, wiping furiously beneath her eyes.

“I know. If I had another idea, I would offer it—but I still can’t even wrap my head around the fact that Mason was living this double life. But it’s got to work out, right? This will all blow over?”

My dad declares with the most confidence I’ve heard from him since this conversation started, “I will make sure of it.”

“So, when do I leave?”

My parents share a look and then my mother starts crying once more. “Tonight.”

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