Page 118 of What's Left of Us

He hums. “Do you honestly like this place? It seems so…boring. And there’s an odor.”

“Yes, I do,” I say crisply, my grip on the broom tightening. “And there is no odor. What are you doing here, Luca?”

I ignore the eyes I feel following me as I try to finish closing. The last person I want to be stuck alone with is the person I was supposed to marry in a different life.

“Did one of our fathers send you?” I question when he doesn’t answer right away. Last I heard, my father was proposing some sort of deal with his dad that didn’t include marriage since I closed that chapter of my life. Who knew how much money I cost him by staying with Lincoln.

At least fifty million.

I’m tired and slightly dreading going home because of the wedge shoved between Lincoln and me lately.

He hated me not being honest with him, but he didn’t seem inclined to tell me what he was trying to dig up on my father when he had the opportunity to. His hypocrisy has weighed heavily on my shoulders since.

“Believe it or not, no,” he finally answers, drawing my attention up. He speaks so casually it confuses me. “Leani did.”

My brows pinch together. “Leani?”

Since when does Leani talk to the Carbones?

He dips his chin and picks up a trinket from the shelf, studying it before putting it back. “I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about me, Georgia. But I’m not the bad guy.”

Wouldn’t a bad person say that? “And Leani told you to come here and tell me that?”

His lips lift. “No. She told me to check in on you to make sure you were okay. And to convince you to come to dinner with all of us on Sunday.”

Dinner? “Why would I want to come to dinner after everything my father has done?”

“Because you want to help him despite his actions,” he answers simply, picking up a book and opening the first page. His eyes scan it before closing the cover and sliding it back into place. “Do people actually read this?”

I don’t entertain him with an answer.

He shrugs it off. “And because Leani wants that too. My mother is friends with her, and she’s concerned about Leani’s well-being.”

“Her well-being?”

“I didn’t see them for myself, but my mother said she noticed bruises on your stepmother’s arms. She thought they looked like fingerprints. Leani tried to brush it off, but my mother wasn’t keen on forgetting that.”

Bruises? “Do you think my father is hurting her?”

“Idon’t know what to think. I’m just relaying what I’ve heard. Doyouthink it’s possible your father is capable of that?”

The memory of him raising his hand to me when he found out what I’d done comes to mind. If he was willing to strike his own daughter, what could he do to others?

Luca must take my silence as an admission. “I’ve seen firsthand the stress your father is under. Everybody who knows him thinks he’s cracking under the pressure of people you’ll be glad not to know. But that puts him, and the rest of you, in a vulnerable position.”

He flicks a tasseled bookmark that’s hanging on the shelf. “Cute,” he remarks, nodding at the cartoon kitten on it wearing glasses. “Very…innocent. Unlike the page of that book I just read.”

Ignoring him, I say, “Get to the point.”

Luca tucks his hands into his pockets, turning to me. “Leani has taken the brunt of your father’s anger, and frankly, I don’t know how bad it truly is. My mother usually doesn’t tell me these things, but she felt it relevant enough to bring to my attention. Especially when Leani was sent away to a rehabilitation clinic out of state to…heal.”

Heal.“Heal, from what exactly?”

He doesn’t answer that. “You know what.”

My father.

“It’s only a matter of time before Nikolas goes off the deep end again. His business is going under because of the choices he’s made. The choices thatyou’vemade.”

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