Page 9 of Inferno
‘She’s in the garden… it’s her new hobby.’Obsessionmight have sounded a little harsh, if true. My mother was constantly planting new flowers. Sometimes she stayed in the garden so long she forgot to eat dinner. She forgot to work, too – maybe she didn’t want to – and now our garden bloomed with ten shades of strange flowers and unruly shrubs, while her commissioned projects lay in unfinished piles of fabric around the house. I think she hated beingindoors the same way I suddenly hated being outside. I think she hated idle moments of stitching or sketching when her brain would bring her back to that night in the warehouse, to the sound of bullets and the smell of blood. She had the garden, I had the switchblade, and I had no right to judge her obsession.
‘At least one of you is getting some vitamin D.’ Millie flung open the curtains and I recoiled like a vampire, flinching at the sun’s invading rays. ‘You’ll go see-through if you get any paler.’
‘I’m fine.’ I was surprised at how genuine I sounded. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept properly. The slash from Luca’s blade was still fresh and pulsing, and every couple of hours, my heart would do this weird thing and seize up, and then my breathing would quicken and I’d get the sudden sense I was about to die.
‘Very believable,’ said Millie. ‘You arenotfine. You are in deep denial. And pretending this fear doesn’t exist is not beating it, it’s accommodating it. And it has to stop, OK?’ She had her hands on her hips. She was definitely not smizing. ‘Bad things happen. And then you get over them. That’s how it goes. I know this whole situation has been… unfortunate.’
I decided not to bother ladling out any more lies. My best friend could see right through me – even if she couldn’t hear it in my voice, she’d see it on my face. I sank back into the couch. ‘You know, I’ve been thinking lately.’ That was pretty muchallI had been doing. ‘My whole family is unlucky. What’s to say I’m any different from the rest of them? Did you know that my dad lost both his parents in a car accident when he was only sixteen? They were deadbeat alcoholicsand one day they drunk-drove themselves into a barrier on the interstate. Jack and my dad went to live with their grandmother andsheended up dying of cancer, basically leaving them out on the street. My mom’s dad died on her birthday and then her mom died of a broken heart a couple of years later. That’s literally what they told my mom. Her heart just… gave up. My only uncle is afreaking drug dealer,who could be dead right now for all I know, and my dad’s in prison forshootingsomeone… Sometimes it feels like I’m being circled by something that’s just waiting for me to put one foot out of line. It’s like it’s inevitable.’
Millie unstuck her hands from her hips and sat down next to me. ‘What’s inevitable?’
I shrugged. ‘Mydestruction?’
‘Your destruction?’ Her eyebrows had reached full arch height.‘Really?’
‘OK, maybe that was theatrical. But you know what I mean.’
‘That is ridiculous. Seriously. So your dad had shitty parents. It happens. And his granny dying of cancer? So did mine. That’s a crappy fact of life too. He and Jack were on their own from a young age and that’s probably why Jack ended up dealing. We know why your dad shot Angelo Falcone. It was an accident. And if he hadn’t shot him, who knows? Angelo probably would have murdered Jack. I’m sorry you don’t have a large family and that all that bad stuff happened, but the universe is not against you. You’re not, like, doomed, or whatever. This isn’t aGame of Thronesepisode. You’re good, OK? You’ve come out the other side.’
‘I just wish it felt like that.’
‘It will. Eventually. You just have totry.’
‘I know,’ I conceded. She was right. Of course she was. I just wasn’t really dealing in logic, so it was hard to see it.
‘So,’ she said, leaning back with a triumphant smile now she felt she had gotten through to me. I let my gaze drift back to the window now that the direct sunlight had stopped assaulting my retina. ‘With all that in mind, I was—’
‘Mil,’ I shrieked, bounding from the couch and gluing myself to the window. Outside, a black Mercedes was crawling by my house again.No onedrives that slow. Not even in a residential zone. ‘Get your ass over here and tell me this car is not the most suspicious thing you’ve ever—’
‘Dammit, Gracewell.’ She yanked the back of my T-shirt and dragged me away from the window. ‘Listen very carefully to what I’m about to say.’
‘Can you just humour me and take a look—’
‘Persephone Elizabeth Gracewell,listento me.’
‘All right,’ I said, refocusing. ‘I’m listening.’
She inhaled a giant breath and did a slow-blink. ‘OK. Have you ever met my mum’s friend, Emily?’
‘The millionaire from London?’
‘Shemarried amillionaire,’ Millie corrected. ‘She’s from the same estate as my mum.’
I tried to act like the distinction mattered to me. ‘OK, what does she have to do with anything?’
‘Trust me,’ Millie said, moving close enough so I could count her freckles. ‘Emily has everything to do with this.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘So the first thing you need to know is that Emily is a total bitch. And these days she has way more money than sense.’
‘You better not be about to compare me to Emily,’ I interjected.
‘No, I just don’t want you to feel sorry for her.’
‘It already seems a little one-sided.’
‘Some people are just assholes, OK?’ Millie said. ‘Like, one time Emily tried to get with my dad at a party,in front ofmy mum, who’s supposed to be herfriend. The last time she came to visit us, she hit on Alex. Major no-no. Do you see what I mean?’
