Page 129 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
“Sure.” I stuffed fries in my mouth. I’d do it later.
“It’s not okay for them to say things like that to you.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“You have a lot to be sorry about.” My eyes teared. “It’s one thing to send me to Nonna’s instead of heading off the problem, given Iwantedto go back after Mom died. We all know I was more at home there, more a part of their family than ours.”
He flinched, because he knew it. It was why he and his pack tried so hard to include me in things.
“It was shitty abandoning me when Lucius didn’t quit when I left Canada. Being ripped from my grandparents and sent to Rockland, changing names, not being able to talk toanyonein my old life, having to basically start over, was terrifying. I wassixteen.” At the time, I’d obeyed and trusted the police.
Now that entire plan seemed completely batshit. It wasn’t even official federal protection either. It was the local police who knew and loved my grandparents and did everything they could to keep me safe for her until I graduated high school.
“The whole thing wasentirelyfor your safety,” Matty told me. “You’re right. It was a shitty idea, and we didn’t like it. We also had no idea it would end like it did–even before the grandparents got the police involved. It was so delicate given who Lucius’ parents are. We couldn’t take care of things like we’d usually do.”
“I know. I’m not worth the trouble.” They would have done it for the others. The dads were powerful.
Just not as powerful as Lucius’ family.
Still, they should have tried. I was achild.
“You know that’s not true,” he shot back.
“Yeah? If one of the others got kidnapped, would they have spentweekswith their captors?” I challenged. That had stung, finding out they’d known where I was for days before they came.
Matty flinched again. “Wecamefor you. Yes, it took a bit, since we had to be cautious. We could have gone to jail–or worse. Look, things got complicated, you don’t understand.”
It was my turn to flinch. I’d been told that all my life. At the same time, I knew it was for the best that I never fully understood.
“If you’d come when you’d found me, Officer Jones wouldn’t have died,” I fired back. His death would haunt me forever. Lucius killed him, because he’d come to rescueme.
“I’m sorry.” He dabbed his beard with a napkin. “Um, youtellpeople the dads are assholes?”
I shrugged. “Most university students have parents involved in their lives. I have to have a reason why no one ever comes to my games, or family weekend, or why I don’t go home even for summer.My dads are assholesis a pretty succinct explanation.”
“Fuck. I totally forgot that family involvement is still a thing in university.” His look grew pensive. “We can come to stuff. This is your last year. Do you have graduating player things for hockey coming up?”
“I do. You’d play my dad?” I grinned. They lived in Vancouver, and it was a distance. But they also had privilege, which always made travel faster, easier, and more comfortable.
“If you want me to.”
It was a kind offer, and it would be fun to show the kids around the campus. “Maybe? I’ll think about it.”
As we ate, we updated each other about our lives, and I got plenty of cute pictures of the kids. Giulia wastwelvenow. Davey was nine. After the kidnapping, while I was recovering at the dads’, those two spent a ton of time watching movies and hockey games with me. Matty also had twins–and a little baby that I hadn’t met.
“Isa misses you. She’s in New Yorka lotfor work. Please talk to her?” Matty pleaded.
My sister Isabella worked for a fashion house in Paris and was mated to a movie director and two actors. None of which the dads had approved of, though eventually they relented.
“I…” I squeezed my eyes shut.
The thing was, someonehadtold Lucius my whereabouts. Not only my location, but about my life. He could have hired a detective, but according to his taunts, someonehadtalked to him about me.
It hadn’t been Lauren, the figure skater I’d run into in a club that knew my old name, either.
He sighed. “I need you to pick a therapist and handle your shit. I’ll send you names and pay for it. If you're serious about going pro, youneedto get your house in order.”
“I’m seeing a therapist at the university clinic so I can handle my Austin issues.” I focused on eating the rest of my fries. “You have a point. I have a public social media account now, and I sort of freak out every time I post. Therapy is hard. It’s easier to pretend it all didn’t happen.”
While some of it had been helpful, I didn’t like the direction my old therapist had wanted to go in. I didn’t want to be anyone’s science project, even if it could help others.
