Page 3 of In My Blood
“I’ll get Gia and we’ll go to the park. Call me when you’re home and it’s safe. Just…tell her I love her, okay?” Louise asked emotionally.
“I will.”
I watched as Louise hurried out of the building, so grateful that I had her, and more importantly, my sister’s had her in their lives. She was an amazing, loving, and caring woman, and she stuck with me and my insane family, despite the dangers it sometimes put her in.
Once I saw her drive away safely I turned to the closed doorway of the classroom I knew Cara would be in, but paused there and took a deep breath. This was going to be the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I didn’t have any choice.
“Raffy! What are you doing here?” Cara asked excitedly the second she saw me walk into the classroom. She was sat behind a large keyboard, sheet music on the stand before her, an enormous and beautiful smile on her face. She was happy. She always was. Unlike Gia, who was a pretty quiet and solemn child most of the time, Cara was always smiling, always looking for the joy in everything, even when her life was actually pretty small and restricted.
I couldn’t help but smile too. She’d called me ‘Raffy’ since she learned to say the word. I’d never been ‘Rafe’ to my sister. She never saw the bitter, angry, hate filled monster, which my father and his business was turning me into. To Cara I was just Raffy, her big brother who fussed over her to the point of annoyance, but read the best bed times stories – according to her. She and Gia were everything to me, and to lose one of them….
“Raffy? What’s wrong?” Cara stood up and rushed over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and jolting me from my thoughts. I pulled her arms free and bent down to a crouch so we were eye to eye. Cara was small for her age, but her doctor had assured me she was big enough for now, and would likely catch up to the height of others in her class at some time soon.
“We need to go, sweetheart. I’m sorry,” I told her as I grabbed her hands in mine and held on to them tightly.
“It’s okay. Is Gia alright?” she asked, her smile gone now and replaced with worry.
“Gia’s fine. Louise has gone to get her. Can you grab your things for me? We need to hurry,” I told her as I forced a smile, wanting to take the worry from her face.
“Okay,” she agreed easily. Another difference between the two of my sisters. Cara was easy. She never got into trouble or even really argued with me, Terza, or Louise when we told her to do something. Gia was her opposite. The child was a little hellion. She ran riot when she wanted to, got into trouble frequently, and flat out refused to do as she was told. She definitely kept us all on our toes, that was for sure.
I worried that I should have taken Gia too, but my father was in no doubt that Gia was his child. She was like a smaller version of him. Her eyes were exactly the same as his, as was the shape of her lips. Everyone had commented from the day she was born that she was a blonde, female version of him, so I knew he’d leave her alone. Selfishly, I wanted to keep her close to me too. Sending Cara away was going to kill me. I wasn’t sure I could survive being parted from the both of them.
Cara ran over to me with her backpack thrown over her shoulder. It was bright pink and covered with stars – her two favourite things. She was currently obsessed with everything pink and feminine, and also fascinated with stars, constellations, and the night sky. I’d just bought her a new, high end telescope and now she was going to have to leave it behind. She was going to have to leave everything behind - her entire life as she knew it.
“I like it when you pick me up like this,” she told me brightly as I took her hand and started to lead her out of the classroom, then out of the school.
I was checking all around us as we walked down the street to where I had parked my car. It was very unlikely anyone would work out where Cara was at that time, but I needed to be ready if they did. I’d do whatever it took to get Cara away safely, even use the gun I had hidden under the front seat of my car if I had to.
I had never fired the thing except when Enzo took me to practice in the woods miles from the city a few times, but protecting Cara would be the incentive I would need to kill for the first time.
“I like it too. I’m sorry I can’t do this more often.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re super busy, Raffy. You’re still the best brother me and Gia can ever have.”
“I don’t know about that,” I laughed.
“You are. I said so, and Louise told us it’s true and you can’t argue with Louise!” she told me with a cheeky smile.
“I wouldn’t dare,” I agreed. I opened the passenger side door and Cara jumped into the seat, laughing at the dramatic face I pulled when I made out I feared our nanny.
As soon as I closed her door I paused and took another deep breath in. I had no idea how I was going to do this. How was I going to tell her I had to send her away?
“Do we have to go home?” Cara asked before I was even fully seated in the driver’s side. “Don’t we have a little time to get ice cream, or go to the park?”
“Not today,Tesorino. I need to talk to you, and I need you to listen to me. It’s important. Do you understand?” I asked, starting the car and pulling into traffic.
“What’s happening?” she asked as she turned in her seat a little so she almost faced me.
“Dad. He’s really angry right now. Mum did something to make him mad and he…he wants to hurt her.” I knew that was a lot to land on an eight year old, but Cara was no normal eight year old. I had sheltered her from our father and the life we were trapped in as much as I could, but she’d still seen so much more than she should have.
“What did she do?”
“That’s not important now. What is important is getting Mum away from Dad before he hurts her. Dario is picking her up and bringing her to meet me so I can help her hide somewhere safe.”
“Will you get into trouble with Dad?” she asked with concern.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m most worried about,” I admitted.
