Page 28 of Ruthless Consequences

His eyes scan the room before they land on me again. He’s openly sweating. “I could lose my job for this,” he whispers.

“You’ll lose your life if you decide to keep quiet.”

“Despite what you know about me. What you think of me. I do care about these kids.”

Our eyes hold. He’s telling the truth.

I nod. “This is personal. Won’t go any further than me.”

He’s still uncomfortable. He’s fidgeting with shit on his desk. As soon as he resigns himself to his fate—a former student being in control—he sighs and sits back with a stress ball. It balloons on each side like a pair of nuts when he squeezes it. It’s a pretty accurate representation, given the state of his life at this moment

“I grew up with Sonny Girardi. That’s Lucila’s—”

“I know who he is.”

He nods. “We played in the streets together. We went to school together. A real rebel without a cause, though always quiet about it. He fought when he had to, but he never provoked anything. He just always wanted to live life on his terms. His mom and dad were good people, but strict. He was an only child, and his mom always worried something bad would happen to him. His dad went along with whatever she wanted. That sort of thing. Not bad people, just strict, like I said. Real worriers.”

He squeezes the ball, and it balloons on one side and then the other. His wrist strains with it. “All the girls liked him in school, but none of them seemed to keep his attention. Last year of high school, a new student transferred from—who the fuck knows where she came from now? All I remember is tits and legs and an ass worth drooling over. First name Janis. Irish last name. Can’t remember that, either. Wait. I do!” He points the ball at me.

“Hickey. We used to joke about who’d get a hickey from Nicky. Yeah, I know. Lame. But her middle name is Nicole…Nicky. Anyway, she was a real wild child. Flowers in her hair and sex on the school lawn kind of wild.”

Squeeze. Balloon. Squeeze. Balloon.

“She showed some interest in Sonny. He rocked her gypsy soul for some reason. He had a motorbike. Something his mom went nuts over. But his dad liked it, so he used to help him hide it. Sonny and Janis got serious really fast. Well, he did. A few guys tried to warn him. She was a shameless flirt. But he’d hit anyone who said anything about her. He couldn’t see it. He was the poster boy for a guy blinded by love. She gets pregnant right before graduation.”

“Lucila.”

He nods. “Lucila. His parents forced the marriage. Hers wanted nothing to do with her. Janis fought the marriage some because she had plans. She wanted to travel the world while having sex on different foreign soils. Don’t believe me? I have a yearbook at home with the proof. That’s what she wrote.”

I make a motion to go ahead. I believe him.

“You can imagine how unhappy she was. She was a girl whose biggest goal was to screw on foreign dirt—be a free spirit. But what can she do? Her parents disowned her. She had nothing. Sonny was her best option. I’m not saying she didn’t care for him at all, at first, but she wasn’t the type made for a long-term commitment. To be honest, I didn’t think he was, either. But he surprised the shit out of me. He got a good job on the river and hustled day and night to support her. She had Lucila, and a year or so later, Ava came. That’s Lucila’s little sister.”

“I figured that.”

“Smart-ass,” he says. Squeeze. Balloon. “I don’t know how many years pass at this point, but here’s where things get bad, or sad, if you’re looking at it from the kids’ point of view. I’m not sure when it started, but Janis was having multiple affairs on Sonny. He either had no clue or he pretended not to. I don’t think he was pretending. I honestly believe the poor bastard was working hard to give her and the kids everything they wanted. But he was too blinded by his own fatigue to notice. She came on to me at a bar once.”

“How nice for you,” I say.

He shrugs. “No matter how you spin this, temptress or not, she was hot. It went as far as flirting, but she got freaked when she remembered who I was. That still blows my mind, though. She was having an affair with her neighbor at one point. It’s not like she wasn’t taking risks.”

“If Sonny is working day and night, where were Lucila and Ava when she’s having these affairs?” I sit up some, truly interested in what he’s going to say next.

“Funny you should ask. Ava made a comment to a fellow student. She told her that her mom gave her a ‘potion.’ Not just at night, but during the day too. She told her it was magical, and it worked at all times. Once she and her sister took it—” He closes his eyes and makes azzzznoise. “The teacher thought it was odd, because for a while she’d noticed how groggy Ava was when she came to class. She’d have to sleep for a few hours to really get energized. First, the teacher thought she wasn’t sleeping at night, but then Ava made the comment, and it made the teacher suspicious. She gets with Lucila’s teacher, and she confirms the same thing. Lucila comes in really groggy, and it takes her a while to wake up.”

“Janis was giving them something?”

“Hold up, Romeo.” He holds his hands up. “Let me finish.”

I nod and he continues.

“Both teachers go to the nurse. She questions both girls. Both say they take a ‘potion’ Janis gives them. The nurse asked them when, and they both basically say, whenever. Both say it makes them sleepy after. The staff knows the situation at home, so instead of going to Janis, they get in touch with Sonny. He swore up and down the girls were not taking anything. Neither of them was sick or needed meds to help them sleep. He thought the girls were just making it up.”

“They weren’t.”

“No.” He places his hands on the desk, keeping the ball between them. “Sonny went to Molly. She works for your dad.” He continues after I nod. “He left for work one night and Molly watched the house. Sure enough, about ten o’clock or so, mom of the year left. No girls with her. Molly had a key, so she crept over and found the girls knocked out. Normal for a school night, but it was Friday. And the bottles she found in the cabinets? Even less normal. Janis was giving them all sorts of shit to sleep. Not all of it made for children.” He lifts his brows.

“Instead of Sonny drilling into her, he decided to confront her. Janis swore she wasn’t giving them anything. She was the one taking it to help her sleep. He went on a rampage and cleared the house of everything Molly had found. She gave him the crying act. TheI wanted to travel the world but I’m here with you instead!sob story. Her favorite thing to hold over his head was the fact that he didn’t have a condom on him and Lucila was conceived because of it. Sonny told Janis she had to get help. She agreed. The son of a bitch believed her, but he wasn’t so blinded anymore.

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