Page 96 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

Colorful drawings and art made by the daycare’s students filled her office. She waited for me, seated behind her desk, her brow furrowed.

“Miss Russo, Lizzie is a joy to have here at the campus daycare facility. She is smart, plays well with the other students, and the teachers adore her.”

I waited for the other shoe to drop.

“When your father asked me to accept her at the last minute, your freshman year, despite our miles-long waiting list, I accepted. I had trepidations about the attention her attendance would bring, but I decided to give her a chance. For almost four years now, she’s been a model attendee, and you have been a model member of our daycare community. Until today.”

My heart dropped to my feet. I knew what was coming.

“Today, an armed man claiming to be Lizzie’s father threatened a security guard while two other armed men entered through the back, disarming the alarm on the fire door. When you asked me to allow you bodyguards for your daughter a week ago, I didn’t hesitate to agree. Now, I wish I’d simply asked you to remove your daughter from the school.”

I closed my eyes for a moment but didn’t say anything.

“Miss Russo, we are ill-equipped to protect the other children from the sort of violence your daughter’s presence brings. I’m canceling her enrollment effective immediately.”

“Mrs. Marcelo, please,” I began. “Finals are soon, and then I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

She raised an eyebrow, and I had to resist the urge to shrink back in my seat, as if I were being scolded by a teacher. “Miss Russo, would you put the other children in danger so you can maximize your GPA?”

“No,” I whispered, pinching my nose in an effort to hold back tears.

“Good,” she said, her voice turning brisk. “Why don’t you fetch Lizzie from her classroom while I ask her teacher to gather her artwork and personal effects?”

She stood, clearly dismissing me. I walked out of the office with my heart in my throat, terrified for Lizzie’s safety, panicking about how I would be able to finish the semester—if I’d even beallowedto finish the semester. I was desperate to stem the tide of my despair until I had a private moment to scream into the void.

Dante and Lorenzo waited outside Lizzie’s classroom, their heads close together, quietly discussing. Both looked up at the same time, Dante’s eyes icy cold and Lorenzo’s hot and worried. The sharp contrast threatened to dislodge the emotions I’d bottled up to deal with later.

“Luca’s waiting outside to take you back to the compound,” Lorenzo said, his voice low and soothing.

I ignored him, instead opening the door to Lizzie’s classroom. She turned around at the noise and dashed into my arms.

“Mamma!”

“Hey there, sweetheart! Guess what? We get to go home early today!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her she’d never see inside this classroom again.

Dante and Lorenzo waited for us outside the classroom, then fell into step behind me to escort me from the building, each with their arms full of Lizzie’s personal effects. In a less stressful moment, the incongruity of these two dangerous men carrying stuffed animals and baggies of cheerios would have made me smile. Today, the sight reminded me of everything Sergio had taken from me, the safe haven I couldn’t provide for my daughter.

Luca waited for us in his SUV. “I’ll bring you back to the compound until we straighten this out.”

Dante touched the nape of my neck, a possessive move that drew the eyes of both Luca and Lorenzo. “Is that what you want, Sofia?”

No, it wasn’t what I wanted, not at all. I couldn’t attend any more lectures that day, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have homework, that Lizzie wouldn’t be happiest surrounded by familiarity, that moving back in with my parents, no matter how temporary, would mean the end of what little freedoms I’d carved out over the last four years.

“I want to go home to my apartment. Lorenzo and Tommaso can work out security between the two of them.”

Luca shook his head. “Papà would like you to come straight to the compound so he can assure your safety.”

I exhaled with a frustrated huff. “No. If I set foot on that compound—” I looked at my older brother as I fought to hold back tears of relief and exhaustion and frustration and fury. “I want to stay in my apartment.”

“Let me at least take Lizzie,” Luca said.

I shook my head frantically. If he took Lizzie to the compound, my parents would use her as an emotional hostage to get me to do what they wanted.

“Kitten, look at me,” Dante commanded. I turned to meet his brown eyes, filled with an emotion I couldn’t name. When I glanced at Luca out of the side of my eyes, Dante tapped my nose. “No, Sofia. Look at me. Tell me what you want to do.”

I let myself drown in his eyes for a moment, grateful that he helped me focus. “I want to drive back to my apartment. I want Tommaso and Lorenzo to report to me when they’ve finished questioning the man Tommaso caught. And I want you and Lorenzo to come up with a security plan for Lizzie that doesn’t involve me moving back to the Russo compound.”

When Dante smiled, it was like the fucking sun coming out. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Give me your keys.”

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