Gabriel kept me aloft until I finally started to feel like I could walk on my own two feet again. We walked to his car, and I climbed into the passenger’s seat. He hopped into the driver’s seat and started the car, a look of concern on his face.
“Alessandro, what happened? If you think she’s in danger, there are probably guys closer by, and we should call Ricky.”
“Ricky,” I grumbled. “Call Ricky.”
Alessandro used the screen on the center console of his car to navigate to Ricky’s number and call him. The phone trilled a few times, and I was nervous that he wasn’t going to pick up.
“Gabe? What the hell is going on?” Ricky barked. “What did you guys do to Willow?”
“Ricky,” I replied.
“Sandro? What’s going on?” Ricky’s voice was more gruff and angry than I’d ever heard it.
“Is she there? I need to talk to her,” I said.
“It’s Alessandro, he says he wants to—whoa!” A loud crash blasted across the line. “What the fuck is wrong with you? That would have killed me if it had hit me!” There was some shuffling and Ricky started breathing a bit harder. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. What did you do?”
“Luca and I were discussing what to do with the mole, and she overheard,” I explained. “She…she heard me agree to kidnap his kids.”
“Jesus, Sandro,” Ricky breathed. “Why wouldn’t you be more careful?”
“I didn’t fucking know she was there!” My head was pounding. I felt like I was having the world’s worst hangover, and I didn’t even get the benefit of a night of drinking and partying. “Please, you have to get her to talk to me.”
“She just threw a fucking vase with your flowers in it at my head. I’m not going back up there. You’re welcome to go up there yourself,” Ricky said.
“I’m on my way.”
Gabriel clicked the end button on the call and picked up the speed, charging toward Willow’s family’s place. The car was hardly to a halt in front of the house before I was jumping out of the front seat. I had no idea what I was going to say. I couldn’t tell her it wasn’t what it sounded like, and I couldn’t tell her I’d never actually do that—none of that was true. All I could do was explain to her how much it killed me, and hope that that’d be enough.
I rushed for the front door, but before I got to it, it opened for me. Willow was framed in the doorway, her eyes puffy and full to bursting with disappointment. More painful than any of that were the packed bags gripped in her hands.
“Willow.” I dropped to my knees. “Please don’t go.” Ricky was standing behind her with his keys gripped in his hand, and his mom was next to him, her own eyes swollen and red. “I know,” I started. “I know I let you down.”
Tears streamed down Willow’s face without ceasing. I wanted to grab her, and hold her, and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but I didn’t know that to be true any more than she did. All that was left was to beg. To stay at her feet and ask her to forgive me when I knew I didn’t deserve it. I wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my face into her stomach.
“I love you so much. Please. I don’t want to lose you. We’re meant to be together. You’re my soulmate.” In any other situation, I’d never display any form of weakness to anyone. My dad would throw me into a river if he saw me on my knees, but I was willing to do what he never was. I was willing to fight for the one I loved. Sorry dad. “Please don’t go.”
“Look at me.” Willow’s voice was an eerily low octave that I didn’t like hearing in place of her typically sweet, melodic tones. I craned my head up, seeing how even her once vibrant, blue eyes were a deep blue, like a sea in a storm. “I’ll stay.”
“You will?” I gasped.
“If you can tell me you weren’t going to do what I heard you planning with Luca, and don’t lie to me, because I’ll know.” She was staring down at me, a woman who already knew the answer to a question she’d asked.
I stayed quiet, my own eyes filling with tears. I dropped my head and let my arms loose to droop from around her.
“That’s what I thought.”
Willow walked around me, pulling her bags alongside her. As Ricky passed, he set a hand on my shoulder before continuing on. Willow’s mom closed the front door, and I stared at it in desperate silence as I listened to Ricky’s car start and, eventually, pull away.
I had to get to her.
She was gone.
21
Willow
I sat on my bathroom floor back at my apartment in California, thinking back on everything like it had all been a bad dream. How had I gotten so swept in Alessandro again? Why did I allow him to convince me to overlook what I knew to be true, what I had seen with my own eyes? I thought back on everything. He’s comforted me by my grandfather’s fountain at his funeral. He’d shown up at my mom’s house while I was swimming to tell me how he felt about me, whether I liked it or not. The recreation of our first date. Meeting Molly and the kids for the first time, and sharing a meal with them like a big, happy family. Spending the day in the hotel room, laughing at dumb reality shows. Deciding to be together. Making love in my bedroom, making love in the living room, making love in the garden, and making love in the hotel. I’d covered myself in Alessandro, slathered myself in him, and it was going to be much harder to wash him off the second time around.