After I gave Rafe the phone and invested every last hope I had in him, I waited. I waited and waited and waited. If I thought the hours passed by slowly when I was bored, I learned the actual meaning of slow when every minute that passed held the possibility of Mateo coming downstairs, telling me I failed his test and it was time to die.
Only, that didn’t happen.
Rafe came back.
He gave me my cell phone and an orange. It wasn’t as well-received as the cookie, but he told me it would do more to preserve my girlish figure than a cookie.
He’s such an asshole.
But he’s an asshole who is, for whatever reason, helping me, and I need to know what that reason is. I’m still having some difficulty trusting this, but it’s the only option I have left at this point.
“You’re on a need-to-know basis at this point,” he informs me. “Dante is sure your sense of self-preservation is adequate incentive for you to turn on Mateo, but I like to hedge my bets.”
“And what do you hope to accomplish by playing ’20 Questions’ and feeding me?” I ask him, peeling off a slice of orange and popping it in my mouth.
He shrugs. “Gotta pass the time somehow. Mia’s mad at me. I got bored drinking alone.”
My eyebrows rise and I cut him a look of surprise. “Mia’s mad at you? Why?”
“I keep telling her things she doesn’t want to hear. Gotta get her ready for her new life.”
“Her new life?”
“How loyal is the nanny?” he asks, flicking a piece of lint off his shoulder. “Is she loyal to Mateo, or the kids? Would you keep her on or replace her?”
“What are you talking about?”
He sighs, sparing me an impatient look. “You’ve lived in this house for five years. If you don’t know the way of things, you’re useless to me.”
“I know the way of things,” I say, defensively.
“The housekeeper’s going to have to go. I don’t know why, given her position here, but she’s clearly loyal to him.”
“Maria?”
“The nanny, though, I hadn’t thought much about. I’m not too keen on keeping all these kids, to be honest, but I want to keep Mia and Dante wants to keep you, so I guess we’ll have to for the time being. At least the older ones are girls. Even if Mia has a boy, it’s just a baby. As long as we raise him right, he won’t grow up with dreams of vengeance. Ordinarily,” he advises me, “you don’t leave the kids alive. Opens you up to problems later on.”
My mind races as it takes in everything he’s saying.
He isn’t talking about a rescue mission.
He’s talking about a takeover.
“What do you mean, Dante wants to keep me? What does that entail, exactly?”
“There may be a few bumps during the transition,” he tells me. “Mia doesn’t know shit, but seems like Mateo may have talked to you more. We’ll keep you on to ease the transition. Once everyone is settled in, you’re free to go if you want to. Personally, that’s my preference; I’ll feel better with fewer of Mateo’s kids on our roster. Take the baby and the two girls, we’ll give you a little cash to get yourself started, and you can make a new life, far away from all this.”
Regardless of good and common sense, my hopes cling to this image he presents. This is exactly what I need. Sure, it’s lacking the opulence and excessive security of life as a Morelli baby mama, but it includes the most crucial detail. Even after I deliver Roman, there will be no bullets in my head. Maybe I won’t have a large sum to work with, but I’ll be able take all my babies and leave the hell of Chicago behind, to escape the Morelli family and live a completely normal life somewhere else.
“What about Mia?” I ask.
“Hm?”
“What happens to Mia once you’re all settled in? Do you give her money and she gets to leave with her baby, too? What about Bella? She’s really the only parent Bella would have left, and you don’t need girls, right? Does Bella get to go with Mia?”
I should be watching him more carefully, but I’m trying to sort through the flood of new information that’s just rained down on me. Had I been a little less overwhelmed and a little more organized in my processing up to now, I would probably be less surprised when he states, “Mia isn’t going anywhere. Like I said, I’m keeping Mia.”
“For what?”
His eyebrows rise in mild disbelief, and I flush, realizing I’m a fucking idiot.
“Oh.”
“I think she’ll make a good pet,” he tells me. “And who knows? With the stress of losing Mateo, maybe she’ll miscarry and I won’t have to deal with Mateo’s spawn after all.”