Page 89 of Angel

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Paige

I told Angelo to go on to breakfast without me. I needed to take a shower and wake up some, I explained.

I also needed to shake off the horrible visions that just rampaged my mind.

It wasn’t like they were anything new, really. Just another repeat of the day my parents were murdered. But this time had I not only not known it was a dream, I was also frozen solid behind the false wall, unable to move, unable to breathe. I just stood there, a deer in headlights as one of the men slowly turned in my direction and walked towards me.

I woke up the second before the man ripped away the false wall and discovered me.

But even in a bed in Chicago, hundreds of miles away and ten years later, I still saw my parents laying in a pool of blood.

I turned on the shower as hot as I could stand and immersed myself in the spray. Angelo was right. I needed to be in therapy. No one could live like this. Not only was I cheating myself of a chance at happiness, I was hurting him. How could he be really satisfied with a girlfriend always twenty seconds away from completely losing her shit?

He deserved better than that.

I turned off the shower head and grabbed my towel from the top of the rod. After ringing water from my hair, I wrapped the fluffy towel around me and stepped onto the mat.

“Nice ass.”

I yelped and jumped. “Sophia! Jesus… You scared me.”

She grinned from her perch on the long sink. “Sorry.”

I grabbed a second towel and rubbed it on my head. “And you can’t even see my ass.”

“I know, but that was the line I had prepared. I didn’t expect you to come out of there with a towel on.”

“Why are you creeping into my room?”

Her face grew serious. “I had to talk to you alone. You know who it’s about.”

“Uh oh.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s practically family.”

“She may be practicallyfamily, but you and I are real family. The only real family we have, and...”

“I get the idea.”

I went into the bedroom to pull some clothes from my suitcase.

Sophia followed. “Dominic told me about Lia.” She plopped down on the unmade bed.

I pulled on some jeans and a V-neck shirt. “Yeah, she basically thinks I’m a golddigger.”

Sophia threw her hands up. “That doesn’t even make sense! You have your own money.”

I looked pointedly at her. “Please just leave it alone. I’ve already had to tell Angelo to drop it.”

Sophia crossed her arms. “So what, then? You’re just going to take this shit from her?”

I froze, my hands halfway finished zipping up my pants.

Good question.

I couldn’t to resign myself to bad blood between Lia and me. It wasn’t right. We had no history that I could remember. Plus, she was Angelo’s sister, and he and I would hopefully be connected for the rest of our lives.