Page 90 of Fighting With Light

“When it was time for me to use the bathroom, I did my business, looked for another exit, and ignored the gun to my head. I kicked one of them in the balls and took off. I ran as hard and as fast as I could. But they were faster. They dragged me back, and I was going to try again, but then Romeo showed up with money, cocaine, and drugs to buy me back. Which still doesn’t make sense to me even now, but you don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

“How did Romeo know?” I ask her.

“He heard my father trying to figure out how to get out of giving them what they wanted. So he did it himself.”

Speechless, I hold Aelia to me. There is nothing to say about that. There is no sorry big enough to encompass the pain and the fear a young girl went through. She doesn’t cry, she just hugs me tighter. I want to say those three words to her so badly, but I don’t.I can’t.

“Thank you for telling me, princess,” I whisper in her wet hair.

Maybe it’s time for me to share something with her, too. “My mother had to bleed to get our money back.” A headache builds in the back of my head. I don’t like thinking about the past like this for a reason. But I think it’s time to tell her more about myself, my family.

“What does that mean?” she asks, shifting in my hold.

“My mother comes from the well-established Astor family. She was the last remaining Astor, so my grandfather willed everything to her. My dad used people to get around the law and take it from her despite the prenup. So for years, she had to scrimp, and save, and tuck money away and get the family fortune back at the same time.”

“Why didn’t she just save money and take off with you guys?”

“She knew it would cost money to hide, and I think part of it was the principle of the thing. My father had no right to take what didn’t belong to him. If she could have done it faster, she would have, but she needed to be careful. I think if he caught her before she was ready, he would have no doubt killed us all.”

“I’m so sorry, Liam,” she says.

“If anyone understands what that’s like, I know you do.”

She nods absently. “What happened when she took you three away?”

I stare at our hands linked, remembering the man who attacked us in the dead of night. The bologna sandwiches.

“We drove, and drove, and drove. In my young mind, it felt like forever. It took us a while to get to California. For some reason, she wanted us to hide in San Francisco.”

“I guess that is as far as you can get from Massachusetts. But why didn’t she just take you guys to a different country?”

“Because we would have had to scan passports. But also because Mom didn’t have access to the money she had taken back yet. It was all about timing. We had to wait, so the cash she had, she was very careful with.”

“Wow,” Aelia says.

My heart thuds at the terrifying memory of my mother fighting a man two times her sizeagain.“When we were there, Mom got one of those pay-by-the-week places. It was a small room with two double beds and a mini fridge. I remember going to bed and she was so agitated about something. We stayed cooped up in that room and barely went outside because she was scared someone would find us. Well, they did. He broke in to get rid of us. Everything happened so fast. Me and my brothers fought the stranger, and then Mom shot him.”

“What did you do with the body? Were the police called?” she asks.

I chuckle. “These are all valid questions, but uh, no. Mom thinks a guardian angel helped us. This long-haul trucker showed up because he heard the commotion, and then he helped us get rid of the body and clean up. Then he disappeared.”

“That’s wild.”

“I try not to think about it too much.”

She rests her head on my shoulder. “I don’t blame you.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. We’re quiet for a moment and the water is getting cold.

“You make me feel safe,” she whispers. I smile into her hair and kiss her head. Before I can respond, a knock echoes in our villa and Aelia leans back, floating away from me. I pull myself out of the tub and yell, “Coming!”

Tossing my wet clothes into the shower, I grab a towel and wrap it around my waist before answering the door.

As I wheel the cart into our room, Aelia comes out in her lavender, silk pajamas.

“I had an amazing day, thank you,” she says. My heart flips around in my chest like it’s trying to reach out and hug her.

“Good, I’m glad.” I smile and cough, clearing my throat. She tilts her head and looks at me for a moment. We stare at each other, locked in the past, until I break the link.