Page 27

LIA

K aterina Vale could not get me out of her studio fast enough—and Arnold was waiting right outside the door, staring at his phone.

I was tempted to sidle past him, see if I could hit the streets, and then after that, just keep running—but then he looked up.

I recognized his expression, I’d seen it many times before.

“You want to be mad at me, don’t you…but you can’t.”

“Let me be very frank with you, Miss Ferreo, you’re not supposed to have opinions of your own.” He frowned and pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “That said though, you’re definitely trending.”

“Hooray,” I said, as flatly as possible—then started edging away. “I’m free until noon, right?” I’d accepted a calendar request to do lunch at Frammento with Marcus and his twin boys, and while I imagined liking nothing less, I still had to stay in the saddle.

“You are,” he said, like his graciousness was costing him. “Please don’t do anything stupid though. And by that, I mean anything unapproved.”

“I’m just going to hit my apartment to freshen up is all. There’ll be cameras there at lunch, right?”

He gave me a dour look. “The first lesson of being engaged to a senator—there are always cameras. Everywhere,” he said, then stepped out of my path so I could go.

I trotted quickly outdoors and summoned my driver—Arnold had insisted I stop taking rideshares the day before, but I would be damned if Marcus got to know where I was all the time—I just called Corvo’s lot.

The man who’d dropped me off was waiting right around the corner and swooped in to pick me up.

“Miss Ferreo,” he said, coming around to open up the door.

“Thank you, James,” I said, settling into the backseat. “Can you take me here?” I asked, giving him the address to Dr. Genziani’s offices. His eyes flickered up to the rearview mirror the second he realized where we were going. “I’m not shot,” I promised him. “It’s just a check-up.”

“Of course, Miss Ferreo,” he said, and took the next left-hand turn.

Just because my father was willing to give up didn’t mean I didn’t want to talk to his doctor, personally. And there was no such thing as patient-confidentiality—not where my family and the Doctor were concerned.

The driver let me off in front of a non-descript building with a quiet glass lobby. I let myself inside, and went straight to the desk.

“Is Doctor Genziani here?” I asked the older woman behind the counter, and she gave me a pained smile.

“He’s booked solid today—I’m sorry, we don’t take walk ins—I can maybe get you in next week?”

“Tell him Lia Ferreo is here and she needs to speak to him. Immediately,” I said and sat down. For all of my posturing on the Morning Moment, defending my countrymen against hurtful stereotypes, I was well aware I was living one, and the fuck if I wasn’t going to use it to my advantage now.

The woman picked up a phone and had a hushed conversation, during which I watched her eyes widen, and after which, she came out to get me. “Right this way,” she said, ushering me into an exam room quickly.

I sat on the paper-covered chair with my purse in my lap, remembering every time I’d ever been here before: for strep throat, a sprained wrist, the time when a bee had stung my cheek and my lip swelled up.

My father’d been ready to sue the entire school into oblivion for having trees kids could climb near the playground—I’d never told him it was my fault for throwing rocks up at the beehive in the tree.

He’d been so worried about me, so fiercely protective of me—it was one of the times when I knew he truly cared.

Maybe not about me , precisely, but about the daughter-shaped box he wanted me to live in, like a doll, precious and untouched.

I’d done enough therapy to realize that there would be no changing him—and if any man could be said to be a product of his time, he was .

But I still wasn’t ready to lose him without a fight.

The exam room door opened after a fast knock. “Lia? Oh my gosh—look at you!” said a familiar man, sounding like an actual uncle. “It’s been so long!”

“Doctor Genziani!” I said, bouncing off the table to give him a hug.

“How are you?” he asked. “Why are you here?”

I sank back and let my shoulders drop. “I think you know.”

He sat back into the chair behind him, “Your father would kill me if he knew we talked, Lia.”

“Seeing as he’s going to die anyways, that threat’s pretty hollow,” I said, sitting down again. “Please tell me you made him see the best?”

“Best in the world. I did. I swear.”

“And—there’s really nothing?”

Genziani gave a short groan. “Well, there’s always something—oncologists would chase their patients into the grave with chemo, if they could. As to whether or not it would work….”

“But—it’s just a kidney. Can’t you get him one?”

The doctor shook his head. “It’s kidney cancer Lia. You have to be cancer free for a few years before a transplant center will even begin to consider giving you one.”

“Well—what about me?”

One of his eyebrows rose high on his head. “What about you?”

“I’m his daughter. We don’t have to go through red tape. I could just give him one of mine.”

“That’s not how it works,” he said gently.

“If you’re worried about him being too stubborn to take it—I can handle that—I can make him.”

Dr. Genziani gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s not about his stubbornness, Lia—it’s about compatibility. You’d need to be a match. Blood type. Tissue typing. And even if you were, we’d still be talking about a risky surgery. You’d be losing a kidney—at best to prolong a little time.”

“I don’t care. If there’s a chance, even a sliver—I want to know. Just test me. Please,” I said, and started rolling up a sleeve at once. He reached out to stop me—and then he saw my moth tattoo and scars and slightly frowned. “I figured he told you?”

“No. But—these look old?”

“They are.” There was no point rolling down this sleeve for the other arm—I had a matching set. “I was a stupid kid,” I explained. “And I missed out on a lot of time with him. I want to get some back.”

He resigned himself and nodded. “All right. Wait here. I’ll send a tech in,” he said, before standing, and leaving me alone.

A woman my age came in next, with a labcart, and when she saw who I was her eyes widened slightly. “Sorry—I—just saw you on TV!”

I winced with a grin. “Did I look okay?”

“Yeah! Poor Katerina though,” she said, expertly tying my arm off and feeling for a vein with a gloved finger. She drew up three tubes of blood with different colored tops, and then unleashed me, after putting a cotton ball and a bandaid where she’d poked.

“I’ll send the doctor back!” she chirped, before exiting, and Genziani came back in at once.

“We’ll know in a few days?—”

“Don’t stall me. He doesn’t have long.”

“I promise I won’t. But also—these are for you,” he said, handing over twenty small pills in an orange bottle. “Ativan. In case you have some sleepless nights. Don’t go crazy, just take one if you need it. Grief is stressful.”

“But won’t I need to be drug-free to donate?”

“It’s got a short half-life.”

“And—you’re not expecting him to agree,” I said, tossing the pills into my purse.

“I’ve known your father longer than you’ve been alive, Lia.”

“Yeah, well—we’re both stubborn,” I said. “So get back to me. Quickly.”

I left his offices feeling downtrodden, but at least this time it was for a different reason. I stood on the sidewalk outside and pulled out my phone to text my driver—at the same time as I registered someone else across the street pulling out their phone…to point at me.

Maybe? I wasn’t sure—I didn’t want to look like I was staring—then my driver arrived. We were almost to my apartment, and I was resisting the urge to Google myself when a message came through on Rhaim’s phone.

Heads up—you won’t be alone at your place.

I don’t know who it is, but I’m on my way over.

Wait in the lobby for me.