Page 17 of The Fates We Tame

“So why did he wait until I’m getting ready to leave before cancelling my lease?” On my last visit, I’d taken photographs. I’d been trying to relearn where everything was so that being there wouldn’t feel like sleeping in someone else’s home.

My brothers glance at each other, but I don’t know what the look means.

“Maybe he thought keeping it this long would be motivation to get well,” Luca says.

Emotions crash over me. The loss of autonomy. Others making decisions for me. The loss of a home I can’t remember, but given how I feel about my room here, that it’s my private sanctuary, I would likely be devastated about it in any other scenario.

“He was never going to let me live alone?”

Leonardo shakes his head. “Not yet. The apartment would have been impossible. If the elevator broke, there would be no way you could make it up all those flights of stairs.”

“You’ve always listened to his advice,” Luca says.

“But that’s the thing,” I say, my heart thumping in my chest. “He didn’t give me advice. He took my home away from me without talking to me about it.”

“It’s for the best,” Leonardo says.

“I decide what’s for the best for me. I’m an adult. Papà had no right getting rid of my place. Where are all my things?”

“Papà put them in storage. That’s why we’re here,” Luca says. “We know our parents want you to live with them when you get out, but we’re going to Sicily on business for six months. Over the winter. Instead of staying with them here in the cold, come with us. Some winter sun. Milder weather. The new family property you acquired there has a guest house. It was one of the reasons you said we should buy it. You can stay in it, but then you’ll be close enough to the two of us if you need us.”

I can’t bring the property to mind, but I can imagine the feeling of the sun warming my bones. For the briefest moment, I’m mentally packing a bag and leaving with them.

“But my things… I need to start figuring out what the rest of my life is going to look like. And, I need to stay here so I can have outpatient access.”

Leonardo takes my hand. “I know the rental place where all your things are. We’ll take you there and you can check everything is safe and secure. We’re a wealthy and well-connected family, Sophia. We’ll fly on the private jet. We’ll find you outpatient care. It’ll be safe. We’ll be on our way before our parents realize you’re gone.”

“We know how overbearing our parents can be.” Luca smooths a crease in his pants. “Just come with us, Soph. I promise we’ll take care of you.” They both look so sincere.

And hopeful.

“I’ll think about it. That’s the best I can say.”

Because I feel like I just had the rug pulled out from beneath me.

And despite the obvious reason, that I’ve lost my apartment, I feel like there’s something else going on that they aren’t saying.

5

SWITCH

Itake a draw on my cigarette and feel like a thirteen-year-old sneaking smokes from the pack my dad always left by his keys. My first ever drag on one happened down the side of the clubhouse when my father’s back was turned.

As I stand in the rain, hidden by the dumpster around the back of the rehabilitation unit, trying to smoke one of the cigarettes King left behind, I feel like I’m doing something illicit all over again.

I was a dick to Sophia.

Unintentionally, maybe.

But I heard that hurt in her voice again. The hurt other people keep missing.

I feel so shitty about it, I’m even contemplating going to the goddamn movie night to make up for it.

Didn’t like the look of her brothers. Can’t explain what it was beyond the fact they both looked like they had sticks up their asses. Fancy suits, fancier shoes. Not a fucking wrinkle on either of them.

Could see the way they looked me up and down before deciding I was a piece of shit. There are few moments I wish Ihad my cut on, but that was one of them. Fuckers wouldn’t look twice at me if they knew who I really was.

But for Sophia’s sake, I kept my reaction to myself and came out here for a cigarette instead.