Page 16 of One Filthy Kiss

I sip my champagne and listen to the bubbles fizzing behind my teeth. I’m still not convinced that I won’t wake up any moment now and realize that this is all just a dream.

“Do you want to tell me why you were so freaked out about being caught on camera?” His voice is gentle, and I wonder if he asked Ric to take Amber to the cockpit so that we could talk in private.

I don’t know anything about him other than he owns a film studio and a private jet and, if his stunt with the taxi is anything to go by, probably believes that he can cheat death with his billions. It’s a well-known fact that psychopaths are charming on the surface; I’ve done my research and watched plenty of true-crime documentaries on Netflix.

But he could’ve had us drugged and carried, unconscious, onto the aircraft in black sacks without anyone raising an alarm, and he didn’t. Instead, he’s sitting here drinking champagne with me, and offeringto help.

He can’t change our lives, but he can make the video go away.

“I don’t want anyone to know where I am.”

“Anyone?”

“Well, one person.”

It’s still so difficult for me to talk about what happened. People say that it gets easier over time, but I don’t think it ever will. Something inside me curls up and dies whenever I think about him, like a slug with salt on its back. I curl up, withdraw into myself, and then come back out fighting again when Amber tells me that she’s hungry or tired or afraid.

“Who is he, Meggie?”

Our eyes meet, and I feel the tears welling up inside, hot and stinging and deadly.

I won’t cry.

I’m a survivor.

“His name is Steve Barone. He’s Amber’s father.”

4

GIOVANNI

“He treatedmy mom well to begin with. Took her to fancy restaurants, nightclubs, and the theatre. He bought her flowers and jewelry and designer clothes. She seemed happy, well, happier than she was when she was married to my dad, and I told myself that she deserved to be spoiled.”

I let her continue, uninterrupted. Her voice is flat; this is how she handles it, by emotionally detaching herself.

“I didn’t even recognize the shift until it was too late. The way her shine had been dulled. The long silences spent staring into space, the wariness in her eyes. Then she got pregnant with Amber.

“She rarely left the house. She never saw her friends. She would arrange to meet me after school or art class and then she wouldn’t show up. If we made plans for the weekend, she would cancel them last-minute without a reason. She stopped cooking meals, stopped asking about my day, stopped smiling.

“She was six months’ pregnant with Amber the first time he hurt her.”

I clench my fists. What kind of fucking coward hits a pregnant woman?

The sad thing is, I know exactly what kind of man it takes to hurt a vulnerable woman. The kind that hides behind powerful secrets. The kind that hits and runs when they find their next victim.

“She wouldn’t talk about it. My dad had remarried, but he still worried about my mom. He tried persuading her to leave him, but she wouldn’t. I don’t know what hold he had over her, but she seemed so broken, so fragile, like he’d convinced her, somehow, that she’d never survive without him.

“Then, when Amber was born, he didn’t come home for days at a time, and when he did, he was always drunk. His eyes were glazed, you know, like he was there in body, but his mind was elsewhere.”

She peers at me then for the first time since she started talking, and I’m right back there with her, waiting for the bastard to show his face so that I can knock his fucking head off and bury it somewhere it’ll never be found.

“I was still in high school. I didn’t know what to do. I could’ve gone to live with my dad and my stepmom, but I couldn’t leave Amber and my mom behind. Then, one day, I got home, and he’d changed the locks. I couldn’t get in. I called the police, and they convinced him to let me back into the house, but when they questioned him, he made it sound like I was the one causing trouble, and they believed him. They fucking believed him.”

Megan stares out of the window.

We haven’t taken off yet; I’ll signal Ric when she has finished talking. Right now, she has a lot to get off her chest, and I’ll carry that burden around for her if it means that I get to see her smile. Really smile. Because I get the feeling that it’s been a long while since she has allowed herself to feel any kind of true joy.

“What happened to your mom, Meggie?”