He scowls at me. “It doesn’t protect you, Emily. And whatever De Fiore may have planned, it’s over now. No one’s getting to these diamonds.”
The laugh that comes out is perfectly timed—and perfectly honest. “No one?”
“No one.”
It hurts to realize, once and for all, that my father doesn’t love me. That he never did. But it’s also freeing, in a way. I lean forward, letting him see the truth in my eyes. “This house isn’t secure, Daddy. It isn’t as safe as you think it is. Someone’s going to get in and steal those diamonds. Tonight.” The truth is always a gamble for me, but never more than right now. “Your only chance to save them is to move them.”
For a second he studies me, weighing my words. What happens if he believes me? I would finally be a person to him. A real human with a voice. And it would almost be worth it.
Except he doesn’t believe me.
With a hard snort he shoves me back down. “I bet he told you to do this. To make me move the diamonds so he could ambush me on the road. No, the gates are secure. And you’re a fucking liar.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
My scream echoes throughout the entire house. I scream until my voice is hoarse. Until my ears are ringing. Until I’m sure even the most unconcerned parent will come, at least to make sure I stop. One minutes passes. Two. My voice turns hoarse.
The lock turns with a soft click.
I’m sitting on my bed when Mom opens the door. It’s enough to make me start, because I didn’t expect her to be home. It’s only been an hour since Daddy locked me in my room.
Her hair is up in a beautiful arrangement, her gown long. She looks beautiful. There’s a necklace of diamonds glittering around her neck, and it makes me wonder if they pulled out some of the black-market diamonds to make wear. Or if maybe she would consider that beneath her. Those diamonds are good enough to sell, good enough to use to purchase proper diamonds from the jewelry store.
“Emily,” she says, her voice sharp. “Why on earth are you making that racket?”
“Because something’s going to happen.”
Though I’m less and less sure about what that something will be. Dad’s down in the parlor with his gun on the coffee table, a one-man army defending his stash of diamonds. His paranoia has kept him safe from consequences all these years. What’s to say it will stop working now? But there’s no time for a new plan. Only improvisation.
Because that scream will bring more than an exasperated parent.
It will bring Niko.
Mom steps inside the room, setting down the key she used to open the door. Maybe if she had come and visited me like this on other nights when she went to charity events, things could have been different. Maybe if I had never seen Daddy kill that man…
But it would have always come to this.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
That makes me laugh, hollow and sad. “Is this what you wanted to happen?”
“I know you didn’t make a deal with Sergio De Fiore. You said that to make him stay put.”
My family is basically a briar bush. It’s impossible to make a move without being cut. “Yes, I knew he wouldn’t believe me. I knew he would do the exact opposite of what I suggested.”
“And once he calms down, he’ll see that you were only helping us.”
I look out the window, where the sunset peeks over the wall, where shadowed ivy splits strands of red sunlight. “And then what? Then he’ll be more likely to marry me off to some asshole who can control me instead of killing me off?”
The silence isn’t as shocked as I want it to be. After a long moment she says, “Your father says a lot of things when he’s angry. He doesn’t mean it.”
“He doesn’t mean it,” I repeat. “So it isn’t true that he planned that? Are you saying he lied?”
“Emily,” she says sharply. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”
There’s the mother I know and love. And it’s true, I do love her. Despite the fact that she’s contemplated my murder with my father. Despite the fact that she’s helped silence me for over a decade.
Despite the fact that I hate her, I love her.
That love will come with me, however I end up leaving this house. Whether I manage to escape or whether I end up six feet under. It ends tonight.
“I told him the truth, but not the whole truth.”
“And what is that?” she says in her best mom voice. As if maybe I spilled some juice on the carpet. If maybe I told someone else that my parents are murderers and criminals.
“He’s so focused on the front gate that he keeps looking out the window. But the person who’s here to steal the diamonds. They’re already on the grounds. They have a secret way in.”
