“There’s ways around everything. I’ll just go and get a unit myself. Then we will go to Matt’s and break in.”
He made it sound so easy. So commonplace.
And, maybe, for him, it was.
Meanwhile, I would need to do a search to figure out how to break a deadbolt.
“We can go tomorrow as soon as they open.”
“Perfect. Get me something to work with, and this will go much faster,” Zeno said, going back to his chair and looking around at his many monitors.
“We lost him,” Nico said, moving closer to me. “Thanks for cleaning up. This place looks a thousand times better.”
“There was a bag of celery that had sprouted and grown all up the back of the fridge,” I told him, lips twitching. “It was impressive.”
“Probably one of his noble intentions to try to eat cleaner, but then he tossed the healthy shit in the crisper and forgot all about it.”
“He’s the sweetest guy,” I said, meaning it. “And it feels like you’re the only person in the world when he is focusing on you. But it is very short-lived.”
“That’s him exactly,” Nico agreed. “The women are always wondering what kind of woman might drag him away from his computers long enough to actually build a life with.”
“What are they like?” I asked as Nico called Goya over.
“Who?”
“The women. I’ve only met the men of your family.”
“Oh, right,” he said, watching me. “They’re… all very different, obviously. But fiercely loyal. Some of them are incredible cooks. Others, well, shouldn’t be allowed near a stove unsupervised.”
“Do they all have kids?”
“Most of them, yeah. The others just haven’t gotten there yet.”
“Do they all get along?”
“Of course. I mean, some are tighter than others. Everyone has different personalities and interests. But it’s family. We all love and support each other.”
“I always wanted that,” I admitted, following him out the door. “I loved my grandma more than anything, but there were times when I was younger that I dreamed my mom and dad would come back and they’d have a bunch more kids. I was envious of the people who had big families.
“I think I was really hoping to have that when I married Matthew. His family was so close. I never imagined they would continue to be close with each other, but exclude me.”
“You didn’t deserve that,” he said, his hand slipping to my lower back.
“They included you, right?” I asked. “When you were younger.”
“Yeah. When my siblings were otherwise taken care of, I was always over at the Ferraros. Getting into trouble with Matt, getting some motherly attention from Ronny.”
“This has to be really hard for you. They were like an extension of your family.”
“It helps that we hadn’t been very close the last ten years or so. I still kept in touch, but mostly only saw Matt, not the whole family.”
“Do you think there’s a chance they’re all involved?”
“I wish I didn’t. But… Ronny was talking about moving the whole family to a beach house today. They have never had that kind of money. Maybe it was innocent, but…”
“But Matthew’s betrayal has you questioning everything you knew and thought you knew.”
“Exactly. I questioned every observation and thought I had today. I hate not being able to trust my gut like that.”
