Page 123 of His Kidnapped Queen
“God. Sophie.” He sighs heavily and puts down his fork. “And you say he’s a good man? A good father?”
“I think so. I think he will be.”
“You have toknowso, Sophie. You have to know that when everything goes to shit, he’ll have your back. Do you know that?”
My father has never looked at me so intensely. I blink at him, a little afraid.
“I do know that.”
My father throws up his hands, as if exasperated. “Well, then. There’s only one thing you can do.”
“And what’s that?” I ask, feeling defeated, my shoulders slumping.
“You fight for it. You fight for that feeling with everything you have.”
“What?” I’m shocked by his words. “You’re saying I should?—”
“I’m saying I love you, my Sophie. That I’ll miss you. But if I tell you to set aside that feeling, the feeling I had for your mother, I’d be going against everything I’ve ever believed.”
“Oh, Papa.” I rush around the table, throwing myself into his arms and he grunts and puts them around me, holding me close while I sob into his chest. “You really think I could do it?”
“I think you can do anything you want,” he says sweetly, echoing Scott, and now I know what I have to do.
I have to talk to Scott.
34
LUCA
Over the next week, I see Rosa four times. Every day with her is like a blessing. The guard goes scarce when Sophia and Rosa show up, and it’s almost like we’re a real family.
Sophia comes to visit me alone on Friday, and she’s acting a little strange.
She sits close to me, holding my hand.
I look at her, knowing something’s wrong.
“They’re talking about discharging me, aren’t they?”
Sophia looks at me, expression pained. “They are. You’re doing so much better.”
“You don’t sound too excited about it.”
“When they discharge you?—”
“I go to processing. I know. It’s not my first rodeo, pixie.”
I don’t tell her it’s been twenty-five years since the last time I was in jail, and I was a kid back then.
But I still have connections, however fragile. Time won’t be too bad for me. I wish I could tell her that. Make her understand that in prison, wiseguys are still wiseguys.
“Diego posted bail,” she says, and I grin.
“Sonofabitch. Good for him. I wonder who posted it.”
She chuckles. “I’m not supposed to tell you, but Scott told me it was Joey Stacks.”
My eyes widen. “Joey fucking Stacks, huh? I guess he does have a heart after all.”
