Chapter 6 - A Visit by the River
What they wanted, Patrick said, was for us to leave Savannah before Marcello learned about Mia.
He'd been offered the money through a “relocation assistance program” backed by a foundation associated with the DeLuca family. Rusk had described it as a way to avoid publicity, to give us a fresh start. Patrick had accepted the deposit to an account he used for his business expenses. He claimed he'd planned to return it when he realized the move would uproot Mia.
“You built an entire file about schools in Raleigh,” I said. “That doesn't look like refusal.”
“It was a plan, Anna, not an order.”
“You used my daughter as a problem to solve.”
“I was trying to keep him out.”
“By taking money from the people who threatened me?”
He closed his eyes. “I didn't believe they'd actually threatened you. Rusk said you'd misunderstood a conversation years ago.”
My grief sharpened into something steady. Patrick had chosen a story that let him keep the money and keep me from asking questions. He was not the villain in every memory I had of him. He was the man who had loved Mia enough to teach her to swim and frightened of losing her enough to lie.
“Give Lydia the records,” I said. “Every deposit. Every message with Rusk. If you want to repair anything, start there.”
He looked at the seal in the paper bag. “Can I give Mia this myself?”
“Not today. I won't put her in the middle of this conversation. You can talk to her on Saturday, at Celia's, if she wants to.”
On Wednesday the laboratory collected our samples. Mia was nervous about the swab, so the technician let her hold the sealed kit and explained what it did. Marcello watched from the far side of the room. When it was over, Mia offered him a sticker featuring a purple octopus.
“You can have it,” she said. “You were brave.”
He placed it on the back of his phone.
The next day, with Lydia's guidance and a counselor's advice, we arranged a short visit at a public riverside park. I stayed nearby. Mia came armed with a list she'd made using Celia's help.
“Do you like dogs?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“The ridiculous little ones that think they're lions.”
She laughed. “Do you have a dog?”
“No. I travel too much.”
“That's not a good answer.”
“I know,” he said. “I'm working on it.”
They walked beside the river without touching. Marcello told her he grew up two streets from the park and used to race paper boats after the rain. Mia announced that she could build a better boat than him. He agreed immediately, which told me nothing about his skill and everything about how carefully he was trying.
When they came back, she asked him the hardest question as casually as she'd asked about dogs.
“Why didn't you come when I was a baby?”
Marcello glanced at me. I didn't rescue him.
“I didn't know you were here,” he told her. “People should have told me. And when I couldn't reach your mom, I stopped trying too soon. That was a mistake.”
“Did Mommy make a mistake?”
“Yes,” I said, before he could answer. “I was scared and I didn't know who to trust. I should have found more help. That's something I'll always wish I'd done differently.”
Mia thought about it. “I make mistakes with spelling. You can erase them.”
“Some mistakes take longer,” Marcello said. “But you can still do better afterward.”
She reached for his hand for the first time. It lasted four steps. He didn't look at me until she let go.
After the visit, Lydia called. Rusk's former assistant had agreed to provide records through counsel. Some of the material supported Patrick's account of the relocation offer. The rest was worse: security reports referring to Mia as “the minor” and an instruction signed by Salvatore to prevent unauthorized contact between Marcello and me.
Marcello read the copy at Lydia's office. I watched his face harden, then saw him force his hands open.
“This goes to a judge, if we need it,” Lydia said. “Not to the internet.”
“Agreed,” he said.
“They're asking me to come pick her up,” she said. “Someone has shown them the wedding video. Mia says she doesn't want to go back to class.”
May you like
From somewhere behind Celia's voice, I heard Mia crying.
“She keeps saying one thing, Anna. She thinks everybody knows she's the reason your wedding ended.”
