Tangled In Strings

Chapter One

But, Giovanni is not the man I've known anymore.

Sometime in the past months, he changed.

The façade of peace and contentment is a mask he's careful to keep up. I've watched him struggle with it closely over the days. I've watched him get up in the middle of the night and sit on the edge of the bed, to stare into thin air. He's unable to sleep.

I rub my neck deeply, trying to find a way to ease into a conversation worth having. "So, you're leaving to LA tomorrow..."

"I don't to talk about leaving," he replies, before I've even finished my sentence. He stares down into his drink. "We've beaten around the bush enough."

The muscles in my back relax in relief. "I know. I know we have."

With an inhale, he seems to gear himself up for whatever conversation we're about to start. "I know you must be full of questions... worries."

"I have a few."

His eyes flicker to me. "Beginning with?"

My fingers tense on the glass. I allow myself to remember the day that spun my life out of control. The day Norman told me everything I had ever known about myself to be a lie. The day he told me I was his daughter, that the people who had raised me hadn't birthed me. The day I realized that everything I went through could have been prevented, if only he'd wanted me.

I haven't allowed myself to even contemplate it, to even acknowledge the change. I've been living in my denial, simmering in it, trying to prolong the inevitable.

But this conversation demands answers.

"Why didn't you tell me? He told you and you could have told me. I wouldn't have said anything."

His eyes are gentle.

"You would have continued to work for him? No questions? No resentments? Scarlett, when you found out, you quit. If I had told you that night in your office, I would have had to ask you to keep it to yourself. I'm not that selfish."

A deep swallow vibrates throughout my throat as I rest the glass against my thigh.

"There wasn't a single ounce of you that wanted to leave? That felt relief by his blackmail... because it meant you had no choice but to go?"

"You know the answer to that question. A very large part of me wanted to leave that night, but had the blackmail not happened, I would have stayed. I know I would have." He gracefully lowers down onto the loveseat his jacket is hanging on, seated opposite of me. A shaky exhale escapes through his lips, as though he's struggling, forcing himself to utter these words against his will. "To leave, knowing what you would think of me... that was the hardest thing I've ever done. He leveraged my family for secrecy. I can take any kind of criticism but I cannot subject them to it. I cannot."

The next question physically hurts to utter. "Have... you been with anyone?"

"Not a soul."

"You promise me?"

He looks at me, surprised by my persistence but unable to fight me on it.

"I promise, Scarlett."

I nod, studying his contritely determined expression. He's telling the truth. My lips curve upward slightly and then I focus on the glass of his coffee table. My chest is heaving, I'm finding it hard to breathe even though we're not fighting.

"You can talk to me, Scarlett... I can take it."

"I don't know when I'll be able to trust you again, Gio."