°Sweet Dreams° (1)✔️

28. Heart.

Vibrations were tickling my stomach and made my eyes slowly pry open to darkness. Again I felt the buzzing and finally realized that it was my phone.

I dug it out from under me and saw a few texts from Nova.

Kiana just made me some brownies and I ate them. You know I hate brownies.

Why am I seeing you on the news?

How did you become famous in less than a day?

As I was texting back I felt Vincent's arm slip around my hip and his nose skim my shoulder.

At least he was sleeping.

After sending a short and wishful text back to Nova, I put my hand over Vincent's and dozed off again.

The next time I woke up it was to an empty bed and the smell of coffee. Since our appointment was early, I rolled out of bed to tie my hair into a low puff with my scarf and throw some clothes on.

We were soon sitting in a room with beige walls and three green love seats waiting for my father to arrive.

"Nervous?"

Vincent put his hand on top of my bouncing knee. He was well rested and alert to everything happening around him.

"Just anxious. I haven't seen him in a while."

When Dad first went to jail, I saw him every week for the first few months; and then every week turned into every other month. Then visits were once a year, until I couldn't bring myself to see his face behind bulletproof glass and under fluorescent light.

My eyes were glued to the door frame when I saw him slug through in mint scrubs with a guard following close behind him.

His beard was coated in gray and and black while his head was shaved.

His handcuffs and feet cuffs jingled as he made his way over to the empty love seat, but he wasn't looking at me.

His sights were for Vincent.

"Oh great," Dad huffed as he sat down. "Of course you found her."

"It's not what you think." Vincent quickly defended himself as he sat up to stand his ground.

"What am I supposed to think? Like father like son-"

"No!" Vincent cried in a hush tone and I saw the guard shift on his feet. "I'm nothing like him, and you know that. I would never do what he did to you to Amari."

Dad's eyes scanned my face and he scrunched his mouth in vexation.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you haven't continued the experiment and passed it on to my daughter."

Vincent huffed out a strangled breath and put his head in his hands.

"Excuse me if I'm a bit lost but what's going on?"

They most definitely knew each other, and they was more personal than I thought they were.

"Can you leave us?" Vincent asked the guard who was tuning into the conversation.

"Sorry sir, but I can't do that."

Vincent got up to give the guard a big bill and he found his way out and closed the door behind him.

"Passaretti money can pay for anything," Dad mumbled while shaking his head. "How did you two meet?"

"I was an assistant on a set that he worked on," I said.

Vincent and I shared a look so we both knew that we were going to hide the real reason I took the job.

"Wait. You're not living in Italy anymore?" Dad's eyes squinted in confusion.