Piper
I didn’t even know my father had a Bel Air mansion, until now. I’d always thought he kept his dealings very much on the east coast, but I was wrong. He’s been doing business as far afield as L.A. for a long time, apparently. Hence this house. Which is stunning, by anyone’s standards. A huge palatial gated villa it just screams Frankie and Ayda Cabbetto – excessive, glamorous, expensive. But it’s just a façade, a front, because behind those doubtlessly bullet-proof doors my mother isn’t happy. She loves the lifestyle, loves being a part of my father’s world, but she doesn’t love him. She’s told me as much, but leaving isn’t an option. Not that she’d go even if it was. She doesn’t want to leave this behind.
“Piper, sweetheart! Let me look at you.”
My mother glides elegantly across the expanse of marble hallway toward me. She’s greeting me like I’ve just returned from vacation, like I haven’t spent the past few months hiding from my father’s hit-man, but that shouldn’t surprise me. This family does a great line in brushing crap under the carpet.
“You look tired.”
“I guess getting caught up in a gunfight does that to you.”
She ignores my flippant sarcasm and guides me toward a room to the right of the hallway. My father stands up as we enter, throws my mother a look I can’t really read, and nods.
“I’ll just go check on Martha in the kitchen, make sure she’s all ready to serve dinner at nine.”
My mother gives my hand a quick squeeze then leaves the room. I look at my father, eyeing him warily.
“What was that all about?”
“I need to talk to you, Piper.”
“I thought you said there was no ulterior motive.”
“There isn’t. Please, sit down.”
He indicates a large, sage-green suede couch positioned beside an over-sized fireplace, and I hesitate for a second or two before I finally sit.
“OK. What do you want to talk to me about?”
He sits down on a chair opposite me and leans forward, clasping his hands together between his knees, his eyes looking right into mine. “You don’t love Vanni, do you?”
That throws me. I mean, it really throws me. It was the last thing I was expecting him to say, and it kind of puts me slightly on the back foot.
“I… what’s this got to do with anything?”
“I want you to be happy, Piper.”
“You wanted me dead a few days ago.”
“And I will keep saying I’m sorry until you start to believe me, if that’s what you want. But I’d rather we just tried to put all that behind us now.”
I sit back, and I laugh, I can’t help it. “Pretend it never happened, huh?”
“Look, Piper, I know how hard this must be for you. Our family – the way it works, it isn’t like other families. We don’t live in their world, and sometimes things happen that…” He trails off and bows his head, and I frown slightly as I watch him. Is he actually showing signs of regret here? He slowly raises his gaze and his eyes once more meet mine. “I always loved you, Piper. You’re my only daughter, my little girl, and I was wrong, to put you through all of that. I was wrong. I should’ve done something, when I knew Marco was…” He leaves that sentence hanging, and I don’t think either of us needs to finish it. “Vanni looks after you, I see that. And I see that he probably does love you…”
“I loved him, too. In the beginning. In my own way.”
“But somewhere along the line…?”
I lean forward, matching his stance. “Look, why do you suddenly care about how I’m feeling? About the state of my marriage? Why does it suddenly bother you so much? We never really played happy families, even before all that shit kicked off. So why start now, huh?”
“Because I’m trying to make things right, Piper.”
“You can’t do that overnight, Dad. Not after what happened.”
“I know. I know that, but at least let me try. Please.”
I sit back again, keeping my eyes locked on his. “OK… And no, I don’t think I love Vanni. But you know the kind of world I live in now. I’ve made my choice, and I’ve just got to live with it. Besides, I owe Vanni. He was good to me, he cared about me.”
“You don’t owe him your happiness, Piper.”
My frown deepens, I’m not comfortable with this version of my father.
“Have you forgotten your childhood? You were my little princess, remember? I only ever wanted you to be happy…”
“You wanted me to find my prince,” I say quietly, remembering a conversation we’d had when I’d been very young, it’s strange, the things you remember all of a sudden.
“Yes. I wanted you to find your prince. And I don’t think Vanni’s that man.”
I drop my gaze and I turn my head away, looking out of the window instead, onto a secluded terrace filled with bougainvillea and lots of neat, pretty shrubs.
“But Logan is.”
My head shoots back around. “I’m sorry?”
“Logan Sandero. He’s your prince. Right?”
“I… Jesus, this is crazy…”
“I’m trying to put right everything I did wrong, Piper.”
“Because Mom’s making you?”
“I get that you’re defensive, and I deserve every piece of crap you want to throw at me, but I need you to believe that I would never hurt you again. Ever.”
I stare at him as I try to take in everything that’s happened over the past few months. None of it feels real anymore, it’s just a blurred and mixed-up mess and I need to get my head straight, I don’t want this confusion.
“It doesn’t matter how I feel about Logan.” My voice is barely a whisper, because this is a pointless conversation. “You know how it works, I just told you. I made my choice. I chose Vanni. And he forgave me, after what I did, so I owe him for that, too.”
“It matters to me, Piper. How you feel about Logan.”
“This is crazy…”
I stand up and walk over to the French doors, crossing my arms against myself as I look outside.
“I want to help you.”
“How can you help me?” I keep my back to him, keep staring outside.
“If you and Logan really want to be together, I can make that happen.”
I slowly turn around and lean back against the glass, keeping my arms crossed, I need that barrier there because I still don’t feel like I can trust him. “You can make that happen?”
He nods as he stands up and comes over to me, sliding his hands into his pockets. “I said I only want you to be happy, and I mean it. I have a lot of making up to do, Piper.”
“And what about Vanni, huh? You think he’s just going to accept his wife heading off into the sunset with the man she cheated on him with?”
“Leave Vanni to me. Let me handle him.”
“And what if it destroys this new working relationship you have with him?”
“That isn’t going to happen. He’s going to understand that you need to get away from here, and he isn’t going to know that you’ve left with Logan. He doesn’t need to know that. As far as he’s aware Logan’s already left with Reba. Like he was supposed to do.”
The look he gives me tells he knows that Logan didn’t follow the instructions he was given, and I feel my stomach lurch, causing me to clutch at it.
“How did you know?”
“I know more than you think, Piper. And I know the reason why Logan didn’t go anywhere. But what you’re doing is dangerous, and you know that. So does he.”
“What other choice do we have?”
“Let me help you. I’ll make sure you go somewhere safe, a place where you can both start a new life, away from here. It has to be away from here, Piper, you know that. There’s always the possibility that Vanni will find out you and Logan left together, and although I will do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, there are no guarantees. But believe me, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe this time.”
“I’m finding it so hard to trust you right now. You have to understand that.”
“I do. I just want you to let me help you, Piper. Please.”
I throw my head back and sigh, and I close my eyes and think of Logan and I know I can’t turn this chance down. This is the safest way to leave town, a way in which Vanni can be spared the real truth, because one thing I do know is that my father can spin a good lie. He can make anything sound like the truth, which is why I’m struggling to trust him, struggling to trust that he can deliver what he’s promising me; what he’s offering to do for me here. For me, and Logan. But I really don’t have a choice now. If I want to be with Logan, then I need my father’s help.
“OK.”
He smiles, and a million memories of the days when I was his princess come flooding back, hitting me in the solar plexus like a vicious kick to the gut.
“Come here.”
He pulls me into his arms and kisses my forehead, hugging me tight, and I close my eyes and remember the happy memories, those times when there’d still been a shred of innocence left in my life. Before the shit took over, and I was playing with guns instead of dolls.
“I’ll contact Logan. I’ll bring him here, tomorrow…”
I pull away from him. “Tomorrow?”
“This has to be done now, Piper. We leave it too long and Vanni may start to suspect something’s going on. And I need to concentrate on business, so this happens now. Are you ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
He smiles again, and I feel my stomach twist up into a mess of nerves and excitement.
“All right. Now, let’s go eat. Your mother’s organized quite a spread for you.”
“Dad?”
He’d already started to make his way out of the room but he stops and turns around to face me. “Yes?”
“Thank you.”