I stay standing, my arms crossed.
“I never wanted this,” she continues, her voice breaking. “Any of this. When your, when Masha died, when they told me what happened, I thought I could keep you safe, give you a normal life. But I was scared. Every day, I was looking over my shoulder, waiting for them to find us. And as you got older, when you started looking so much like her…”
“You left. Abandoned me.”
She flinches. “I thought that, if I disappeared, if I took Sissy and just vanished, maybe they’d stop looking. Maybe you’d be safe.”
I have no idea how much of this, if any, to believe.
I remember the years living with her, the comments she made about my body, the way she tore me down, the way she hinted that I was a burden she had to bear.
“Did you ever think to tell me the truth, instead of just leaving me?” My voice is cold.
“You were eighteen,” she says. “An adult. Ready to go out into the world, to make your own way.”
“In other words, you put in your time and got away the second you could. You left me alone, with nothing. No family, no explanation.”
“I know.” She looks up at me, her eyes red and swollen. “I know it was cruel. I know I should’ve done better. But I was scared, Thea. I knew it was only a matter of time before you tried to find out the truth about your past. I feared that when you started turning over stones, finding the creatures that lurked underneath, they’d come for you. They’d come for me; they’d come for my daughter.”
I want to scream at her; to tell her how much it hurt coming home to that empty house, realizing that the only family I knew had disappeared.
But I’m too tired. And too nauseous.
“Why did he bring you here?” I ask quietly.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. His men showed up at my apartment yesterday. They told me I had a choice: Come work for Mr. Moretti, or—” she swallows. “Or face consequences for misappropriating funds meant for your care.”
I know what that means. As a kid, I’d always wondered how Liza had lived so extravagantly—new designer handbags and coatsevery season, a trip to someplace luxurious with Sissy (leaving me home with a sitter) every spring and winter. Not to mention that she’d paid for Sissy’s college straight out of pocket—she hadn’t had to take out a dime of student loans.
Liza wasn’t poor. But she sure as hell wasn’t rich. And now I know where the money came from.
“He’s punishing you,” I say.
“You’re damn right about that.”
“And you’re just going to accept it? Work here for him as a maid?”
“What choice do I have?” she lets out a bitter laugh. “The truth is, I’m goddamn lucky he’s letting me off the hook so easily for all but stealing from him. He owns me now. Just like he owns you.”
“He does not—” I stop. Because she’s not wrong. “It’s different.”
“Is it?” Liza studies me. “You’re wearing the uniform. You’re living in his house. You’re—” She pauses, something shifting in her expression, as if she’s on the verge of saying something she’s not sure she should. “You’re sleeping with him.”
It’s not a question. She knows.
Heat floods my face. “That’s none of your business.”
“Thea—”
“You don’t get to judge me,” I snap. “You left me. You don’t get to have an opinion on my life. And I’m not in the mood for any advice, if that’s what you’ve got in mind.”
“I’m not judging you. I’m worried about you.” She stands, taking a tentative step toward me. “Gabriel Moretti is a dangerous man. Whatever he’s told you, whatever promises he’s made…”
“He saved my life.”
“Did he? Or did he just put you up in a nice, pretty cage?”
“You do your work,” I say quietly. “You follow Oscar’s instructions. And stay out of my way. Understood?”