“Andy,” I gasp. “Um, hi.”
“Hello, Nina.”
That’s when I see the three piles laid out in front of him. The passport, the driver’s license, and the stack of cash.
Oh no.
“So what were you planning to do with this…” He looks down and reads off the name on the driver’s license. “Tracy Eaton.”
I feel like I’m choking. My legs tremble beneath me and I have to hold onto the wall to keep from collapsing. “How did you get that?”
Andy rises from his seat. “Haven’t you figured out yet that you can’t keep any secrets from me?”
I take a step back. “Andy…”
“Nina,” he says. “It’s time to go upstairs.”
No. I’m not going. I’m not breaking my promise to my daughter that I would pick her up today. I’m not allowing myself to be locked up there for days when I thought I would be on my way to freedom soon. I won’t. I can’t do this anymore.
Before Andy can come any closer, I dash out the front door and back into my car. I speed out of the driveway so fast I nearly bash into the gate on the way out.
I have no idea where I’m going. Part of me wants to go straight to Cecelia’s school and grab her. Then just start driving until I hit the Canadian border. But it’s going to be hard to evade him without that passport or driver’s license. I’m sure he’s calling the police right now and feeding them a story about how his crazy wife is having a relapse.
There’s only one positive in this situation. He only found one of the two safety deposit boxes. The two separate boxes were Enzo’s idea. He found the one with the passport and the driver’s license. But there’s still a second stack of cash he doesn’t know about.
I keep driving until I get to Enzo’s neighborhood. I park two blocks away from his apartment and then I walk the rest of the way. He’s just climbing into his truck when I sprint over to him. “Enzo!”
He jerks his head up at the sound of my voice. His face drops when he sees the look on mine. “What happened?”
“He found one of the safe deposit boxes.” I pause to catch my breath. “It… it’s over. I can’t leave.”
My face crumbles. Before I started talking to Enzo, I had accepted that this would be my life. At least until Cecelia turned eighteen. But now I don’t think I can do it. I can’t live like this. I can’t.
“Nina…”
“What am I going to do?” I whimper.
He holds out his arms and I fall into them. We should be more careful. Somebody could see us. What if Andy thought I was having an affair with Enzo?
We are not having an affair, by the way. Not even a little bit. He thinks of me like Antonia—his sister he couldn’t save. He hasn’t touched me in a way that is anything other than brotherly. It’s the absolute last thing either of us is thinking about. Right now, all I can think of is the future I thought I might have had being flushed down the toilet. Another decade living with that monster.
“What am I going to do?” I say again.
“Is simple,” he says. “We go to plan B.”
I lift my tear-streaked face. “What’s Plan B?”
“I kill the bastard.”
I shiver because I can see in his dark eyes that he means it. “Enzo…”
“I will do it.” He pulls away from me and his jaw is rigid. “He deserves to die. This is not right. I’ll do for you what I should have done for Antonia.”
“And we both go to jail?”
“You won’t go to jail.”
I smack him in the arm. “I’m not okay with you going to jail either.”
“So then what do you suggest?”
And then the idea hits me. It’s so beautifully simple. And even though I hate Andy, I know him very well. This will work.
FORTY-NINE
Step Eight: Find a Replacement
I can’t pick just anyone.
First of all, she has to be beautiful. More beautiful than I am, which shouldn’t be hard since I’ve deliberately let myself go the last few years. She has to be younger than me—young enough to give Andy the children he so badly wants. She has to look good in white. He loves that color.
And most of all, she has to be desperate.
Then I meet Wilhelmina Calloway. She’s everything I wanted. The dowdy clothing she wears to her interview can’t conceal how young and pretty she is. She’s desperate to please me. And then when the simple background check I run reveals a criminal record, I know I’ve hit paydirt. This is a girl who will be desperate for a decent, high-paying job.