“Did she say what happened?”
Luckily no one was on the road at two in the morning on a Wednesday.
“Just that Rosa and Antonia had a big fight. Antonia was drinking and Franny didn’t want to wake her mom up to take her home.”
He gripped the steering wheel. “No more Mr. Nice Guy.”
“I agree.”
Luca stopped at a red light, no one was there, and he moved on.
“She’ll have to hire a lawyer.”
“I’ll find one for us tomorrow,” Brooke told him.
He turned onto the freeway and hit the gas.
Brooke placed a hand on his leg.
Luca glanced at her, saw the worry in her eyes. “I love you.”
Her hand squeezed and she looked at him. “I love you, too. She’s going to be fine. She’s just scared.”
Luca saw the speedometer hit ninety and eased up on the gas.
Brooke kept glancing at the phone as if willing it to ring.
It didn’t.
What normally would take them twenty-five minutes to drive, took them eighteen.
Luca skidded to a halt in front of Rosa’s house and jumped out of the car. He took the steps two at a time and didn’t bother knocking.
He opened the door, calling his daughter’s name. “Franny?”
Rosa’s home was a mess. A table knocked over, a lamp on the floor broken. Dishes everywhere.
“Franny?” He moved through the house, found Antonia across a bed sleeping. “Wake up!” he yelled.
He heard Brooke’s voice behind him. “What the hell happened? Franny?”
Antonia stirred.
She was drunk. “What are you doing here?”
“Where’s our daughter?”
“She’s sleeping.”
“Franny?” Brooke’s voice grew frantic.
Luca turned to see her put the phone to her ear.
He waited.
“It went to voice mail.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “She must have walked home.”
Brooke was back on the phone. “Friend Finder.”
Luca moved to her side and looked down as the app came into view.
A blip showed Franny one block away.
Because of the one-way street, they would have to go around, so instead they both started on foot.
“Franny?” Luca called as they got closer to the dot.
“Franny?” Brooke’s voice sang over his. She stopped, turned in a circle. “It says she’s right here.”
It was an empty street. All the establishments closed. Not even a stray dog wandering around.
Brooke ran to the other side of the street, looked around the parked cars. “Franny?”
Luca’s heart raced.
“Did the phone die right here?” he asked.
Brooke put it back up to her ear again.
They heard the ringtone from Franny’s phone.
Following the noise, they found her pink backpack forgotten on the side of a building.
Luca lost his shit.
Brooke rushed in front of Luca when he turned back toward Antonia’s house.
“Stop, stop.”
“I’m going to kill her.”
“Baby, stop. Think about Franny. Let’s go home. Maybe she ran and dropped this. If she’s not there, we have to call the police. C’mon, Luca, stay with me.”
Brooke had never been more scared in her life, but the look on Luca’s face was even worse.
Feral. He was serious about removing air from Antonia’s lungs and Brooke knew it.
She pulled him toward home. “Franny?” Brooke called again.
Hearing his daughter’s name snapped him out of the rage he was in.
He started to run.
“Franny?”
They hit the back door at a sprint, punched in the code to open it, and yelled all the way up the stairs.
Brooke started praying to anyone listening that Franny was in her bed.
Luca ran through the door first, his cry told Brooke she wasn’t there.
She heard footsteps running up the stairs.
“What the hell is going on?” Giovanni yelled.
“Franny’s missing.”
Just hearing Luca say that made it start to set in and brought a deep cold into Brooke’s soul.
Brooke turned to Gio. “Get the police here before he does something stupid.”
Luca turned toward the wall, punched both hands into the plaster, leaving a mark.
Brooke went to him. “Come here, honey.” She wrapped her arms around him.
He resisted at first and then grabbed her tight.
Chloe and Mari both walked in. Brooke saw Gio tell them the news.
Mari screamed.
Gio was on the phone.
“Have you checked our apartment?” Chloe asked.
“No.” The answer was met with all of them rushing down a flight of stairs and calling Franny’s name as they searched all the rooms.
“I’ll check the restaurant,” Chloe said, breaking away from them.
Gio continued to talk to the 911 operator as they searched.
“Franny!” Luca cried in desperation.
That’s when they heard it.
A tiny voice.
“Papa?”
They all turned to see Franny standing just outside, in the hall.
Luca rushed to his baby and was on his knees, gathering her in his arms. He spoke to her in Italian.
Brooke felt tears rolling down her face.
When Luca finally leaned back, he pushed Franny’s hair out of her eyes. “What happened?”
“I got scared. I know you said not to walk by myself but I . . . I’m sorry, Papa.”
“It’s okay.”
“I heard a noise and hid. I was going to call, but the noise was closer, so I ran.”
“You didn’t come to your room?” Brooke asked.
She shook her head. “I hid upstairs.”
“Why?”
“I thought Mama Antonia was going to come after me and take me away.”
“What do you mean?” Mari asked.
Chloe walked back in the room, her hand over her heart when she saw her niece.
Franny started crying again. “She said she was going to take me to Italy and I couldn’t say no. She got mad at Rosa. They were yelling and I don’t want to go to Italy, Papa. I want to stay here with you and Brooke, Nonna and Gio and Chloe.”
Brooke clenched her fists. How fast could a woman fuck up her kid?
Gio stood with the phone in his hand. “Do we want the police?”
She looked at him and decided for all of them. “Yes. Have them meet us at Rosa’s. We need some documentation of unfit parenting so this never happens again.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Two weeks later Brooke, Luca, and Franny stood outside San Diego International, not out of some desire to see a loved one off . . . but to make damn sure Antonia got on the plane.
And for Franny.
The night that took years off everyone’s lives hadn’t ended until nearly dawn.
A police report was taken, and Antonia knew at that point she wouldn’t be left alone with her daughter without a court order.
With the welcome mat at Rosa’s pulled up and left with little options . . . Antonia was going home to her parents.
Alone.
Well . . . almost.
The story was she’d been in a relationship with a wealthy man above Napa, he’d set her up in an apartment, and from the sound of it, at least to Brooke’s ears, the man was either married, or had no intention of making Antonia anything more in his life. And then she became pregnant.