Before Antonia left, she met Sofia’s eyes, just once. She was standing by the front door of Sofia’s apartment, and Rosa was going to walk her home, because it’s never safe for girls to be out alone after dark. Sofia smiled at her friend. And Antonia winked. Inside each of them, the blood of the other rushed.
And they knew they weren’t just fine.
They were immortal.
Julia wakes in her parents’ bed, alone. The sun is high and she wonders if it is a school holiday. When she cannot find Sofia or Saul in the apartment, Julia walks upstairs and knocks on the door to Nonna’s. She is not afraid.
* * *
—
At Antonia and Paolo’s insistence, Lina squeezes herself into a cab with them, Robbie, and baby Enzo, and together they ride to the Colicchio brownstone in Carroll Gardens.
Rosa is there, sitting on the couch, mending socks. Rosa can of course afford to just buy new socks, but she is nervous and unhappy today. It is not totally out of character for Sofia to leave without telling anyone and forget Julia entirely—Rosa, after all, is right upstairs. But there was something so solemn in Julia’s eyes this morning. And Saul has not come home. Rosa has not asked Joey for answers, but she knows what’s going on. And she has fed her granddaughter, mended seven socks, baked bread from her mother’s recipe, scrubbed the tile in the bathroom until it shines. Now Rosa looks up to see her family in her living room: Antonia, holding her baby; Robbie, who runs off to find Julia; Paolo, his eyes darting from Antonia to Rosa to Lina. And Lina. Standing in a cloud of fragrance: orange rind and deep must.
“Sorry for barging in.” It is Antonia. Her face is calm. She is a good mother, Rosa thinks. Little Antonia. “But something is wrong. Sofia and Saul are—well, we have to find them.” In her mind’s eye, she puts a hand to the wall that separates her bedroom from Sofia’s. I’m coming, she tells her. Antonia sets her jaw. She shifts Enzo from one shoulder to another. And then quiet Antonia raises her voice. “Uncle Joey!” Lina and Rosa and Paolo all drop their jaws in shock. There is no answer from the study. Antonia stomps her foot. She opens her mouth. She bellows: “UNCLE JOEY!”
Joey comes stumbling out from his study, straightening his shirt, blinking like a rat thrust into sunlight. “Is someone shouting?” he asks. And then he sees Antonia.
“Uncle Joey,” she asks him, quietly now, “where is Saul?”
Joey sighs. He looks at his family assembled in the living room—Rosa and Antonia and Paolo and Lina （Lina? When was the last time he saw her?）。 He can hear the sounds of Robbie and Julia and Frankie in Frankie’s bedroom. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry about Saul.”
Antonia has not taken her eyes off of him, has not relaxed her hands enough to let the blood return to her knuckles. Enzo sleeps against her shoulder. “Where is he?” she asks. And she asks like a command. She expects to be told.
“It’s complicated,” says Joey. “It’s so—it’s so complicated, Tonia, and I am so sorry. I never should have hired him. I take the blame for everything.” What Joey wants, what he always wants, is to spare his family any pain. To take charge, to solve the problem, to be the dumping ground for everyone else’s fear and anger for as long as it takes them to heal. He cannot believe he has found himself in this situation again: someone Joey loves is going to die. It is the only way Joey can protect his family. And it is Joey’s fault.
“Uncle Joey, there is no time for sorry,” says Antonia, urgency in the way she leans forward toward Joey as though she might take off. “We have to stop him, we have to help Sofia!”
“This is how we will help Sofia,” says Joey sadly. “This is how it works.”
Joey cannot know how tired Antonia is of being told how things work. So he is surprised when she flies at him, screaming. “There is no how it works! You decided! You decided how it works when my father died! You decided how it works when you hired Saul, when you promoted him, when you gave Sofia a job she loves more than her own—” And then Antonia stops, abruptly, because she can see that Julia and Robbie have crept up behind Joey and are hovering in the shadowed hallway, listening. Hearing everything. Learning how it works. Antonia controls herself with a great effort. “We are going to save Saul, and Sofia. We are going to fix this. You are going to tell us where he is. That will be how it works.”
Joey looks down at Antonia and feels a great surge of love. Antonia is so sure of herself he almost believes she can do it. All of his power will not prevent her from trying.