Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
I was starting to sound a little bitter, even to myself, and I didn’t like that. I had never questioned my parents’ love for me. Now I couldn’t help but be flooded with doubts. I don’t know why I hadn’t realized this sooner. It was awful what realization could do.
Odin left, and we had three bags of books. He returned minutes later with a cappuccino and a cinnamon roll.
“Here you go. I assumed you might like cinnamon rolls,” he said.
“Did my dad tell you to choose me?” I asked. The question just blurted out of nowhere.
He stopped and looked at me with a frown. Did I sound like a fool?
“No one told me to choose you,” he said.
“So it wasn’t pre-planned?” I asked.
Odin looked at me, and I felt those eyes, but I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. I never could read people.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked, stirring my cappuccino. It looked good and the cinnamon roll smelled good.
“Sure,” he said.
“Do you think it’s possible for parents to not like their kids?” Do I really want the answers to this?
“Yes,” he said. “I think it’s possible for people not to like who they’re related to, but again, it’s not always their fault.”
This made me frown. “How so?”
“Look at the world around us. Sure, there are some shitty parents out there who raise absolute angels, and then there are angels who raise shitty kids.” He shrugged. “Do you expect parents to love the kid that goes out and kills someone?”
I wasn’t expecting that. “I guess not.” I frowned. “Do you think my dad hates me? Is that why he didn’t put up a fight when you chose me, and why he didn’t stop any of this from happening?”
“You dad didn’t have a choice, and I already knew I was going to choose you.”
This made me frown. “Why? My sisters are the prettiest.”
“You’re the one I wanted,” Odin said. “I was told you were the nicest person, and you made life easier for them.”
Now I was getting even more confused. “Them?”
“Are you aware of the trafficking your father is involved in?” Odin asked.
I stared at Odin. He was talking about business, a part of my father’s world I should not know, but I was aware of the power of being invisible.
“I know of it, but I shouldn’t,” I said.
Odin was my husband, and I couldn’t betray him, even if it meant I had to betray my parents.
****
Odin
The bookstore café was not the place to have this conversation. So, I got her drink and cinnamon roll to go, and got us out to the car. I should have known by now that Alba would do nothing but surprise me, which was exactly what she was doing right now. I expected lies, perhaps even a denial, yet she looked right back at me and told me the truth.
Neither of us said a word as we drove back to my apartment. I typed in the key code, the gate opened, and the moment my car was through, the gate closed.
I hadn’t intended to have this conversation with Alba, but something had changed within her. Her questions were different. I didn’t know what had gone through her mind, but I was prepared to get to the bottom of it.
Climbing out of the car, Alba was doing the same, and I went to the trunk of the car and grabbed her bags of books. We rode the elevator together then stepped into the main part of the house, and I took the books into the sitting room. I removed my leather jacket and turned to look at Alba, who stared right back at me.
“You’re aware of your father’s connections to the human trafficking. Men, women, girls?” I asked.
Alba licked her lips. “I’m aware of the Serra Mafia’s connection to it, and once I knew that, I learned of the women that served us, as well as some of the men. How do you know?”
“You helped some of them escape,” I said.
She looked at me but didn’t say a word.
“You helped them when no one else would, and you took the blame so none of them would be punished.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You can pretend all you want. I’m the one who got them to safety.”
This made her laugh, but when I just stared at her, the laughter stopped.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” she asked.
I reeled off four names and watched the recognition in her. “You started this at sixteen when you realized what was happening—four years ago—and you have tried to help so many people.”
Alba stepped toward me. “Are they okay?” she asked, finally breaking the act. “I … I got them as far as I could, but I know they tried to hunt them down.”
“They never found them.”
Four women, all of which were around the age of eighteen, and Alba, when she was no more than a teenager herself, risked everything to save them. The four women came from loving families who were trying to find them. Only, the cops had been paid off.