Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
I turned it off and climbed off her and got into a pair of boxers. She stayed still. I gave her a minute and then asked, “Do you think your mother was depressed before she died?”
“Yeah,” she said softly.
“Long before or for just a little bit.”
“Long, I think.”
“Do you remember my father taking you out of your apartment?” I asked her.
She was quiet for a minute. This was key.
“I do,” she said eventually, climbing up onto her knees and then she twisted and planted herself down beside me and re-fastened her bra and then reached for her t-shirt.
I passed her a bottle of water from the nightstand and she took it with trembling hands.
“I knew he was familiar,” she said, pointedly. “I knew when I met him that he was familiar. But I couldn’t place it. Then when I found that picture I gave you, I knew he was really familiar beyond the picture but still didn’t know from where. When I heard that recording, when I heard it, I saw it playing like a movie in my head. I remember him putting me in his car and I was crying and crying and he tried to settle me down and told me he’d buy me a pony, build me a dollhouse, take me to Disney World. He said he’d give me anything I wanted. I wouldn’t stop crying for my Mom and finally after he drove around for a little while he took me back. Maybe I blocked it out. I don’t know. If it was just before she died maybe I blocked it out.”
I nodded. “Do you remember you and your mother being kidnapped or being with my father somewhere for a few days?”
“No, I only remember him taking me and driving me around in his car until he took me back.” She got this horror-stricken look on her face. “Tommy we’re not, oh my god, we’re not siblings, are we? Is your dad–”
“No,” I told her, “No way. You’ve got O’Connor’s eyes, no doubt about it; that man is your father.”
She was quiet for a few minutes, eyes looking active, like she was combing through details of her memories.
“I don’t know if my father killed your mother. I’m trying to find out. There’s shit to sort out about my own mother’s death, about your mother, your uncle, lots of shit.”
She sipped her water with her eyes on me.
“You heard my father’s best friend was your mother’s older brother. His daughter, your cousin, Bianca, she’s married to Nino, Nino who came to Vegas with us.”
She looked shocked.
“So, I grew up with your first cousin. She’s my age.”
Tia was flabbergasted, “I know no one from my mother’s side.”
“Your Uncle Joe, a man I called Uncle Joe all my life, he died in a car crash. Some say my father staged it over a business dispute. I’ve heard it over the years but never believed it.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Earl told me he flipped on our family and took you because he found out my father had his son Michael killed because Michael was about to expose him for being involved in a meth op. If that’s true, Pop kept it from me and Dare. Earl said he didn’t wanna hurt me but saw red and wanted back at my father. Castillo made promises, promised to deliver Pop to Earl for revenge down in Mexico and they chose you as the tool, knowing who your ma was.”
I reached for her water and she passed it to me. I took a swig and continued, “I hear that my pop may have killed your mother alone and I’d never believe it. Your father, zero credibility. But that you remember him taking you and that he picked you for me, and the other shit that’s unfolding,” I shook my head. “I have a lot to figure out.”
She blew a long breath out and put a palm over her forehead.
“You okay?” I reached for her. I half expected her to pull away, but she didn’t. She climbed onto my lap and put her head on my shoulder and her arms around the middle of my back.
“Don’t know. Are you?” she asked.
“If I have you, I will be,” I said.
She gave me a squeeze.
“Tell me about your family,” I said to him. “About your childhood, about your pop, about the business.”
I suddenly wanted everything on the table.
He leaned back against the headboard and let me settle against him, putting his chin on my head.
“My mother died of Cancer. I was just a little kid. Spent a lot of time by her bedside as she was dying, and she said a lot of fucked up shit. Shit a little kid shouldn’t hear. I think it went to her brain before she died. Pop was out running the business; it was around then that the business started to really flourish. He was raking in money hand over fist and my ma was in bed dying a slow and painful death. A few months later he married Dare, Tessa, and Luciana’s ma. The math didn’t jive so I figured out later that that she, Annette… had Dare before Ma died. They showed up and moved in just days after ma died; Dare was a toddler and she was pregnant with Tess. They divorced a couple years later but Pop kept all the kids. She lives in Italy. Comes by every year, but not much of a relationship. I get the impression that’s the way Pop wants it. Pop’s third wife died in a car crash. Maybe he killed her.”