"Why did you do that?" I said, my voice barely a whisper.
"Because it's not an option. Our fathers are never the answer. You know that Stace," said Scott, stroking my hair in an attempt to soothe me.
"Then why is yours here?" I snapped.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that. It won't happen again. He's gone now. Your mom's here to answer some questions for Frankie. Want to come inside with me?" Scott asked.
He didn't know it, but he might as well have been asking for the whole world. Would one former FBI agent be enough to outsmart a Luciano?
The Luciano in question wasn't my father, I reasoned with myself. Don Angelo wouldn't concern himself with something as trivial as finding Jenny. Not when he had given her up like she was nothing. That was beneath him. Instead he'd milk the situation for all it was worth. The real question was, would I let him?
"This is going to work, right?" I asked meekly, begging for reassurance.
"Frankie may not look like much, but he's good at what he does, Stace. It's going to work. It has to," Scott said, tightening his arms around me.
We walked back to the diner hand in hand. When Scott opened the door, I caught a glimpse of my mom taking a photo of Jenny out of her purse.
"You okay?" Scott asked, watching me falter.
"It just sucks that if the situation was reversed and I was the one that was missing, she wouldn't have a photo of me to pull out of her purse," I said, a raw feeling attacking my senses. "You should be glad your dad cares enough to not want you with me."
I took a step forward, but he took my hand and pulled me back to him. Then he took his wallet out of his pocket.
"First of all, if you ever went missing, heaven forbid, I would be your photo in the wallet guy," he said, taking a photo out of his wallet to show me.
The edges were frayed as though from being handled constantly.
"Why do you still keep this in your wallet? You have hundreds of photos of me. Why this one? I look like shit," I complained, a younger version of me staring back at me.
"You know why," he said, snatching it back like he knew I was on the verge of tearing it to shreds. "It's from the night I met you. It's been with me ever since. I probably need something a little more recent, but this one's my favorite."
"I was barely eighteen, you pervert," I said, my heart warming to the gesture, a delicate, fragile calm washing over me.
"Eighteen's legal," he said with a teasing smirk. "I'm joking. Don't make it weird. I don't do anything creepy with it. I just like looking at you when you're not next to me. Sometimes I just need to see you."
"Right. Like the photo in your sock drawer?" I said with a grin.
"I don't use that anymore. Much," he said, biting his lip because I called him out.
"I hope not. Sounds like a wasted hard on," I said, feeling his arms slip around my waist.
"Second, if Jeff spent even a second paying attention, he'd know how special you are to me. If he doesn't want that for me, well he's shit out of luck, because he doesn't get a say," he said, wiping away a stray tear and kissing my cheek. "And third, I know family is important and I'm sorry I lost my shit when your mom showed up. If even after we get Jenny back, they still don't see just how awe inspiring you are, that'd be their loss. This goes without saying, but you can always have Willow and my mom. They like you better than me anyway."
The phone call between me and Don Angelo hung in the air between our bodies, like a sword waiting to split us apart. It wasn't just the Jenny situation. Don Angelo was never going to quit. Still, for the romantic that Scott was, I couldn't help suspending my doubts. Burying them deep in the back of my head.
When we got back to the booth, I took my place next to my mom.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Smith. I'll find you daughter," said Frankie, getting up to leave.
Scott was seeing Frankie off when my mom turned to me and said, "This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I came to you. Your brother came by the house a few nights ago. Said and did unspeakable things. Threatened to kill Jenny if she married Luca. He is a devil child. Psychopath. Do you really think Jenny's going to make it through the night if you don't call your father?"
The quiver in her voice was unmistakable, sending the doubts that Scott had just buried swirling through my mind once more. The pressure got to me and I said, "Do you know how controlling you sound right now? Just like daddy. You want nothing to do with me, except when it serves you. When you need him. Well fuck that, Collette."
With that, I rose from the booth and stormed off. I walked right out the door, leaving Scott behind, still talking to Frankie in front of the latter's car.
I just needed a second. Scott would understand. A few minutes later, I was sitting on the subway, trying to block out the ugly thoughts when my phone dinged with a message alert from a group chat.
Tessa: Are you coming to this thing tonight? We haven't seen you in ages.
Toni: The I Hate Scott Brady Club will be there. Saturdays are their meeting night now.
I cringed. Why Toni thought that would be a selling point, I had no idea.
Stacy: We're too old for frat parties. Go home and watch Netflix like normal people.
Tessa: Kyle will be there. Poor puppy's still hung up on you.
Toni: Who isn't? Except Scott, who finally hit that. Best friends, my ass.
Tessa: Even if you couldn't bag Scott, Kyle was a new low. He was a fucking bore. I don't get it. What did you see in the guy?
Toni: Duh. It's the soft curls. They look just like Scott's. Just like the one before him had Scott's dimples.
Tessa: And the one before him had soft, brown eyes.
Toni: LIKE SCOTT'S.
Tessa and Toni were old friends that graduated a few years ago. We barely saw each other anymore on account of their demanding jobs in cyber security and have since regressed into party friends. Over the years, I spent all our time together defending my boyfriend choices, swearing up and down they had nothing to do with Scott. I would suffer eternal torture before admitting anything to the contrary.
Stacy: You bitches are drunk and it's not even nine.
Tessa: She's too busy being dicklashed to see us, Toni.
Toni: Word is he fucks you all over campus. Didn't know you were such an exhibitionist. Where's that Stacy?
Tessa: Good girl gone bad. Probably boning Scott on the roof or in a public bathroom.
Stacy: Alright already. Enough. I'll drop by.
The stress of exams and constantly having Don Angelo in the back of my mind and now Jenny going missing all combined to overwhelm me. Even looking Scott in the eye r
ight now felt like too much. I needed to escape. One drink couldn't hurt, right?