Page 34 of Desolation
“So what now? I can’t stay out of things anymore. Everything that’s happened has taken me farther away from where I was supposed to be going. There’s no way I can just be a lawyer now.”
“Which is why we are being so open with you now. As of this moment you are now my third. You will be Anthony’s second when I retire. That is, if you want to. Though you are still going to finish school,” my dad says, looking at me solemnly.
I know this isn’t what he wanted for me. But sometimes we don’t always get what we want. I knew in the beginning that I would do anything for Elodie. Nothing has changed. Now I just have the means to protect her at all costs. More than I already did.
She looks at me, brows drawn together. I know she’s worried, I told her I wasn’t in this life, but let’s face it, at the end of the day, there was never going to be another way for me to protect her and stay out of it.
Zeke and Eren walk in. I am so relieved to see them. I tried to call them to be sure they got away safely. Zeke says, “We dumped the car and then got debriefed by Gio. Dominic is furious that Elodie never made it to her appointments and we are now missing as well as her.”
I see Elodie wince.
“We took the car to an underground lot and left it. Wiped everything. It will be days or even weeks before they find it unless it has a tracker, which is highly likely. He of course has a hit out forthe both of us,” Eren says. “Elodie is to be brought in unharmed. But that’s only because he said he wants to deal with her himself.”
This is nothing we didn’t already know. There was supposed to be another guard with them. He is in the trunk of that car. Though Elodie doesn’t know that. The three of them wouldn’t have been able to get away as quietly as they did if they hadn’t killed him.
So the chase is on.
“Things are only going to get worse from here on out,” Dad says. “Elodie, you will have guards at all times, as will all of us. No one needs to do anything routine. Make your schedules as erratic as you can. Drake I know you have school and work but you’ll take the armored car both places just to be safe.”
I nod. I figured all of this was coming anyway.
“Eren and Zeke, you’re on Elodie at all times, unless she’s with me,” I say.
They nod and then leave the room. Elodie looks terrified. I can’t blame her. Everything just came to a head pretty fast. She went from worrying if her parents were going to beat her any given day to suddenly becoming a mafia wife by force. Now her life is truly in danger and a war is about to happen.
“Evan called. He has your divorce papers and the protection order ready to sign. We can get the ball rolling on that, though if I have my way about it you won’t need to get a divorce,” my dad growls.
Same, Dad. Same, I think to myself.
I help Elodie stand and my dad says he will let us know if anything changes. In the meantime, he and Anthony are going to come up with a plan for shutting down the warehouse.
CHAPTER 28
ELODIE
Drake and I head back to my room. I know he has to go to school and work today so I decide that I’m going to get my camera out and develop the last pictures I took before all of this happened.
He drops me at my room and kisses me goodbye before he heads out leaving Zeke and Eren outside my door. I grab my camera bag from the closet. I can’t believe it’s been a year now since I haveeven held a camera in my hands. I get a little emotional as I pull it out. At one point in my life this was all I had to look forward to.
The feeling of joy I get inside my chest when I have my camera in my hands again makes my heart swell. This is the thing that has always made me happiest.
Even though so much bad has happened in the last year, I think about the good things I have now too. Drake, his father and brother, Reba, Gwen and Evan. I have a real home now. Not one filled with hatred and drugs, loneliness, and terror. Yes, it’s a house full of criminals, but they are good people at heart and that’s what matters.
I always knew my life would never be any kind of normal. My parents would’ve never let that happen. Maybe if I had gotten away and actually went to NYU like I was supposed to. But I can’t think about any of that now, it didn’t happen and this is my life now. I know Drake will try to keep it as normal as he can. Tonight, he and I are going to have a talk about how he feels about these new changes. This isn’t what he wanted for his life and now because of me, he has to be a part of it in a direct way. He’s made a lot of sacrifices and helped me so much.
After gathering my things, I head down the hall to the darkroom, Zeke and Eren following quietly behind me. When we get to the door I turn, giving each of them a hug and I say, “Thank you, thank you for helping me get away. I will never forget what you did for me.”
Eren blushes and just nods his head. Zeke clears his throat and says, “No way we were leaving there without helping you get away. You don’t need to thank us. We were just doing our job and protecting the boss’ lady.”
I smile and open the door to the darkroom, entering and then closing the door tightly behind me. I head over to the computer to pull the photos off the card so I can make my negatives. Random pictures of the neighborhood showing the desolation that is living in the slums. A picture of my mother’s hand holding a liquor bottle hanging off the side of the chair while she was passed out. A few pictures of things and people at the park.
Then I came across some pictures that I took during the few days I was here before going to turn myself in to Dominic. Drake, standing on the balcony, overlooking the city, face turned to the sky soaking in the sun. Drake, laughing with his brother at the table while we were eating dinner. Drake, smirking at me from across the room. Gio standing against the wall looking every bit the mafia boss that he is, Anthony looking on with a small smile on his face.
The love in this house is bigger than anything I have seen in my life. And to think, it’s the home of a mafia family. It’s such a contradiction. Of all the photos on that camera that I could develop, those are the ones I pick. I’m going to frame these and present these pictures to them.
Humming to myself, I get to work. Moving the negatives to digital printing paper is fairly easy with this equipment. Drake really went all out picking the good stuff. I choose the roll instead of the sheets. I want to make these bigger than the standard size.
After printing, I hang them and turn on the drying fan to let them set for a bit before developing them. While those are drying, I pull out the trays to start setting them up. Once I get the developer, stop bath, and fixer baths ready, I shut off the main light and switch to the safe light which also turns on the red light outside of thedoor so that everyone knows not to enter so the pictures aren’t ruined by the regular light.