like my soul had always been part of his. “I see the same look in their eyes that I have.”
His finger tightened on mine. “And what look is that?”
“Like…like they don’t want to go home,” I whispered.
His eyes stayed on me, analyzing the words I was saying. It was the truth. He’d told me not to lie to him, and I hadn’t. I didn’t want to go home, I never did. The only reason that I walked back in that door so many times was to make sure my mom and dad were still alive.
Mateo slowly nodded, his eyes shuttering with each of his movements. He was pulling himself back, erecting the walls that kept him safe. I knew all about those walls, so when he unhooked his finger from mine and stepped back, I knew that was all he was going to give me right then.
A person who didn’t recognize the pain would have pushed him for more, would have asked why he wasn’t saying anything. But I didn’t. I just stared at him, knowing that the unsaid wasn’t spoken for a reason.
He took another step back, his gaze not moving from mine until he pulled a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, cutting me off completely. I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t feel the loss, but I understood it. More than he would ever know.
“I’ll see you around, Luna.”
“Okay.” I readied my body to turn away from him, but at the last second added, “If you ever need anything…” I trailed off, knowing that he would understand what I meant. He didn’t acknowledge my words or move his body, but I knew he’d heard me.
So I turned, feeling his gaze on me the whole way down the pathway as I headed to my first class of the day. I halted in front of the building, glancing over my shoulder seeing him standing in the same position, his head turned my way. I blinked, pulled in a breath, and tried to forget the way he made my skin burn when he looked at me.
I wasn’t sure what he was: a danger, or a glimpse of light in my darkness. Either way, I didn’t have time for people like him. I had a plan, one that would get me out of the life I’d always been stuck in. As I opened the building door, I solidified that fact and pushed everything else out of my mind. I was here for a reason, I just needed to remember that.
MATEO
I hadn’t spent enough time at home lately, not since I’d been made a captain. The perks of captain were what we needed as a family, and I was already working on buying our own place, but it’d be at least a couple of weeks until the paperwork could be signed.
In the meantime, I was traveling from the apartment to the mansion and working longer hours. I was doing all of this for the kids, that was what I kept telling myself, but to them, all they wanted was me at home as a buffer between them and our mom.
Guilt choked at me as I walked into the apartment after another fifteen-hour day. I made sure I was here every morning to take them to school, but after school was a different story. Each time I sent a new babysitter to the apartment, Mom would kick them out within minutes. Riccardo had told me that she’d do the same to him and Chiara not long after, leaving them with no place to go but outside in the apartment block. I hadn’t known until I’d come home last night and they’d been outside alone in the dark.
Fuck. Something had to change. Fast. I couldn’t let them keep being treated like this.
Mom was an alcoholic; had been since before I could remember. The bottle came first. Always.
Every fiber in my being wanted to abandon her, but there was still that niggling feeling at the back of my brain. I couldn’t listen to that any longer though. I had to do what was best for Riccardo and Chiara, even if that meant leaving the woman who had birthed us behind.
I puffed out a breath and stared at the TV. It was only 10 p.m.—I’d made it home earlier than usual—and everyone was already in bed. I’d even managed to put my mom to bed, although I had a little help from the bottle of vodka she’d been drinking all day. And now I