Finding Her

C H A P T E R - S E V E N T E E N

The Secret Is Out

V A L E R I U S ' S P O V :

My phone rings. I look up from my computer.

Nonna
Incoming call. . .

My eyebrows furrow together as I stare at my grandmother's contact name. She hasn't tried calling me in awhile.

I answer.

"Ciao, nonna?" I ask, thinking it might just be a butt dial.

"Valerius, il mio bambino!" My baby boy. Her sweet Italian accent rings through the phone.

"Is something wrong? Why are you calling?" I ask in Italian. It's odd to get a call from my papà's  mamma so out of the blue. She hates phones.

"No, crazy boy! I just got to your papà's house. All of us did. I want to call to see if you could take a break from all that damn work of yours! At least that's what your papà has told me is the reason you have not spoken to me in what feels like years!" Nonna's chides me in Italian.

My family doesn't live far, they mostly stay on the other side of Italy. I don't know why, I think it's just more relaxing over there.

I can practically feel her head shaking at me. The tone she uses suggests that she know I haven't been working which worries me.

"Qui? You aren't supposed to be here until November twenty-fifth."

"My grandson. It is November twenty-fifth." She laughs. Panic rises in my chest.

Have the days really gone by so quickly?

My thoughts follow to Ellie who is at school. I'd gone into work earlier but came home to finish so I could be there in time to pick her up. I didn't want to risk being late again.

What the hell am I supposed to do if my family decides to show up at my house? Something is bound to happen, I just don't know what yet.

"Right. I've just been caught up in work. The days must of gone by fast." I shake it off, hoping that she won't ask any deeper into the situation.

"Anyways, Valerius, I want to see you! I will come over later—"

"No!" I sputter a little too quickly. I curse myself mentally. I force myself to think of something on the spot, "I'm not home. I'm at work, the office. I probably won't be home tonight. I'll stop home within the next few days."

Please buy it. Please buy it. Please buy it.

There is a long agonizing pause. "Aright." I relax my body and my eyes shut loosely. "But seeing as though you've been working so much, something important must be going on. I expect you to explain yourself to us when you come so we can be in the loop."

My jaw ticks. Well fuck. I just dug my own grave.

Either I go see them and I'm forced to tell them about Ellie or I ignore them and they barge into my house and find out about Ellie the hard way.

"Absolutely." I grit through my teeth.

When the call ends I go straight to yell at my brothers for not warning me about this but I find over forty missed text messages. Idiots.