Kenny always says that I'm girlfriend goals for Scott, because we never argue. Well we were about to debunk that myth on the side walk of a busy New York road.
"I have to go," I said, making my way to the door of the bakery.
Conflicting thoughts went through my head. I knew, with absolute certainty, that the door to me coming back to New York or having any sort of life outside of being Luca's wife would close when I got on that plane. But what choice did I have now that I'd exposed Scott's existence to the entire mafia?
"Stacy, wait," I heard Scott call out to me.
I couldn't see his face, but I was so caught up in my own feelings that it wouldn't have mattered what he looked like anyway. Behind the fear and the paranoia, I was just exhausted. Trying to run from being Don Angelo's daughter had drained me.
Something in me snapped and I exclaimed, "You're not going to change my mind. This wedding is happening."
Even as I said the words, briskly walking to keep Scott from catching up with me, a part of me hated the idea of him not chasing after me. When he caught up to me, I felt a short-lived sense of relief. That is until he spoke.
"If that's really what you want, then go right ahead. Let your dad manipulate you for the rest of your life," he said with venom in his voice.
I stopped on the corner of the street, a fresh face passing me by every second. Just taking in the city that had become my home while I summoned every scrap of courage I could.
"Everytime I go back, I go back for you. Because I know if I don't go back, he'll come out here and find you next to me. And it doesn't matter if you don't think we're important, Mr. I don't feel anything for anyone, because he will," I said, revealing a painful fear that I had been holding on to for years.
"Don't stand there and use me as your scapegoat. You go back everytime he calls you because you're terrified of letting go. Of declaring a damn major. You say you want your own life, but you won't risk shit to make it happen."
These were the last words Scott said to me before he walked away. After that I got onto the subway and I've been sitting here since. Replaying our conversation in my head.
How had I never seen Scott angry before today? Was this what rejection felt like? Was he right about me not standing up to daddy?
When the first call came, I didn't even check who was calling. I just turned my phone off. Now that all the theatrics were over, and I had let go of everything and everyone, I was just numb. Not even the comfort of ugly crying would come.
After hours of riding the train, I got off and made my way to my old sorority.
"Are you lost?" a nineteen year old pledge asked me when she saw me standing in the exact spot where I first wanted Scott Brady to kiss me.
Daddy always taught me that everything had a price. My first week in New York, I learned that he was wrong. Scott's friendship didn't come with a price. He'd never want me giving up on myself for him. He'd never want me giving up, period.
"I was, for a long time. Better late than never right?" I said to the confused pledge with a smile. "Go Kappa Kappa Gamma!"
Within ten minutes, I had made my way to the admissions office. I walked out an hour later, having declared my major.
"I did it," I screamed, jumping into the air and punching it too. "I fucking did it. I declared a major. Take that, Don Angelo."
Students all around me gave me strange looks. Some laughed, some shook their heads, but I didn't care. This was a big moment for me and I wanted the whole world to know.
No sooner had I turned my phone back on than I got another phone call. The caller was my half brother, Joey.
"Hello Joey," I said, unwilling to have my raised spirits dashed.
"It's Joseph," he snapped. "Don Angelo is furious," said Joey, stating the obvious. "He wants you on the first flight out."
"Just call him dad like a normal person, Joey," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Joseph," he hissed again.
"I'll come home when I'm good and ready. Until then, tell daddy I hope he's proud. His little girl just declared a major. I'm going to business school," I said, with a happy squeal.
"Don Angelo is going to feed your boyfriend to the fishes if Luca doesn't do it first," said Joey.
I could hear the smirk in his voice, but I wasn't going to waver. It was time to look past the fear in the pit of my stomach and push back.
"Believe it or not, I didn't come here for a boy. I came to make a life for myself and dammit, that's what I'm going to do. If daddy has a problem with that, he knows where to find me. Otherwise I'm done playing Don Angelo says. I'm a grown ass woman. I don't take orders anymore," I said, hanging up the phone.
Surprisingly all the missed calls were from home. None were from Scott, the one person I wanted to see right now. That stung.
I went home and watched the seconds tick by for hours until my flight had officially departed.
"Daddy's going to kill me," I panicked, exactly one minute after the departure time. "This is crazy. I'm crazy."
I had gone back to being afraid of my phone. If it rang and this time it was daddy, I didn't know for sure that I wouldn't be on the next flight to Chicago. It not ringing also meant that Scott wasn't calling though. Neither of these options being acceptable, I turned off my phone again to preserve my sanity.
That did nothing to stop me from getting into a cab in the dead of the night and giving the cab driver Scott's address.
"What the fuck am I going to say?" I said to no one in particular.
Everything that had gone down between Scott and I just that morning had me forcing the cab driver to drive round and round his block for a good half an hour before the man finally said, "You do have cash, right?"
That was my cue to get out. I spent the elevator ride pacing up and down, wringing my hands.
"So, I declared a major. Yay. About the whole mafia thing, I was totally just kidding. Not getting married either. Psych," I said, doing hand guns with my fingers, before flattening my body against the wall. "Nope, he won't buy that. Can't say that."
I sighed, feeling completely deflated. By the time I was standing in front of Scott's apartment, I had gone through a million scenarios for how our conversation would play out. My hands were shaking as I made a fist to knock.
Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. When the door finally opened, it revealed a young brunette. For a second, I thought I was at the wrong apartment.
"3B?" I asked.
"Yes, who is asking?" she asked.
She was beautiful. Couldn't have been older than nineteen. After pretending to size me up for a few moments, recognition crossed her face.
"Nevermind," I said hurriedly, turning around to leave.
"Kidding. You're Stacy, of course I know that," she said, reaching out to touch my shoulder. "Saw you on the news this morning."
"That was—"
"Scott's being a little bitch, if you ask me. Team Stacy all the way. Come on in," she said, taking my hand and pulling me into the apartment.
I looked around the apartment like I'd never been there before. Everything was the same and yet somehow different.
"Coming here was a bad idea," I muttered under my breath, as we entered the living room.
"He's been brooding in his dark room for ages now. Don't worry though. I'll have him out in two shakes," she said with a wink.
"I wouldn't intrude on his dark room time. It makes him grumpy. Also, who are you?" I turned around and asked, but she was already gone.
How had I made it all the way up to his apartment, thinking things would be just like they always were? Everything was different now, wasn't it? I sat down slowly, my eyes drifting to all the ways to exit this room. That moment when he turned his back on me and walked away hit me hard and suddenly I couldn't breathe.
The presence of some random girl in his apartment didn't help.
No, I hadn't stayed in New York for Scott Brady. So why did the idea of him not wanting me hurt so badly?
Earlier that day… "I think you're being a little bitch," said Willow, sipping on her smoothie. "You've said that already. Thanks for siding with your brother by the way," I said, nudging her gently. Not two hours after walking away from Stacy, I picked Willow up at the airport. She was here for the weekend, checking out NYU to see if she might want to go here next year and I was showing her around. Seeing Stacy upset had caused me physical pain, a tightening in my chest, but I needed to get away from her. It felt like there was nothing else to say. She was going to do what she was going to do. That was probably the anger talking, but I didn't want to hurt her by saying something I couldn’t take back. So I left. Now the whole thing was haunting me. "You didn't let me finish. You're being a little bitch and I think it's great. Fantastic in fact," Willow continued, as we walked the same paths I used to walk with Stacy. "I went on live television and declared how well I know her. Wel
"I'm home. Where's the new girl?" Kenny called out, the distinct rattle of his keys being set down on the counter reaching me in the living room. He walked into the room at the same time as Scott and the brunette. My insides turned and twisted in on itself when I saw Scott. We awkwardly looked away at the same time. "Stace? But you're supposed to be—" Kenny cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Nevermind her, we're going anywhere that's not here," said the brunette, grabbing her coat off the couch and forcing Kenny to backtrack. "We'll pick the one when I get back?" she said, looking back at me with a smile, sounding excited.It had taken me all this time to place her voice, having only ever heard it over Zoom calls. I took a step forward and looked her in the eye for the first time since getting here. "Willow Brady?" I exclaimed, covering up my surprise with a quick smile. "Yes, of course. I may have found you something even better than what we talked about."So this was the
"So what exactly do you do for the mafia that has your dad calling you back every couple of months?" Stacy scrunched up her face, hesitating. By now she had detailed her father's entire operation. What was one more thing? I knew more details than I was comfortable with knowing. Was knowing this shit safe? Sleep would not come easily tonight. This was the last question I got to ask Stacy before Kenny and Willow walked through the door at one in the morning. "Parrrr-ttttyyy," they howled together, stumbling through the door. "Willow Eleanor Brady, are you drunk?" I asked, getting up from my seat at the island to follow her into the living room. "I guess that's my cue to leave," Stacy mumbled behind me, taking the opportunity to get up too and duck her head. "Full naming me, I see cool bro mode is not active," said Willow, dragging Kenny's inebriated body to the couch and dumping him onto it."I'll see you both tomorrow," said Stacy, her eyes pleading for me not to ask my question a
"Boys are stupid," I said to no one in particular, as I entered my apartment. I couldn't really blame Scott for freaking out after everything I laid at his feet last night. Still, it would have been nice if Willow didn't find out like that. My past brought me no joy. In fact, I was ashamed of it. Now that it was all out there, I felt like Scott was judging me. How did he expect me to tell him my most personal shame? Aren't we all entitled to some secrets? As I went from the kitchen to the living room turning on the lights in the apartment, something immediately struck me. My study's door was open. I know I closed it before I went shopping with Willow this morning. The cushions on my couch were all at different angles. Passing the coffee table with quiet careful steps, I made my way over to the corner of the room where my bookshelf was located. I slid my fingers along the books until I found the one I wanted, pulled it out, opened it up and took my gun out of the hollowed out Physics
I watched her frame rise as she took a deep breath. I had turned the flash of my camera off after some nasty looks over her shoulder, but she was still painfully aware of me. How could she not be? It was a Sunday and this was a library. The place was a ghost town.Of course, I knew she would break any minute now, even if I was sitting a few chairs away from her. In the meantime, I wasn't complaining. It had been some time since I had last gotten a picture of her.She was sitting at a desk filled with textbooks, pulling her hair into a bun and piercing it with a pencil, before opening the book in front of her. It was her little ritual before she started studying. "Three, two, one," I counted her down. No sooner had I finished when she turned to me, her cheeks tinted a light pink, and whisper yelled, "Stop that. You're annoying me.""Permission to approach?" I asked.Not waiting for an answer, I jumped up and went to her. To piss her off just a little more, I took another snap, this ti
"You sure this is the place?" I asked, clocking the unmarked black van across the street. "Joey's not smart enough to bluff. He is ambitious though and he hates my guts. There's not much he wouldn't do to take me out of play as daddy's future heir. I'm not sure what we're walking into," said Stacy from next to me as we stood at the entrance of Hotel Topaz. "Yeah, I'm out," said Kenny on the other side of me, turning to walk away. I grabbed him by his suit jacket and pulled him back to the spot next to me."Sorry," said Kenny, fixing his collar before attempting to turn and make a run for it again. Just as he turned, he bumped into a man dressed in overalls, presumably some sort of service delivery man. This sent Kenny stumbling back, smack into me. "Sorry again," he said. "Look, I know this is scary. I'm terrified, but Willow is my sister and I don't really have much of a choice. If either of you wants out, I'll understand," I said, taking the invite Joey had given Kenny for us o
She grabbed my hand and we linked our fingers in each other's, her squeezing my hand hard as I led us to the elevator. Once we were in the elevator, we watched the manager unlock a little compartment below the button panel. It was a special button with a b for basement on it. The manager pushed the button while the rest of us anxiously waited for the elevator to move. When the elevator doors opened again, I asked the manager, "Where's the bathroom?" Following his directions, I pulled Stacy along behind me. "I guess I'll just go and mingle," Ken called after us. "Go team."By the time we got to the bathroom, Stacy was pale. I could feel her trembling next to me as her hand shook in mine. First, I locked the door behind us. Then, I let go of her hand and checked all the stalls to make sure they were empty. Finally, I went back to her and stopped her pacing by laying my hands on her shoulders and bringing her to a halt in front of the mirror. "I'm sorry, I can't do this. Scott, don'
Scott and I had what felt like less than thirty seconds to meet up with Kenny, who had found Willow throwing up in the bathroom, before we were discovered. "Stay with Willow. Lay low. Find a different way out of here and then text it to me and whatever you do, don't come up to us until the time is right," Scott had said to Kenny. "Incoming," I said, spotting Don Marcus and Luca at a poker table not too far away. Both of them here threw me for a loop. One was bad enough as it is, but both of them? It was an uncommon and unfortunate occurrence. They had spotted us too. Luca and I made eye contact as he whispered to the two big hulks now headed our way. "How will I know when the time is right?" asked a nervous Kenny. "Trust me, you'll know. Now go," said Scott, seamlessly turning away from Kenny just as Luca's men approached us. "Don Marcus wants to talk," said one of the big guys, hands behind his back. "Lead the way," said Scott, his voice almost chipper. If his heart
That last part was such a her thing to say. Was that really what she thought? It would explain how I apparently caught her off guard. "Please, for the love of God, let me sleep and shower first. There are dark circles under my eyes. And my make up—" What the fuck was she talking about? She was fucking flawless. Perfect in all her imperfections. "Shut up. I won the bet about Kenny and Marlene," I said, laying the phone down on the ground and starting the five minute timer. "So now Scott says shut up. You've said more than enough in the last few hours. Now just listen." She clasped her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth nervously, her eyes dropping to the timer. Words failed me. I had a whole speech and everything. Even if I didn't, I was me. I always knew what to say, except right that second I was tongue tied. "That photo's taunting me," I said, spitting out the thought in my he
By this point, she had me watching her from behind a lens. Flashes of the thousands of times she had me taking her photo went through my mind. Watching her was my favorite thing to do until she started letting me touch her. I loved every last one of them. Studied the thousands of photos frequently, especially this past week, like some junkie trying to get a fix. The sweet ones where she looked like an angel. The dirty ones where she looked like the perfect whore. The goofy ones that I made sure I was a part of. The everyday ones where she had a pencil in her hair while she read or picked something out at the grocery store. Every last photo I took of her and every memory attached to it flooded my brain. "Fucking stunning every time," I said, trying to calm my raging heart as the sun began to rise, the silhouette of her before it. Slightly trembling fingers took several photos, as the excitement of holding a camera surg
"Can't we do this another time? Surises come along every day and it's been such a long night," Stacy moped. Not this sunrise. Not this moment I wanted to give her. It was all she could do to hold onto the tripod towards the end, so I let her get on my back and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way up my mountain. "You knew this was coming. I warned you I'd be making you miserable by bringing you out here before the crack of dawn while we were in Fiji. Sacrifices have to be made to please your future husband, Stace," I said, enjoying the feel of her body pressed up against my back. The morning was chilly, contrasting with her body heat. Or was I sweating? Maybe she was right and this just wasn't our moment. It would come once though. The sunrise of our one year anniversary. I had this picture of how it was going to go down in my head and I just wasn't ready to give it up. "On our anniversary? We just spent two ho
"Is the world's greatest commitment phobe still proposing today after this shit storm?" Kenny asked me as I watched Stacy sit across from Jeff to read through her immunity deal. "You just get the champagne ready. Be on standby, Ken. Call in sick. You'll get the call soon," I said, sharing an excited smile with him before I opened the door to Jeff's office to sit down next to Stacy. "You can have your lawyer look it over before you sign. Take your time," said Jeff, waiting patiently on her. "She's her own lawyer. She's like two classes away from being one?" I boasted as I watched her brilliant mind go to work while she read. "Three," she corrected me, eyes still darting over the words on the page. "Besides, we trust you. Don't we, Scott?" That's what she said, but she carried on combing the document. In about two minutes, she'd have tons of questions for him. "Yes, we do," I said to my fath
"I will never let anyone hurt him, Ken. On my life, I will always keep him safe," she professed one more time. "I know you will, Stace. For the record, you were always my favorite best friend," he said, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as he started sobbing. "Same Ken," she said, returning his embrace readily, rubbing his back. Eyes still on me, she stuck her tongue out at me, making me chuckle as I got up to join them. "Un-fucking-believable. What am I, chopped liver?" I said, watching Kenny pull back as I shot him a nasty look. "You're okay. Tolerable. Second best. I keep you around because of her," he said, wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves. "I can't believe you fucking told her you were proposing. What the fuck is wrong with you? How will you survive marriage?" His stupid remark had us chuckling between the three of us. We all wrapped an arm around the other an
There was that promise of forever she said I couldn't have until I asked her to marry me. It was as good as a yes to my proposal. My heart was doing flip flops in my chest. I knew it was for their benefit, maybe even just because she was nervous about talking to them instead of me, but her words were aimed directly at me. Sweeping me right off my feet. Claiming every bit of me as hers. Allowing me to let go of the tiny part of me that wondered if she really could have killed me in those woods. It wasn't just luck or the words I said to her that made her want to save me. I was happy if I gave her the strength to do what she needed to do, but I firmly believed she would have gotten there anyway. She had been doing it for eight years. From the moment we met, she had been protecting me. Even when she pushed me away. She chose me for eight years. Came back again and again, no matter how many times Don Angelo called her home, to make me fall dee
He pulled out a chair for himself, then one for me, urging me to sit next to him. With a resigned sigh, I sat down two chairs away from Kenny, as close to Stacy as I could. I gave Willow and my mom a pleading look so they would follow suite across the table. Stacy took her seat and folded her hands in front of her. Folding her hands was her tell for when she was nervous. They all looked away uncomfortably. No anger. No malice. Just sadness and fear. It was all I could do to stay seated. Not grab Stacy's hand and storm out. She asked me to let her do this though. All I could do was sit back and watch helplessly. "Marlene, you're right. We should have reached out and talked to you all about what happened. It sucked that she was the only one of you to come by and ask us what happened though. Instead of going off the news and wherever else you got your information from. Still, I'm sorry we didn't reach out either. We were trying to figure things out betwe
"No, you're not leaving," said Marlene, grabbing Kenny's arms and turning him towards Stacy and I. "Your best friends are getting engaged today. You've been brooding about this whole situation for over a week and I'm sick of it. Deal with your shit, Kenny," said Marlene, her arms folded and chin jutted out. Go Marlene. Marriage looked good on her. She surprised me more and more all the time. "Does everyone know I'm proposing today?" I asked, focusing on the wrong thing entirely. It got my nervous, half asleep girlfriend to smile though. I'd take that. "You weren't exactly trying very hard to hide it," said Stacy, momentarily caught up in my eyes. I wished I could have her look like that for the rest of the day. A light blush tainted her cheeks and her smile was enough to bring armies to their knees. The way she looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people alive. As much as I appreciated wha
"Soooo… Do you think there's more?" he asked in his most innocent voice. "I'll kill you if you try and find out today," I said, equally as breathless and sweaty as him. It took me a moment to realize I just threatened him without flinching or apologizing. I forced myself to let it go and enjoy the afterglow of the best sex of my life. The heat and sweat coming off our bodies should have been enough to get me off him, but it wasn't. Despite my threat to get off him, his arms wrapped around me gently. "No promises. I love you," he said, completely at ease as he started stroking my hair. "I expect to be told about all future… Locations and phrases." "I love you too. That's no fun. I'm not doing that," I said, out right refusing his request. "Is that right? We'll see," he said cheekily, kissing my temple. "Let me take you to lunch. I want you to enjoy your first day of freedom."