Chapter 4

A week before the East Coast Ice Trials, the training school cut hours for tapering.

Most of my teammates used the time to rest, but I still went to my part-time shifts like usual.

Wednesday afternoon, I saw Dante's car parked outside the place where I worked.

"Valentina. Come here."

I kept working and ignored him.

"I'm talking to you." He frowned and walked over.

He reached for my arm, saw the dirt on my hands, and pulled his fingers back before touching me.

"Go wash up and come with us."

"Where?"

"The safehouse up the mountain. Bianca wants a few days away from everything. You're coming with us."

I straightened. "I'm not going."

"Don't start this again." He let out a sharp breath. "I drove all the way here. Bianca wants to make peace, so stop being so difficult."

"I have nothing to make peace about with her."

"Valentina."

"I'm training."

He laughed once, short and ugly.

"Training. That's just a ridiculous excuse. You could skate the East Coast Ice Trials hungover and still take first."

"Come on. Leave this dump for a weekend. Bianca actually wants to fix things with you."

"I'm not going."

His patience vanished. He stared at me for a second, then laughed again, his smile cold with disgust.

"Are you worried your boss will dock your pay if you leave?"

He pulled out his wallet and flung several hundred-dollar bills at my face. The money drifted down through the air and landed on the floor, soaking up dirty water.

"Is this enough? No?" He pulled out another stack. "How about now?"

Rourke, the owner of the shop where I worked, rushed out, took one look at the cash on the floor, and lowered his voice.

"Mr. Romano, what is going on here? We don't need any of this."

Dante didn't even look at him. His eyes stayed on me.

"Pick it up, then come with me."

I still didn't move.

Bianca had been waiting in the car. When she saw what was happening, she ran over at once.

"Dante, please stop. You're scaring her." She crouched and began picking up the bills one by one. "Valentina, don't be mad at him. He's only trying to be good to me. He didn't mean to treat you like this."

She held the money out to me with both hands, eyes wet.

"Please come with us. I don't want to be the person who ruins things between you two."

I looked at her, then at Dante.

He was not sorry for anything he had done. He thought he was being generous, and therefore I should kneel and thank him.

I walked past both of them, went into the back of the shop, and shut the door.

Through the wall, I heard him say,

"See? She isn't worth helping. You help her, and she doesn't even know how to be grateful."

The car engine started, and the sound moved away down the street.

A minute later, Rourke came in. He set the stack of cash on the workbench in front of me.

"Take it, kid."

"No."

"Valentina." He pushed it closer. "Your father drinks and gambles. With your situation, you need this."

I stared at the bills. They seemed to carry the smell of Dante's expensive cologne.

I walked to the sink, turned the water as hot as it would go, and started washing my hands.

I kept washing until my skin was red and raw.

That night, my father came back.

He was drunker than usual, and he had seen the cash through the front window.

He took it, then started taking everything else. He even put a chair through the front glass.

I called the police. When they arrived, he was still swinging a hockey stick at the lights.

Two officers put him in cuffs. On his way out, he spat at me.

"You called the cops on me? On your own damn father? You were born for men to fuck, you filthy bitch. You should die. You should rot in hell."

I watched the cruiser pull out of the parking lot. Then I looked back at the wreckage in the shop and covered my face.

So this was what it felt like to have nobody left around me.