“It was her boyfriend.” Shame fills me at revealing this new family secret. One that can be added to the skeletons already spilling into our lives. “That’s all I know.” My legs start to buckle beneath me, but I refuse to let them. Instead, I lean against the wall, amazed that no matter how hard we try, we can never seem to wash the grime of my father’s touch from our existence.
“Sonya.” He doesn’t touch me. Taking a step closer, he comes as near as I can allow. “What can I do? Anything at all. Name it.”
I want to ask him to stop trying to save the man who created this. The one who left a trail of broken wings in his wake. To just let my father die so we can continue living. Instead, I shake my head and push back the curtain, reentering the hell we have been fated for.
I follow them home, to their palace that feels like a prison. Gia chose to ride with her father. Marin said nothing as he helped her into the passenger seat and leaned over to buckle her belt, as if she were a child. Slipping off his jacket, he covered her with it, though the car was already warm from the midday sun.
Their home is only a few minutes’ drive, in the hills of Los Altos. Marin pulls into the garage first, and then Raj. I leave my car in the driveway and wait, like a stranger, at the front door for them to allow me in.
“Do you want something to eat?” Raj asks Gia, all of us standing in a circle in the foyer, offering her a ring of protection that is too late.
“No.” Gia’s face is downcast, her eyes refusing to meet anyone’s. “I just want to go to bed.” She reaches toward her neck, the movement clearly a habit. When she touches bare skin, she looks up, her face becoming frantic. “My necklace. It’s gone.”
“What?” Marin looks at Raj, her concern minor in comparison. “Did you drop it?”
“They made me take it off for the X-rays. I think I forgot it there.” To Raj she pleads. “I need my necklace, Daddy. Please.”
“I’ll call the hospital in the morning. See if they can find it.” Marin dismisses the issue without further discussion, her mind clearly elsewhere. “Gia, we need to talk about what happened today.”
“Dada gave it to me,” Gia bites out, ignoring Marin’s dictate. She finally meets her mother’s eyes. “I can’t lose it.”
“If we weren’t in this situation, you never would have lost it,” Marin returns, a cold edge in her voice.
“Marin,” Raj retorts, his voice holding a warning that fails to back her down. “Not now.”
“Is there a better time?” Marin demands, seemingly having forgotten my presence. Her anger is understandable. For so long, my sister has fought to create the perfect life. Gia was Marin’s future and now it lies in shambles around her.
“I’ll go get it,” I say, interrupting the dead silence that has descended. “The necklace,” I explain when Marin turns to me in confusion. I am a voyeur watching a family’s breakdown, unable to help. “I can drive back there now and find it.” I meet Gia’s eyes, hoping to convey warmth and love for the niece I barely know. “How about that?”
Gia nods. “Thank you. He gave it to me on my thirteenth birthday. Told me it would bring me luck.” Her reminiscing reminds me she is still a child, her innocence destroyed way too young. “It’s my favorite.”
I can’t help myself; I look to Marin, trying to reconcile the man Gia is talking about with the one I know. But Marin avoids my eyes, as if she is fully aware of the dichotomy but has failed to find an explanation. “I’ll call you as soon as I find it.”
The necklace is right where Gia thought it would be. In my hand it feels light, a gold chain with a figurine of a small bird in flight. Tucking it into a pocket of my purse, I text Marin to let her know I have it and will deliver it first thing tomorrow.