But the screen had already gone blank.

She had hung up on me.

Fingers shaking, I tried to call her back, but it wouldn’t even ring. She’d turned off the iPad. She never did that. It was always on, so in case I called her earlier than expected, she could answer.

“No, no, no.” I tried again and again, but it didn’t ring once.

She couldn’t stop talking to me. She couldn’t be sad.

She couldn’t be mad at me.

I wouldn’t allow it.

I had to fix this. Now.

8

Ryan

Desperation had me thinking fast. I needed a plan, a way to fix this so Nova wouldn’t be upset anymore.

My gaze landed on the bathroom window, and I didn’t even consider the repercussions of my decision. I climbed up to the windowsill and used my shoulder to push the window open. The school grounds were pretty secure, but Ciana and I had spent hours examining all the holes in the security. It was something Mom had taught us to do from the time we’d started school. Always look for the holes, so that no matter what happened, we could have a plan to escape if we needed to.

Back then, neither of us had really understood what she was talking about, but over the years, we’d started to realize just what it meant to be part of the Vitucci family. We’d noticed that not everyone had guards shadowing their every move outside of their houses like we did. It was a dangerous world outside our compound walls, something the two of us had come to understand all too clearly in recent years.

Once I was off school property, I took off running in the direction of home. This time of day, with Papa in Chicago and all of us kids supposed to be in school, only one guard was on duty in front of the compound gate, and he was so into his phone that he didn’t notice when I climbed the fence.

As my feet landed on the other side, the growl of two dogs greeted me. I gave them the German command I’d been taught, and the dogs instantly came to attention. I whispered another command, and they took off running in the opposite direction. Inside the house, I went straight up to Mom’s room, hoping that she was sleeping if she was still feeling unwell.

Instead, I found the bedroom empty, but her shower was running. Hurriedly, I sent a few texts from her phone, requesting for the pilot to get the second jet ready since Papa was using the other one. Then I texted a car service we used sometimes before arranging for one to meet me when I landed.

I was out of my parents’ room before the shower even turned off. After stopping in my room to grab the present I’d already wrapped for Nova’s birthday, I rushed back out and left the compound the same way I’d snuck in.

The car service met me a few blocks from the house and drove me straight to the airport, where the jet was already waiting on the tarmac. The flight attendant greeted me with a bow of his head as I boarded.