He opens his eyes unexpectedly, blinking away sleep when he sees me standing there.
“Daddy?”
That word hits me straight in the heart.
“Hi,” I choke out.
“Is everything okay?” he asks.
I attempt a smile. “Yes, it’s okay. You should go back to sleep.”
He peeks around the room nervously. “Can you stay with me?”
I’m stunned into silence. He’s never asked that before. I can only assume he’s still scared from whatever took place here last night. I don’t know how much he heard or even what he witnessed. It’s something we’ll need to discuss, but not right now.
“I’ll stay.” I pull back the covers, and he moves over for me.
It feels strange settling into this bed with the alien comforter. But it also feels like it’s exactly what I need right now. Nino covers us both up and then lays his head on the pillow next to mine. We’re shoulder to shoulder, both of us staring up at the ceiling when I glance over at him.
“Comfortable?”
He hesitates and then slowly rolls onto his side, wiggling his way into the crook of my arm so he can rest his head on my chest. Once he does, he yawns.
“Comfortable,” he whispers.
Sleep takes us both quickly and doesn’t let us go until Angelina wakes me by clearing her throat hours later.
“What is it?” I grumble.
“There’s a doctor here for you.”
Shit. I sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes before I glance at Nino, wondering how I’m going to explain this to him. He’ll have questions, and I didn’t even think about how I would deal with this part yet.
“Nino.” I settle my hand on his back and stir him from sleep. “It’s time to wake up. There’s something I need you to do.”
22
Alessio
“Will that test really tell me if I have alien DNA?” Nino scoops a raspberry up with his spoon and shovels it into his mouth.
He’s eyeing me skeptically, and I feel like an asshole for lying to him, but there’s no rational way to spare his feelings if he knew the reality. He would hope for something that could never be.
“There’s only one way to find out, I suppose,” I murmur into my coffee cup.
He’s quiet for a moment, and his lip starts to tremble. “If I am, does that mean I have to leave earth like ET?”
Christ, I am not good at this. “No, Nino. It doesn’t mean you have to leave earth. It was a bad joke. I’m sorry. The test wasn’t really for alien DNA.”
“Then what was it for?” he asks.
I consider his question for way longer than I should. “It is a DNA test, but it’s for humans. There’s nothing wrong with you, okay? I promise.”
He nods.
I check my watch. There’s not much time before Angelo is due to arrive, but I know we need to have another conversation I’ve been putting off.
“Nino, I want to talk to you about what happened last night.”
He rips a piece of toast off and chomps on it. “Okay.”
“Were you afraid by anything you saw or heard?”
He swallows his food and stares at his plate. “Yes.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“We were watching Toy Story, and the lights went out. It was scary when they didn’t come back on, and then there were loud noises downstairs.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickles as I study him. “The lights went out while you and Natalia were together?”
“Yes. I didn’t like it, but she gave me her phone so I could see.”
“You’re sure you were together when they went out?”
He gives me an annoyed look. “Yes, dad.”
I try to soften my tone. “Okay, Nino. This is very important. I just need you to tell me everything you can remember about what happened after that.”
He wipes his mouth with his napkin and turns to look at me, his expression serious. “Natalia took me up to your room and left me in the closet. She told me to keep trying to text you, and to lock the door behind her. We had a secret code for when she came back so I would know it was her. She told me she would knock four times. I hid in the back of the closet and texted you like she said. She went downstairs to see what was making the noise, but it stopped. I don’t know what happened after that, because it was quiet for a long time. Then she finally came back and tapped on the door like she promised. There was red on her shirt, and she looked scared. We got into Grandma Gwen’s car and drove away.”
I sit in silence with my thoughts for a few moments, trying to make sense of it. His account leaves me with more questions than answers. Natalia said Gwen knew how to disarm the security system, and I didn’t believe it was her, but Nino’s story aligns with hers, and now I don’t know what to think.