Page 51 of Disgrace

Siena gave the man a look. “I will be driving my car, thank you.”

She didn’t get to use her Lexus very often, anymore.

“Your brothers prefer—”

“I am taking my car,” Siena said. “And when Kev and Darren get home, I will go back to riding with you. Okay?”

The enforcer’s jaw tightened before he muttered, “Your ass, I guess.”

The most her brothers would do was yell. Siena cared little about that. Yelling she could handle, and besides, their focus was elsewhere at the moment.

Plus, they weren’t even home.

“Could we get gelato first?” Giulia asked as she slid into the backseat. “Before the beach?”

Siena nodded. “Actually, that sounds great.”

Greta glared at the enforcer before she slipped into the car, too. Siena smirked to herself, and closed the door to the Lexus, shutting the girls in.

Poor kid.

Greta just couldn’t help herself. She was a lot like Siena in that way. Hopefully, it never came back to bite her.

It wasn’t long before Siena had navigated the streets of Brooklyn, grabbed them all some gelato, and headed for Jacob Riis Beach. The three sisters sat in the parking lot of the beach with the doors of the Lexus thrown wide open while warm wind blew through the vehicle.

Silent, mostly.

They people watched. Kids squealing, and parents chasing. Water flying, and music blasting.

It was both nice, and sad.

For a moment, they could pretend to be normal people, doing normal things. And yet, they were far removed from all of that.

This was just another illusion.

One soon to be shattered.

“Are you jealous that we got a good dad?” Giulia asked suddenly.

Siena looked back at the younger of the two sisters. “You mean, about Matteo?”

Beside her in the passenger seat, Greta stuck a spoonful of gelato in her mouth. The older girl looked both interested and kind of worried what Siena’s response might be.

Giuia shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I see what your face does when we say something nice about Daddy, and stuff.”

Siena didn’t realize her face did something at all.

She wasn’t surprised, though.

“No,” she said after a moment, “I’m not jealous. Happy, if anything.”

“Happy seems strange,” Greta muttered around her spoon.

“I can’t be happy that he was a good father to you two? That you have fond memories of him, and loved him?” Siena smiled faintly, and peered back out the windshield at the playing children, and relaxing people. “I am happy that you will have good memories of him to carry you through life. I can’t say that I have the same—I wouldn’t wish my memories of him on you two at all.”

“Oh.”

Giulia’s quiet response was only echoed by silence. Really, Siena no longer had anything to say about it. Not Matteo, or her life as his daughter. She meant what she had said about her half-sisters lives with him, though.