“Why didn’t you tell me, Bunnybear?”
Gina tucked herself into her mama’s side. The thin arms were surprisingly strong and never ceased to make her seven-year-old self feel safe. When Sara chucked her under the chin and tried to make Gina look her in the face, she refused, nuzzling her forehead against Sara’s throat instead.
“Gina, why didn’t you tell me?” This time, the question was a little harder. It was the tone that meant Gina had to get out of bed and that huddling deeper under the covers for the third time was a no-go.
She swallowed back her nerves and wished she didn’t have to answer. Mama wouldn’t like what she had to say, and though Sara was small, Gina’s daddy had once called her a firebrand. She hadn’t understood what it meant at the time, and she still didn’t, but she knew fire was hot. A brand burned. And the two fit her mama to perfection.
Not that Sara hurt Gina. But she could be strict, and Gina didn’t like it when she was strict. Sometimes that meant she got a smacked bottom, and other times it meant no candy for a day. Worst of all was being made to go to bed, right after dinner, with no dessert. That was the worst punishment befitting the worst crime—when Gina told tales or eavesdropped on conversations she had no business listening in on.
At least, it had been the worst punishment until Giuseppe had come into their lives.
“Before Natale,” she whispered, her voice a fine quiver.
“Christmas?” Sara’s voice was a squeak now, but Gina heard the rage. It wasn’t aimed her way, but that didn’t stop her from huddling deeper into her mama’s arms. “You mean this has been going on for two months, and you didn’t think to tell me?”
“He doesn’t do it often.”
“That he does it at all is…” A low hiss escaped her. “I’ll kill him. I’ll. Kill. Him.”
Gina uncurled her arms and wrapped them tightly around Sara’s neck. The rigidity of her mother’s limbs terrified her. “No. Mama. No! That’s why I didn’t tell you. Please, don’t. Please.”
Sara grabbed her and pulled her away. “Gina, you leave this with me.”
That was what she was afraid of.
“No! It’s okay. They get better. Look.” She pulled up her sleeve and showed the puckered scar on her underarm she’d been hiding for the last month. “See, skin grows over it. They get better.”
That didn’t work. This time, Sara started shaking. Gina peered up at her, frightened by the motion, but more frightened by the sight of tears streaming down her mama’s face.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, reaching up with chubby fingers to wipe the moisture away.
“I’ll never let another man touch you, Bunnybear. Do you hear me?” she replied shakily.
Gina smiled as she patted Sandra’s cheek. “That’s nice.”
“No. It’s not. It’s how it should be. I protect you, mia piccola. Not the other way around. You tell me if anything, anything like this happens again. Do you understand? Even if it’s at school and some little monster is tugging your hair, you tell me. Always. That’s how this works, Bunnybear. That’s how we work. We’re a team, you and I. You promise to tell me?”
“I promise, Mama.” She giggled, then hummed the tune to Star Wars. “We’re the force.”
“That we are, sweetheart.”
“Can we go to sleep now?” Gina’s sigh was filled with exhaustion.
Sara squeezed her a little. “You sleep, darling. It’s okay, Mama’s here to protect you.”
Gina nuzzled into her mother’s arm, wincing a little when the burn on her wrist scraped over Sara’s watch. She froze, not wanting to alert her already angry mama, but she didn’t think she got away with it. When Sara remained silent and instead started to stroke her hair, Gina began to relax.
For the first time that evening since Giuseppe had picked her up from school and been angry at having to wait for her because the teacher had wanted to tell her off for not listening during class, she felt safe. As she blinked sleepy eyes, she realized it was the first time she’d felt safe since Mama had brought Giuseppe home.
She’d tried to like him, only he wasn’t her daddy. But Mama had been so sad since Daddy had gone to heaven, and Giuseppe had made her smile. Seeing that had made Gina’s heart feel lighter even when she wanted to cry from missing her papa, and she’d always made sure to stay out of his way when she could.
He was always angry with her, though. Especially when Mama gave her attention instead of him, and if Sara made something Gina liked for dinner, then she tried to hide all the more. Daddy had once said that looks could kill, and Gina knew how that felt now.
It wasn’t fair. She was a good girl. She was. It was hard waking up in the morning, but she was two reading levels above the other kids in her class, and she’d won the science fair last year.
A smile curled along her lips at the memory. The science fair had been the best day of her life. Mama had taken her out for pizza and ice cream, and they’d gone to the arcade too.
Sighing blissfully at the thought of three scoops of mint chocolate chip, she let herself fall asleep. All wasn’t right with the world, but her mama was close and had made her a promise plus she’d done all her homework for the week, and tomorrow was a new day.
She didn’t know what the new day bit meant, but it was something her nonna said. And after Mama, Nonna was always right.
If she could have seen her mama’s face, she might not have been hopeful for tomorrow to come, but Gina was safely cocooned, and sleep soon settled upon her as she was lulled by the gentle stroking of her hair and the steady thump-thump of her madre’s heart.