Victoria walked numbly into her cell and sat down on her bed, it was too dark to see the sky or the stars. Nothing but darkness stated back at her.
She missed Emily more than ever now. Having seen her made it even harder to come back here to this place to face the loneliness and the dwindling memory of the carefree life she had known. It felt as though she had been locked up for an eternity.
The gates clanked, and it made her heart skip a beat. It couldn't be Stacy, she had just seen her. McGuinty wasn't due in for a few hours.... could it be Danny? Come to comfort her and apologize for all the horrible things he had said earlier, or Marilyn back for another round?
"Thorne, visitor," said McGuinty watching as she jumped off of the bed and stood in the corner waiting for his next move.
As she stood there she tried to get a glimpse of the visitor, who stood out of her view.
She heard a man's voice speak to McGuinty.
"No need to open the doors, this will only take a few moments."
It wasn't Danny, she didn't recognize the voice.
McGuinty turned his head towards the stranger and said, "That's fine, call me when you are done," and he moved back from the door and strode away.
A short dark haired man dressed in a black shirt and pants with a heavy gold chain around his neck come into view. Victoria almost let out a laugh at how stereotypically Italian he was.
As he took a step closer, instinctively Victoria took a step back into the corner, they stood that way for a few moments regarding each other. Victoria wondered if he was from the press, hoping to get that big scoop, but she decided he looked too old and too rich to be a reporter.
"Who are you?"
"Oh how rude of me, I am Gino, a friend of Marilyn."
"And what has that got to do with me, are you expecting a medal for that or something?"
"Wow, you got her fiery temper don't you," said Gino and smiled edging even closer and placing his hands on the bars as he gazed at her intently.
"I'm nothing like HER, what do you want!"
"I needed to see for myself the reason Marilyn would give up everything she had, to come here to this pitiful dump. Seems like she was hiding a few secrets, big 26 year old ones."
"Look Mister, I don't know what you're all about, if you have come here to gawk at me, or make fun of my situation go ahead!"
"No, I haven't come to make fun of you. I'm sorry, we got off on the wrong foot, I'm engaged to Marilyn. She is your mother right?"
"Yes Marilyn is my birth mother, congratulations, I wish you a happy life together. You have my blessings if that is all you have come for you can go now?" said Victoria turning her back to Gino.
"No, quite the opposite, Marilyn and I got engaged two months ago, then out of the blue she disappeared, no explanation. I tracked her down and I hoped that you might have some idea where she is staying?"
Victoria laughed ironically under her breath and turned back to the strange little Italian man. "You too huh, she has been running off on me my whole life, get used to it buddy."
"Do you know where she is staying?"
"How would I know where she is staying, in case you didn't notice I am a little predisposed at the moment. We met, I told her to leave, and that's it. For all I care she has left town, which is what she does best â leave," said Victoria taking another step closer to Gino.
"I see," said Gino rubbing his chin thoughtfully just as his phone rang, he turned his back to Victoria and spoke quietly into it. As he hung up he smiled at Victoria triumphantly.
"Never mind, I found her," winking at her he said sweetly, "I will tell her you said hello."
"Don't bother, some things are best left alone," snapped Victoria.
"As you wish" said Gino waving his hand at McGuinty signaling he was ready to leave.
Victoria sat back on her bed and listened as the gates clanked signaling Gino had left.
Flopping onto the bed, once again looking through the vent, she found one lonesome bright star twinkling in the sky. Maybe it was there for a reason, or maybe it was just a silly little star that meant nothing.