Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
“In the war, her grandfather and my husband. Saved life. Good friends until he died.” She blows out a breath. “Now I go?”
“My grandfather knew your grandfather… my grandfather saved your grandfather’s life?”
“Which means… that without him, I wouldn’t be here,” I say. Wow. It’s hard to wrap my brain around, but I’m glad that I know this now. It makes Vittoria that much more special to me.
I wonder what else Nonna has up her sleeve.
“Nonna!”
She curses in Italian behind the door before she slams it open. “Si.”
“You know anything about Santo?”
She sighs. “Si. Of course. My husband no like Santo, no blood line. Doesn’t trust him. Says he will betray in the end.” She shakes her head, her thick accent coloring her words. “Your father used him. He took Vittoria in that chapel but I there.” She pounds her chest. “I see. Santo no want to hurt her. Santo afraid of father.” She shakes her head and her typically harsh tone softens. “Be kind to Santo, Romeo. Your father…” her voice trails off. “He no good to him.”
I frown, processing all of this.
“Now I go,” Nonna says, glaring at me.
“Anything else I need to know before you do?” Other than Mama, she’s probably the only one I have no control over.
She smiles. “The pots have ears, Romeo. They listen.” Singing a little ballad, she goes back to the kitchen.
“Should bug the kitchen,” I mutter.
“I dunno, I kinda like the way she tells it, though,” Vittoria says.
I run a hand across my brow and pinch the bridge of my nose.
I have much to do.
She holds my hand and laces her fingers with mine. “What’s on your mind, Romeo?”
“So much to do. I have to interrogate Santo, and I don’t want to use our usual methods. I just want to ask him questions, give him the benefit of the doubt.” He’s taken the vow of Omertà like all of us, and I can’t imagine he’d betray us. “But he tried to marry you…”
She nods, likely suspects he’ll answer to me for that. But I’m weary. So fucking weary. I never liked violence, but this was my lot in life. I’ve taken the throne as king of this castle, and my duties are heavy.
“And your mother…” Vittoria works her lip. “The night she left…”
“She was with her lover, and no, we don’t know who that is yet.” Could prove problematic, or it could prove useful. “And if the Castellanos are after us…”
Vittoria nods. “A whole other can of worms.”
“Yeah.”
My mind goes back to twenty years earlier, when I was just a boy. A boy who wanted a smoke by the quarry… My family’s buried so many secrets, it’s only a matter of time before the skeletons surface.
Vittoria stands, walks to me, then straddles my lap. She rests her head on my shoulder.
“You carry a lot, Romeo. So much, don’t you?”
I nod. I close my eyes and hold her to me. I relish the warmth of her body and her soft, feminine scent. I breathe her in then breathe her out. I run my fingers through her hair and try to think about how much I love her, how much I need her, but it’s overwhelming to me.
“You don’t have to carry it alone anymore.”
“Thank you.”
We hold each other in the quiet. She rests her head on me and we don’t say another word. Sometimes, words don’t capture the essence of a moment.
Epilogue
“Give me my sin again." ~Romeo and Juliet
Vittoria
One year later
“Where. Are. You.”
I know that tone of voice, and I know I’m in trouble. I also know that this is exactly what I wanted and what he needs right now.
Life in the Rossi family’s on speed, always.
Orlando’s been arrested, Tavi’s getting married in an arranged marriage next week to a woman none of us have ever met, and my period’s late. The Family has grown, healed. Tosca’s home, a semi-retired matriarch of the family, since Romeo’s assumed the position as patriarch, and she doesn’t talk about the affair she once had. I do wonder if she holds a candle, though.
Santo was demoted, after proving Narciso blackmailed him, but he’s working hard to get himself back in Romeo’s good graces. I keep my distance from him.
And Rosa and Marialena have helped me with all of this, explaining how to handle things as they come and Tosca, in her own way, has as well. We’ve been trying now for months to get pregnant, with no luck, and it’s important to him. I’m more willing to let things happen in their own time, but Romeo’s stressed under the weight of it all.
I know exactly how to bring him comfort. Give him a reason to seize control, and my hotheaded, dominant, boss of a husband will be back in the right frame of mind in no time.