Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
I’m still zonked, but I wouldn’t trade a second of it. The well is finally restocked, and at long last, I can breathe without worrying that I’m stealing the oxygen from someone more deserving.
But bubbles are fragile, and mine bursts when Camille connects my phone to the compound’s Wi-Fi. I’ve been trying to message Edoardo for the past hour, but I didn’t have any signal to get a message out.
The second the device connects, my screen explodes with notifications. A dozen missed calls, hundreds of messages, and numerous FaceTime requests. Edoardo’s name floods the screen, and it drops my stomach to my shoes.
“I’ll be back soon, okay, sweetie?”
Camille peers up at me. I tried to keep my voice impassive. Obviously, I failed. She seems worried.
“It’s just Luna,” I lie. “I forgot to tell her we weren’t coming in today.”
She smiles with fondness, freeing me to step into the hallway. My heart pounds when I swipe open the messages. All their proses are the same.
Edoardo:
Where are you?
Answer me!
You think you can ignore me?
Pick up. Now!
You will never see your son again!
He’s dead! Do you understand me? Dead!
My throat closes up as the protective bubble cocooning me shatters. I race down the stairs and through the back doors, needing both privacy and openness since the walls are closing in on me.
The midmorning air is cool as the lemon trees whisper my failures. None of the serenity an orchard like this should give me calms me.
While pacing between rows of lemon trees, I call Edoardo again and again, my shoes sinking into the soft earth.
He finally answers on the twelfth call.
It’s bad.
His face fills the screen, twisted with anger, and his grip on Gabriele’s arm is cruel. My son is frightened and confused. His eyes bore through the camera, silently begging me to reach through it and pull him out.
“Edoardo,” I choke out, my voice breaking. “Please—”
“What was our agreement?”
I can’t think of him or me right now. My son is scared.
“Please let him go. You’re hurting him.”
“What was our fucking agreement, Cici? What was the one term you had to abide by if you wanted to keep your prick of a son alive?”
Tears spring down my cheeks as I answer, “That I couldn’t tell anyone. That his birth remained between us.” My words are for Edoardo, but the sympathy beaming out of me is solely for Gabriele. I’m so sorry, baby boy. Mama is so sorry. “I did as you asked. I haven’t told anyone.”
His scoff announces he doesn’t believe me. “They fucking know.” He lifts his eyes past my shoulder at the beginning of his reply, highlighting the Caruso mansion gleaming behind me.
“No.” I shake my head so fast that snot dribbles from my nose. “I haven’t told anyone. I swear, Edoardo.”
His laugh is demoralizing. “So I’m just meant to believe he’s willing to walk away from it all for you.” He snarls his last word. “He’s never cared about anyone but himself, but now he’s going to walk away from a multibillion-dollar entity to keep you safe?”
I’m lost. Wholly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Dante fucking Caruso!” he screams, startling both Gabriele and me. “He’s heading up there now to tell his brothers he’s walking away. Apparently, if he’s not a part of the Cosa Nostra, he doesn’t have to follow their rules anymore.”
Blood floods my heart, but I keep cool. Mostly.
“He’s not doing that for me.” I’m shocked I can speak. That’s how high my bewilderment is. I could see Dante walking away from it all for Camille, but there’s no way his decision is about me.
Furthermore, I am living proof you can’t just walk away.
Something always forces you back.
Edoardo acts like I never spoke. “You think you can run off to your little fantasy life and I won’t notice that you’re throwing your own fucking son under the bus?”
“I wasn’t… I didn’t…” My words fall apart when he takes his anger out on Gabriele instead of me. He backhands him so hard his cheek splits, and his shrilled sob shreds my heart to pieces. “Please don’t do this. I’m begging you.”
“Our deal is done.”
My heart stops.
I know what that means. There’s only one meaning to his saying. Only one outcome.
Gabriele will be dead.
“No.” I shake my head so hard my vision blurs. “Please, Edoardo, don’t. I’ll do anything. Anything you want. Just don’t do this.” Desperate, I speak to a part of his soul that only responds to greed. “I can get you a million dollars.” Flashbacks of the bundles of money Dante stacked on the dining room table flash before my eyes. “Today. I can deposit a million dollars into your account today.”
I hate myself for how my actions will hurt Dante, but I have to put Gabriele first.
“A million dollars?”
When I nod, Edoardo slants his head and ponders my offer. I think he’s going to agree, but then his eyes dart upward, toward someone standing across from him, someone I can’t see, and whatever mercy might have existed disappears.