11. Isabella
11
ISABELLA
T he rest of the car ride home was quiet. The threat from Giuseppe Silvestri was clearly on my brothers’ minds while only the reemergence of Niccolò Silvestri was on mine.
I make my way into our family home located on sixteen acres of land outside the city. It’s where my parents raised me, Teo, and Enzo and where we all still reside; me because I haven’t been married off yet, and Enzo… well, Enzo could easily move out, but since he and Teo did everything together before Teo and Lux got married, living here made more sense. Now that Teo’s busy with Lux, Enzo’s been staying at Teo’s penthouse in the city a lot. He’ll stay at the house every so often, but I think it’s because he gets lonely.
As I make my way through the grand foyer, I feel Lux right on my heels, surely wanting to get me alone so she can ask me the prying questions I’m not sure I’m ready to answer.
“You heading off to bed already, Isabella?” Teo’s voice comes from behind me as I walk down the hall into the kitchen, hoping I can continue avoiding the inevitable conversation with Lux.
It’s barely 9:00 p.m., and I’m really not tired, but my happy-birthday mood has been severely diminished.
“Uh, yes!” Lux chirps, which causes me to halt and spin around to come face-to-face with her widened eyes. “We’re both going to bed,” she rushes out before turning around to meet Teo’s questioning gaze. “Well, at least to her room. I’m going with her. We’re having a sleepover. Can’t have Izzy hanging out by herself on her birthday.”
Lux’s sporadic response is unorthodox for her usual calm and collected demeanor. We’ll need to have a little chit chat about her lying skills if she’s going to survive being in a family of human lie detectors.
“I’m sorry, what?” Teo asks, his brows furrowed, clearly confused by his wife’s word vomit.
Lux walks to him and wraps her arms around his neck. “You don’t mind, right?” she asks, her tone changing from one of franticness to one of innocence.
“Fine,” he mutters, and I can tell he’s hypnotized by her from here. His gaze is locked on hers, and a small smile hints at his lips as he wraps his arms around her waist. My brother has never stood a chance when it comes to Lux. She has him wrapped around her little finger.
“But I want you in my bed at some point,” he says. “You and I don’t sleep separately, Little Lux.”
“Gross,” I mumble.
“Aww, c’mon, Teo,” Enzo says as he strolls up from behind him and slaps a hand on his shoulder. “Let the girls have their sleepover. We can stay up all night and braid each other’s hair and shit too,” Enzo says so dryly that if you didn’t know him, you’d think he was being serious.
I chuckle softly. “You’re so ridiculous, Enzo.”
Teo ignores him while Lux nods and gives him a kiss before grabbing my hand and pulling me toward my room in a hurried fashion.
I turn on my lights, then make my way across the master suite over to my walk-in closet to take off my boots. “Mind if I take a shower real quick?” I ask Lux as she kicks off her boots and hops on my bed. She sets her back against the mountain of light-pink, beige, and rose gold throw pillows that sit up against the tufted ivory headboard.
“Oh no, no, no. Not until we have this conversation first. I kept my mouth shut for the rest of dinner and the entire ride home. Now you’re talking, Izzy,” she demands.
I knew I’d only be able to postpone this conversation for so long.
After sulking over to the bed, I crawl onto it, crossing my legs as I take a seat in front of her. Lux’s eyes shine with curiosity while she waits for me to speak.
“So, I’m assuming this is about what happened at dinner?” I ask, delaying the inevitable.
She nods.
“About Niccolò…”
She lets out an exasperated breath. “Oh my gosh. Yes, Izzy. You and Niccolò. And don’t tell me it’s nothing, because I know what I saw, and what I saw was one hundred percent something . I saw the way he looked at you…”
She saw it too?
“And I saw how you avoided eye contact with him like the plague,” she continues. “And then to top it all off, he told you to enjoy the rest of your birthday. There’s a story there.”
My tone gets serious. “You have to promise you won’t tell my brothers, Lux.”
Her eyes widen, and it kills me that I’m putting her in this situation, but I’m not ready for anyone to know about Nicco’s and my history yet, especially Teo.
“I don’t know, Izzy. You’re making me nervous.”
“I won’t make you keep this a secret from Teo for long, I just need to wrap my head around everything before I come clean to him.”
Lux gives a few short nods. “Okay, yeah. Your secret is safe with me.”
Letting out a long sigh, I prepare to speak the words I’ve only ever spoken to Liana and my mom. My heart races as I realize what I’m about to say because once it’s out in the world, there’s no taking it back.
Am I ready for that?
The anxious feeling in my chest pushes its way up my throat, forcing me to spill the truth out. “Niccolò Silvestri and I used to, um, uh, well… we used to date.” I hold my breath while I wait for Lux’s reaction.
A few seconds that feel like several long minutes pass before she says, “I had a feeling.” Her tone is soft, which pushes me to continue.
“We met when I was a freshman at CU and he was a senior. We dated for a year and a half.” My voice gets low. “Before his dad…”
I still can’t believe the father of the man I fell in love with had my parents killed.
Lux offers a comforting hand, placing it on mine. “Neither of your brothers know about him.”
It’s not a question, so I only give a small shake of my head, confirming her suspicion.
“You didn’t tell anyone ?”
“I’ve only ever told two people about me and Nicco’s history—Liana and my mom—and Nicco’s only ever told his best friends, Leo and Dante.”
Lux sits back against the pillows, folding her arms across her chest. “Oh, Nicco , huh?” She wiggles her brows, and I let out an amused scoff.
“This was before… everything ,” she says, “so why did you and Nicco have to keep it a secret?”
“As you know, Giuseppe Silvestri is the devil himself. Nicco didn’t want him to find out about us because he knew he would force him to break up with me, so we decided to keep it to ourselves. Stay inside our own perfect bubble.” I chuckle as I shake my head. “Perfect bubble my ass.”
“Things didn’t end well, I presume?” Lux asks.
“Not at all.”
Not at fucking all.
I shake my head, trying to shake away the events of the entire night and say, “But that doesn’t matter. Nicco is in my past where he belongs, and I have zero plans of ever revisiting that point in my life again.”
Ever again.