39. Niccolò
39
NICCOLò
T he crisp fall air surrounds us while we take the roads to a spot Isabella and I used to frequent. With her arms wrapped around my waist and us working together as one to lean into each turn, it feels like the past three years never happened.
As I take the last turn into the park, Isabella’s arms tighten around me, and I give her hands a pat, a sign I used to give to her all the time that I had her.
Putting her helmet on the bike, she turns around and faces the park. “The last time I was here was with you,” she says.
“How long do you think we have before your guards suspect you’re not at the boutique?” I ask while we walk to an open bench surrounded by trees that have reached their peak fall foliage shades of yellow and orange.
“Tito should be more focused on Liana, and Gianni’s used to me hanging out there for hours on end. That’s why I chose her place to meet. I knew she’d be able to sneak you in the back door, and I knew I’d be able to get away with doing my thing there for a few hours without any concern.”
“What do you do there for that amount of time that makes your guard so naive to not check on you?”
“I’ve actually been helping Liana around the boutique so she can focus on her new bridal line, and anytime she needs help, I’ve been assisting her in preparing for New York Bridal Fashion Week in April.”
The smile on Isabella’s face shines so bright while she talks about working with Liana, and it makes me so damn happy to see.
Isabella studied business while she was at CU, a broad subject that most kids in our world go to school for, but I’m not surprised she’s picked up an interest in fashion. She and Liana would always work together on Liana’s assignments, and she even helped be a model for a line she had to design, learning the ins and outs of fashion while she was at it.
“Do you think you’ll continue working for her, or venture off and do your own thing?” I ask, genuinely curious how far Isabella wants to take this career.
Shaking her head, she says, “Oh, no. I’m not working for her, I’m just helping her out a little until she gets through bridal week.” She gives me a small shrug. “It’s fun, and I’ve passed a lot of time doing it, but it’s not something I’d turn into a career.”
“Why not?” I ask, surprised Isabella doesn’t want to.
She doesn’t respond right away and sits there, staring forward as if she’s trying to figure out a reasonable answer to my question, but I know her better than she knows herself. There isn’t one.
Isabella can do anything she wants to do. The social norms of our world are slowly getting squandered with the new generation of leaders taking over. It’s changing the way females are perceived in our world. They’re not just there to be silent and produce heirs whenever we need them to. They have a voice and their own wants and desires in life that we, as men and leaders of our families, need to build up instead of repress.
“I’m not quite sure,” Isabella finally answers. “I guess I never really thought about it. This entire time I’ve been helping Liana out has just been for fun. It gives me something to do. Passes the time.”
“But?” I ask, knowing there’s something more there. I see the wheels spinning in her head. She’s biting the inside of her cheek as she considers her future right here and now.
“I don’t know. I assumed my whole purpose in life was to get married and fulfill my part as the wife to… well, to someone like you,” she says. “And you and I both know that a woman having her own career is unheard of.”
“You say it’s unheard of, but your cousin’s doing it.”
“Yes, but… well…”
Isabella told me how Liana’s parents died when she was in high school. They were traveling to Italy for something her dad had to do for the family, but their plane malfunctioned and went down in the middle of the Atlantic. They never even made it there. The crash was labeled an accident, but sometimes I wonder if foul play was involved. The odds of a plane malfunctioning like that are extremely low, so it doesn’t fully add up to me.
Isabella’s parents ended up taking her in, making sure she was always taken care of, and allowed her to study fashion at CU, probably knowing she needed some happiness in her life. Matteo allowing her to pursue her career tells me that maybe Aurelio DiMaggio was the one to start this change in our world.
“You think your brother wouldn’t allow you to pursue a career? You’re his little sister. I think when it comes down to it, he wants you to be happy, and if exploring a career in fashion makes you happy, then I think he’d be supportive.”
“I don’t know. I always assumed he’d want to marry me off to someone, but…” She shakes her head before saying, “I don’t know” once more. Bringing her gaze down to her lap, she fidgets with her fingers, a sure sign that something’s going on in that beautiful head of hers. Something that has her on edge.
I place my hand on top of hers, causing her to snap her gaze to mine. “Tell me what’s going on.” My tone is soft, but it’s still a demand.
“What do you mean?” she asks, as if I don’t know her well enough to know something is bothering her.
“We promised to always communicate with each other,” I remind her. “So tell me, what’s going on in that head of yours.”
She lets out a slow breath, and with that, her shoulders fall forward slightly as if she’s admitted defeat. To what, I’m not sure.
“I didn’t want to stain our time together by bringing up reality,” she whispers.
My brows furrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean meeting with you today is the first time we’ve been together without anger fueling everything that has come out of my mouth. It’s been amazing, and I didn’t want to ruin it with the reality that we’ll never be able to be together, but it’s all I can think about.”
Those words nearly have me choking on my own spit while my heart practically hammers out of my chest. “What’re you talking about, Isabella?” I nearly growl out.
“Nicco, you know the history between our families. Sure, Teo might let me pursue a career in fashion with Liana, but when it comes down to our families, do you think he would ever let me be with you?”
“Isabella—”
She takes her hands away from me, and I’m left with the cool fall air as the warmth of her touch is ripped away from me.
“I’ve already spoken to Teo about you. He knows you and I were together.”
“And?” I clench my jaw while I wait for her to continue, knowing it won’t be good.
“And he forbids us from seeing each other.” There’s a shimmer in her eyes that has me immediately pulling her into me.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” she says, the sadness in her tone taking over. “My emotions have been all over the place since you’ve been back. It’s all just been… a lot. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I decided to meet up with you today, because in reality, you and I will never work out.”
Those words send a wave of anger coursing through my body, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “Why not?” I growl out, not able to contain the fucking rage I feel over the idea of us not being together.
“Your dad had my parents killed, Nicco,” she murmurs. “Teo will never allow us to be together because you’ll be a daily reminder of what your family cost ours.”