Chapter 12 Giovanni
GIOVANNI
“Lucia?”
Her presence in my apartment is so out of context that I stagger out of the elevator, my brain frantically trying to figure out how she fits in with the note left in Meggie’s purse at the playground.
Then it hits me with the force of a wrecking ball.
She doesn’t.
Lucia has her own agenda.
And this is simply the shittiest timing in a long history of fucked-up coincidences that have followed me around since I was old enough to understand the life I was born into.
My eyes land on Meggie, and her pain stabs straight into my heart like a dagger on the rebound. She is all that matters. I will deal with Lucia later, but for now, my priority is keeping Meggie safe. And happy.
I try to hold her gaze, to convey my love for her from across the room, but she looks away, and she might as well have screamed that I’m a lying, cheating fuck the way it hurts.
And I deserve it.
I never told her about Lucia.
I never told her about Lucia because, as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to tell.
We got engaged a couple of years ago. In secret. To create an alliance between the Sabatellis and the de Giacomo family. It was a business transaction, nothing more. Both parties wanted something, and I gave Lucia a ring to seal the deal.
She only wears it when she is in Sicily. To keep up appearances.
In return, her father ensures that my family’s properties and land in Sicily remain untouched, while I guarantee her brother’s protection in New York.
When she isn’t visiting home, ostensibly blaming me for the delay in setting a wedding date, or hitting the socialite circle in New York and LA, Lucia can be found on a Texas ranch riding horses and herding cattle.
Or more importantly, she can be found on a Texas ranch fucking her lover.
A rancher thirty years her senior with a grown-up family who stand to inherit nothing from their father’s substantial will since he fell in love with his Sicilian beauty.
But none of this alters the fact that I kept my fiancée a secret from the woman I love.
Why should she believe that Lucia means nothing to me?
All she’ll see are lies, false promises, and empty declarations of love, and if I know Meggie as well as I think I do, she’ll have already made up her mind that she is in this alone.
Amber’s father got close to them—too fucking close—and now she’ll run.
I’m a stupid fucking idiot. I’ve ruined the best thing that ever happened to me, and for what? For a fake relationship with a woman I don’t even like.
I glance at Ric. His expression is neutral. He’s loyal to me, but I only have myself to blame for putting Meggie in this position.
“What are you doing here, Lucia?”
One thing at a time. Handle Lucia first and then give Meggie the attention she deserves.
“We have an arrangement, Gio.” Her eyes narrow. “If you’re going to call it off, I think I should be the first to know. Don’t you?”
Meggie hasn’t moved. The confidence she has gained in the short space of time since we met is dissolving before my eyes, and I can see her visibly shrinking.
Lucia can be intimidating; she’s the middle child of seven siblings and the only girl, and she learned at a young age to fight or be beaten.
The bright clothes are part of the armor.
Meggie isn’t going to fight. She has far bigger battles to win.
“Who told you?” I ask.
“Does it matter?”
It does to me, but I let it drop. I can guess.
“I need to know where I stand, Gio. My family will want to know where they stand when they find out.”
That’s what this is all about. Lucia is here to protect herself.
Once the news of our ‘separation’ is leaked, her father will demand a renegotiation of terms, but he will also want to know where his daughter has been spending her time when she isn’t with me.
She’s looking after number one, and I can’t blame her for that.
“I will speak to your father.” I haven’t moved far from the elevator. It’s a conscious strategy; while I’m blocking the way, Meggie can’t run.
Lucia eyes me coolly. She isn’t done yet. “What will you say?”
“That this was my decision. I’ll tell him you had no part in it. Your secret is safe with me.” I maintain eye contact.
Her gaze slides to Meggie and back again. “My secret? Shouldn’t you be more concerned with your own secrets, Gio?”
A groan escapes Meggie’s lips, and my stomach plummets.
“I’m not standing around listening to this.” Meggie shakes her head, and I can see the effort it’s taking for her to even look at me. “You obviously have stuff to talk about, so don’t let me get in your way.”
“Meggie, wait.” Her interruption has spurred me to action. I take the three steps down to the living area in one stride, but Lucia stops me with a hand on my arm.
“You heard her, Gio.”
My glare is enough for her to remove her hand.
“Meggie, hear me out. Please.”
She hesitates. It’s more than I deserve, but I’ll take it. “Don’t you have stuff to sort out? How was I stupid enough to think that you cared, Gio?” She mimics Lucia’s accent on my name without even realizing.
“I do care. I—”
“Don’t even…” Meggie clenches her jaw. “I thought you were different. Guess I was wrong.”
The fight drains from her voice, and part of me wants her to stand up and yell at me. I want her to pound my chest with her fists and accuse me of lying to get what I wanted, because while she’s angry at me, her bastardo fucking stepfather won’t win.
“You were not wrong.” I try to grab her hands, but she snatches them away. “I promised to keep you safe, Meggie, and I will.”
“At what cost?” Lucia interjects.
I don’t even look at her. “I think you should leave, Lucia.”
“No, stay, Lucia.” Meggie peers around me with a fake smile that belies the disappointment in her eyes. “I can’t wait to hear what else you have to say.”
This is it, I think. This is the Meggie I want. The fierce flower that refuses to bend to the cold wind.
“Okay.” Lucia faces her, hands on her hips. “I can handle Gio not wanting me. The feeling is mutual; I don’t want him either. But I cannot watch him renege on our families’ agreement for someone he only just met. Someone with a past that will bring him nothing but trouble.”
“I…” Meggie blinks hard. “How do you know about that?”
“Did you think that you could worm your way into my fiancé’s life without me finding out? Big mistake, Meggie. You have no clue what you’re messing with here. Perhaps you should’ve done your research before you picked on someone with ma—”
“Enough!” I interrupt Lucia before she goes too far.
She has done enough damage. I know that I’ve already broken Meggie’s trust and will have to work hard to rebuild it. But it will be impossible if she discovers what I am, what my family is, from the woman I’m supposed to be marrying.
“Leave, Lucia.” My hands are balled into tight fists.
“I’m thinking of your reputation, Gio.”
“Now!” I don’t raise my voice, but the word cracks the air in the apartment like a pistachio spilling its innards.
“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Lucia climbs the steps to the private elevator and hesitates. “Perhaps it’s time you ended the feud with your siblings.”
This is one of the reasons why Lucia and I have never gotten along.
It was easy for me to enter into a contract with Elisabetta; we enjoyed each other’s company, we had each other’s best interests at heart, we both cared enough about each other to not question if it was love or friendship.
We would have made it work, for our families’ sake.
But Lucia…
Lucia will never put anyone else’s needs above her own.
I never had any intention of marrying her, and she knows it. I agreed to the engagement because, after the accident, I hardened my heart to the world. I vowed never to let anyone in. I convinced myself that I would never fall in love. Men like me—we’re not born to love and be loved.
But Lucia knows that I can’t let her go now until she has finished what she came here to say. Her lips twist into a lopsided smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “No good ever comes from sibling rivalry, Gio.”
“What has my brother been saying?”
“What makes you think it’s Enzo?”
“I know my brother.”
Not content with stirring the pot with Meggie, he had to get Lucia involved too. There is no end to my little brother’s attention seeking.
“Let’s just say that if you don’t make a little effort now, things will escalate beyond even your control, Gio.”
“That almost sounds like a threat.”
“Does it?” Lucia arches a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “If it sounds like it, then I guess it must be.”
I watch her enter the elevator without looking behind her.
It’s just like Enzo, sending someone else to lay the foundations of his current little scheme. But like Meggie, I have more important battles to win.
I turn around to find her watching me like I’m a stranger.
“Meggie, please let me explain.”
“No, Gio.” Her voice is flat. “I don’t want to hear whatever you have to say.”
I realize now that Amber’s voice reaching us from the guest room has provided a gentle backdrop to the scene that just played out in my foyer, but now it has gone, and the silence is deafening.
I motion for Ric to keep an eye on the child. Meggie might not want it, but we need some space to talk.
For the first time since we met, I feel uncomfortable when we’re alone. The way she looks at me, I know that I’ve hurt her more than she will ever say. More than I will ever comprehend. Because Meggie would never lie to me.
“I didn’t tell you about Lucia because it isn’t a real relationship.”
I want to close the distance between us, fold her into my arms, and feel her heartbeat in synch with mine, but I stay where I am. Holding her would be more for my benefit than it would be for her and now is not the time for me to be selfish.
“You heard her,” I continue. “It was an arrangement. I don’t love her. I’ve never loved her.”