Chapter 48
More than one year later
“Giancarlo?” I ask as soon as a powerful voice, with a slightly lyrical accent, answers.
“Who’s speaking?”
“Amber Martin.”
For a few seconds, he doesn’t reply, and I wonder if he hung up, but then he says, his tone cold as ice, “How may I help you, Miss Martin?”
“I’m Elodie’s sister.”
“I know.”
Jesus, this is going to be so much harder than I thought at first, but the truth is, I need to at least try. I have to know I did everything possible to bring my sister’s will to live back.
As much as she never talks about it, I know she hasn’t gotten over losing the baby.
A few months after moving to Grand Island, surrounded by an army of bodyguards, Beau’s condition for letting her isolate herself that much, Elodie took a course and now works as a flight attendant for one of Beau’s friends, a businessman, on his private jet.
I don’t know if she realizes she’s being watched by bodyguards twenty-four hours a day, both Beau’s and Amos’s men.
It’s a false sense of freedom, but I’ve already made peace with the fact that in my husband’s and my brother’s world, they don’t allow room for risks. I think she doesn’t even notice the surveillance anymore, or if she does, she ignores it.
She’s always flying, and even in the rare times I’ve seen her, like at the birth of Violet, my daughter, and at my wedding, Elodie refused to touch on anything about her past with Giancarlo.
I researched his sordid history online, and also that Italian tramp, Capria Mancini.
If there’s one thing to be said about me, it’s that I can hate as intensely as I love.
If you hurt me, there’s a chance I might forgive you someday, but if you hurt the ones I love, I’ll curse you to your eighth generation.
Capria is on the short list of people that, if I ever saw her on the side of the road, I’d run her over without hesitation.
In the end, she’s the one responsible for my sister losing the baby.
I wipe cold sweat from my forehead.
Today, on the way back from my honeymoon, when we had a video call and out of nowhere Elodie broke down in front of me, becoming emotional just at the mention of Violet, I knew I had to take action.
At this very moment, she’s in Hong Kong, alone and hurting.
She’s proud and wounded, but she’s still in love with the Italian tycoon.
More than a year has gone by, and she only seems worse.
In the meantime, a lot has happened. The girls were rescued from the compound, just as Beau planned, and taken to an association my brother owns called Trust Again.
The elders, after having their names and crimes exposed in newspapers and on TV worldwide, vanished into thin air, except for one, Josiah Wiley, a Texas businessman who was arrested and is awaiting trial.
Somehow, I knew Beau, or Amos, or maybe both, were involved.
And I was certain when our father, Tobias, escaped and both my husband and my brother launched a real manhunt for the man who’d destroyed so many lives.
In the end, it was me and Elodie who helped catch him.
One day I called her, telling her Beau still had no idea where Tobias was, and then she remembered a hunting cabin our father owned in Dallas.
She made a plan. We did everything behind Beau’s back. We pretended we wanted to go to one of his clubs in Texas and then slipped away from the bodyguards to check if Tobias was there, just as we suspected.
I’m not proud of deceiving my husband, but we were terrified Tobias would flee to another country and hurt more girls. When we went to the cabin, we knew Beau would track us because he had a tracker on my phone. We stayed hidden in the car, in the woods, until my husband showed up with his men.
He was furious at me for the risk we took, but in the end, it worked.
We never asked what happened to Tobias, but we both know he’s dead, and we don’t mourn him.
“I don’t know if I should’ve called,” I confess.
“Then why did you?”
“Because I want to know if you still care about her.”
“Whatever was between us is over, Miss Martin. Your sister cut off all contact. I’m sure your husband told you I was in New Orleans more than once this past year looking for her, and I never got a response.
I even hired detectives to find her, and still couldn’t.
In the end, her silence and absence explained everything. ”
“My sister changed her last name. She’s using our mother’s, De León.”
“Good for her, reconnecting with her roots, Miss Martin. But what does that have to do with me?”
“She loves you, Gianni. Elodie’s hurt, but she’s still crazy about you. She hasn’t gotten over it.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that. I appreciate your attempt at playing matchmaker, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s over.”
“Are you with someone?”
I hear his irritated sigh, and I can’t really blame him. It isn’t my business.
“That’s none of your concern,” he answers, exasperated.
“Please, I need to know. If you’ve moved on from her, you have my word I’ll never bother you again.”
“I’m alone, but that doesn’t change anything.”
I take a deep breath, asking God to let me be doing the right thing, and before I can regret it, I say, “She lost your baby, Giancarlo. It wasn’t the news of the engagement that that lunatic ex of yours threw in the press that made my sister cut off contact with you.
“What?”
“She was pregnant and didn’t know it, and she fell the very day that woman told the papers your wedding would happen in just a few weeks.
Elodie fell into a deep depression. She moved into one of Beau’s beach houses and spent months isolated from the world.
She had to start seeing a therapist just to be able to move forward.
My sister is proud and stubborn, but she’s not a coward.
I know she still loves you, but she’s been trying to piece back together her broken heart after losing your child. ”
He stays silent for a long time, and I don’t try to speak again, because I’ve said everything I could.
“I never knew she was pregnant.”
“I know, and that’s why I’m telling you.”
“I’m coming there.”
“Don’t do that yet. First, because she’s in Hong Kong right now.
And anyway, I don’t think you should just show up like that.
Maybe you’ll need a subtler approach. You’ll have to be patient with her.
For people like us, who’ve never had anything, loss is felt even more deeply than by others.
She fell in love with you and told me that even if you two hadn’t worked out, she still wanted the baby you made together.
I imagine all you can think about right now is seeing her, but I think you’ll need a softer approach.
A plan, actually. I have something in mind. ”
“What are you talking about?”
“I thought about arranging for you two to meet in a more subtle way.”
“Subtlety isn’t a word often used in my world, Miss Martin.”
“Please, call me Amber. As I said, I thought of you showing up in a way she couldn’t run from, somewhere you’d have to talk.”
“What do you have in mind?”
I quickly explain how she’s working for Beau’s friend and that my sister’s been trying to land a job in a big airline, but with her lack of experience, no one’s hired her yet.
“I could arrange with my husband for you to take a trip on his friend’s jet. She’ll be the flight attendant, and in midair, she’ll have no choice but to hear you out, at least.”
Silence.
Jesus, I get that he must be angry, but I didn’t expect to turn into the Italian version of my husband. The man is so damn proud.
“It won’t work. I play by my own rules. When will she be back in the States?” he asks, but this time, his voice sounds completely different, tinged with sorrow.
As much as I love my sister and ache in solidarity with her, it’s obvious to me that the news about the baby has shaken him deeply, too.
“She’ll be back the day after tomorrow. What are you thinking?”
At that moment, I already know I did the right thing by calling. It’s clear to me the Italian hasn’t moved on from my sister, either.
“You said no airline would hire her because of her lack of experience?”
“Yes, but I know she won’t give up. Being a flight attendant has been Elodie’s dream for years, and she clung to it to move forward.”
“Is it working?”
There’s tension in his voice when he asks.
“No. I won’t say more. I’ll let you see for yourself. All I ask is that you two at least talk.”
“With all due respect, Amber, I didn’t ask for advice. I appreciate that you called, but it took you a year to do it. I didn’t even know Elodie had miscarried. Who gave you the right to keep something like that from me?”
I feel sorry for him, and the guilt hits hard.
“So you won’t even try to talk to my sister?”
“Yes, I will. But I’ll do it my way. We both need closure. I don’t believe there’s anything left between us.”
I disagree, but I don’t say it.
“Don’t hurt her, Giancarlo. I understand you’re upset, but keep in mind my sister’s suffered, too.”
“Give me the address of where she’s staying, Amber. I’ll decide what to do.”
I hang up feeling relieved, but also deeply anxious.
God, please let me have done the right thing. All I want is my sister’s happiness.