Chapter 55
“Before I tell you about the past, let me answer your questions first. You wanted to know what made me change my mind about marrying Capria when I was younger. I can’t fully explain it, I just had this instinct it wouldn’t work.
I never had married parents, but I did have parents in a relationship.
Greta and Dino were like water and oil. I never told her this, but even if he had left Carina, the official wife, and stayed with my mother, it wouldn’t have lasted long. ”
“And you thought the same about you and Capria, Gianni?”
“Yes. The idea of divorce doesn’t sit well with me, especially when there are children involved, so I decided to cut the evil at its root.
I made it clear to her that what we had was casual.
At first, Capria seemed to agree, but over time, she started playing games, trying to trap me into something more. I put an end to it.”
“But she told me it was only a little before we started dating, Gianni. That’s why you thought the baby she was carrying—”
“She had an abortion.”
“All right. I always thought it was strange that the magazines never mentioned her pregnancy. Anyway, what I’m saying is you seriously considered the child could be yours, which means you ended things just days before meeting me.”
“I ended it the day after I saw your video at the auction.”
She stares at me like she thinks I’m joking. When seconds pass and I stay silent, she looks flustered.
“My mother believed in destiny,” she says.
“So do I.”
I park at Tommaso’s vineyard and help her out of the car, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
When I lead her up to my brother’s secret terrace, she says, “I thought you were taking me to the villa.”
“Later. You said you wanted to understand what drove me after Angelo. I’ll tell you everything, but when we go back home, I want to leave this story outside. It’ll be just us, starting fresh, Elodie.”
We reach the rooftop overlooking Tommaso’s entire vineyard. The sun hasn’t set yet, and for a moment, she stands silent, just taking in the view.
“I missed this. When my sister said she wanted to settle down, be a flower with roots and family, I couldn’t picture myself like that.
Then you and I happened. And I wanted it all.
I think that’s why I suffered so much when we lost our baby.
Besides the guilt of not protecting our baby all my dreams just dissolved into thin air. ”
I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist, holding her close. I want her to keep talking, because Elodie rarely opens up about what hurts her, and I want to hear everything so I’ll never make her suffer again.
I don’t care about the fights or if she throws things at me when she’s angry. I have no illusions that a relationship between us will ever be calm; we both have strong tempers. But those things can be fixed, worked out with words.
A wounded heart takes longer to heal.
“I had a plan when I started working for the airline you bought. I was planning to move to Spain, try to research my mother’s family roots,” she says, turning in my arms.
“You can still do that. I’ll hire someone.”
“Bossy.”
“Yes. Controlling, too. Don’t walk into this thinking I’m any different, Elodie.”
“And what about you, are you walking in blind? Because I’m not Capria. I’ll never settle for less than everything. I’ll argue and fight every time something doesn’t sit right with me.”
“I never wanted you to change. Maybe I was wrong to treat you like I treated my other girlfriends, forcing stylists on you, buying the jewelry I thought you’d want to wear, but your personality always fascinated me.”
“You fascinate me, too, Italian. And that scares the hell out of me.”
“Needing someone emotionally isn’t in my top ten favorite things, either, but here we are.”
She shakes her head. “You and Amber tricked me.” Her half-smile is pure irony.
“I don’t see it that way. I did what I had to do to bring the woman I love back into my life.”
“Is it love you feel?”
“No. That’s just a banal label, Romniya. It’s madness and devotion. Passion and need. It’s the desire for a forever that can only be real if it’s with you.”
She closes her eyes and rests her forehead against my chest. “I dreamed so many times that you’d love me the way I love you, I was ashamed of my weakness.”
“Loving isn’t weakness.”
“Needing someone is.”
“No, it’s terrifying, but it’s not weakness. Admitting you need someone in your life, admitting you want to share every day on this earth with one specific person, that’s power.”
“I still don’t feel as strong as I used to.”
“Maybe because now you can finally see that, like anyone else, you’re capable of breaking. Seeing our own vulnerabilities is never comfortable.”
She nods in agreement. “How are we going to make this work? I’m not giving up my job. You bought the company to employ me, so I’ll make sure you get your money’s worth.”
Her tone is sarcastic, but I can see the doubt behind it.
“You said you dreamed of my love, and that you missed Tuscany. Stay here forever. Take the risk of our madness, Elodie.”
“Just the idea terrifies me,” she says, pressing my hand to her heart, which is racing. “But I want it so badly, Gianni.”
“I can’t promise you only happy days, but I promise you my love and devotion. Stay.”
“I need to think. It’s all happening too fast.”
She steps out of my arms, and I know it’s because she feels overwhelmed by our confessions.
I won’t pressure her or bulldoze her into a decision, though every bone in my body demands it.
I’ll let her choose freely, even if we both know there’s no going our separate ways.
If our love survived everything we went through this past year, it can withstand anything.
“Tell me about Angelo,” she asks.
“Sit down. It’s a long story.”
I wait for her to settle, but I remain standing. Talking about this makes my blood boil.
“One of my mother’s ancestors, my great-grandmother’s grandmother, was promised in marriage to a Sicilian mobster,” I begin, watching her eyes as she starts making the connection.
“She didn’t love him, but arranged marriages were common in Italy until not too long ago.
This woman refused to be tamed or have her fate dictated for her. ”
“I already admire her,” she says with a half-smile, easing some of the weight off my chest.
“She ran away and married another man. When she returned months later with her husband, her parents forgave her. That alone was unusual, given her defiance, but it was seen as a grave insult by the mafia family whose heir she had rejected. They waited years, when she already had a daughter, and then they killed her. They killed the husband, too, leaving the child orphaned.”
“Oh my God!”
“My ancestors thought it was over. That the cycle of hatred and vengeance was finished. But the nightmare had only just begun.”
“What happened?”
“Every woman born from that line of hers was raped the moment she turned from child to adolescent. No matter how young.”
“Gianni. . .”
“They preferred the youngest daughters. But if there was only one girl, she became their target.”
I can’t stop now. If I pause, I won’t be able to keep going.
“The cycle repeated itself, and instead of retaliating, the men in my family accepted it as the ‘fate’ of their daughters. Even my grandmother’s parents.”
“Her, too. . .?”
“Yes. By the time it reached my generation, the ‘tradition’ was so ingrained that the men didn’t even know.
Only the women knew, and they resigned themselves to it.
On her deathbed, Nonna made me swear I’d put an end to it—that I’d not only avenge our ancestors but make sure Donatella and Giovanna would never endure the same. ”
“Those mobst— They were Angelo’s relatives?”
“Yes. Direct line. I wiped them out one by one,” I say, locking eyes with her so she won’t doubt me. “But I never closed the cycle with Angelo because Beau got to him first. Even though it wasn’t my hand, I thought it was finally over. I was wrong. There’s one more. Angelo’s bastard son.”
“Bastard son?”
“Yes. Fiorello Lombardi.”
She shoots to her feet. “Do you remember the guard who told me he’d make me his second wife? The one who confessed he’d killed his first?”
After the first month together, Elodie told me everything she endured in captivity, including that man. She never gave me his name, though. I nod.
“That was him. Now I understand why he had such freedom to come and go in my room whenever he wanted. He was Angelo’s son. But if that’s the case, he was planning to betray his own father by taking me away from there.”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“And he thought he’d get away with it?”
“We’ll never know. But I believe, just as I did, that the bastard who bought you, Fiorello’s friend, never planned on giving you back, either. He would’ve double-crossed Angelo and kept the profit for himself.”
Just the thought of her being treated as an object, a commodity, fuels a murderous rage inside me.
“And I thought I was deceiving him, when in truth, he deceived us all. It was his idea to auction me as a trial for one month.”
“But in the end, his arrogance of thinking he could trick his father is what allowed me to get you out.”
“So, what you’re saying is that this man is a direct descendant of Angelo, and so he might come after your sisters to continue that horrible tradition?”
“Yes. But I’m hunting him. It won’t happen. I’ll never let him get to them.”
“There’s something I don’t understand, Gianni. Your nonna, the one who made you promise, she’s your mother’s mother, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then how. . .how did Greta. . .?”
“I don’t know yet. But I intend to find out.”
I’ve said far more than I planned, but I want Elodie by my side forever, with no secrets left between us.
“I’m not a good man, bella. When I found out it was Capria’s actions that made you lose the baby, I executed her father’s debts. He was already bankrupt. The last news I heard was that she’d have to get a job to survive.”
“I don’t pity her. She deserves far worse. But I don’t want you to do anything else, Gianni. I believe in second chances. Everyone has the right to change their story. In her case, I think she deserves to reap the evil she sowed. And if there’s justice in this world, it’ll come sooner or later.”