26. Leo
Leo
Alex had completely and thoroughly broken my heart. More than I ever thought possible. And more than I would ever admit. It wasn’t until the moment he told me he wanted nothing to do with me that I realized the depths of my affection for him.
I was in love with my stepbrother.
And now, less than an hour after he’d told me that everything between us was over, I had to sit across from him at a restaurant and pretend to be okay.
Was I doing it for my sake? For my parents?
For him? I wasn’t sure. But as I forced another smile and talked my stepmother through the menu, I knew I had no other choice.
If Alex didn’t want anyone to know, then that’s how it would be.
Regardless of how furious and hurt I was because of him, I couldn’t out him to get some petty revenge.
That wasn’t okay. And I would not be stooping to Amanda’s level just because I was upset.
The restaurant was intimate and cozy with its heavy stone walls and the golden afternoon light pouring in from outside.
The air was filled with the smell of garlic and fresh basil wafting out of the small kitchen.
Under any other circumstances, it would have been heavenly. As it was, it felt like torture.
I sat between my stepmother and my father, acutely aware of every movement Alex made opposite me.
I noticed the way his fingers wrapped around his wine glass.
The careful distance he maintained between us.
The practiced smile he deployed whenever my stepmother asked him a question about his life back in New York.
He was good at this, I realized. Compartmentalizing. Shutting down. It was probably a skill he’d honed over years of corporate meetings and company trips. But watching him do it to me, after everything we’d shared, made my chest feel like it was caving in on itself.
“So you two really needed this vacation,” my stepmother was saying, gesturing between Alex and me with her wine glass. “Amanda mentioned you both seemed a lot happier here.”
I nearly choked on my water.
“Amanda called you?” Alex’s voice was carefully neutral, but I could hear the edge underneath it.
“Oh yes, we talk almost every week,” my stepmother gushed. “She said you’d been depressed after the divorce, that you weren’t taking care of yourself. She felt terrible about how things ended between you two, and she wanted to make sure you were okay.”
I watched Alex’s jaw clench. He took a long sip of wine before responding. “That was... thoughtful of her.”
The sarcasm was barely detectable, but it was there. My stepmother, oblivious as always, just smiled and patted his arm.
“We thought so too. But when she told us that you seemed so much happier here, we were delighted!” Diane reached up and brushed Alex’s hair away from his forehead.
“She said you wished we could see Italy and how much good it’s done for you.
And I thought, why not? That’s why we decided to surprise you both.
A little family time in a beautiful place. Just what everyone needed.”
My father, sitting across from us, nodded in agreement.
He was a man of few words, content to let my stepmother do most of the talking.
I’d always appreciated that about him. He didn’t push, didn’t pry.
But right now, I would have welcomed his intervention, anything to break the suffocating tension that seemed to be building around our table.
The waiter arrived with our appetizers, and for a blessed few minutes, there was something to do besides sit in this excruciating silence.
I picked at my burrata, watching the way the cream oozed across my plate, and tried very hard not to think about the last time Alex and I had eaten together.
Just this morning, actually. In the kitchen.
Half-naked and tangled up in each other like we had all the time in the world.
“Leo, you’ve been quiet,” my stepmother observed, and I realized she was looking at me expectantly.
“Just tired,” I said, forcing brightness into my voice. “I’ve been going to a lot of shops this week to keep myself busy.”
“Well, you should take tomorrow off,” she suggested. “Rest up. We’re only here for a few days, so we want to make the most of it. Maybe we could all go to the beach?”
“That sounds nice,” I heard myself say.
Obviously I meant the opposite. Being in close proximity to Alex while pretending my heart wasn’t shattered into a thousand pieces was torture. It felt like slowly dying inside while maintaining a smile.
But I couldn’t say any of that. So instead, I took another sip of wine and nodded along as my stepmother began planning our itinerary.
Across the table, I caught Alex glancing at me. For just a moment, his mask slipped. I saw something flicker across his face. Guilt, maybe, or regret. He looked away again and it was gone.
It should have made me feel better. It didn’t.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Diane said, snapping her fingers and pointing at Alex. “Amanda said you had something to tell us.”
Alex’s brows furrowed and he looked suddenly nervous. “Something… to tell you?”
“Yes,” my stepmother nodded. “She made it sound like a big deal. Like you’d had some sort of breakthrough.
” She leaned forward, a genuine smile on her face.
“Did you get a job offer? Or maybe a girlfriend?” She glanced over at my father who just shook his head.
“Are you and Amanda getting back together?”
Alex had a physical reaction to that, a scoff slipping out before he could stop it. “No. We are not. She’s still with the pool boy.” He picked up his wine, chugging it down. “I’m surprised she didn’t tell you that she’s engaged to him now. They’re trying to have a baby.”
Diane’s smile faltered only for a moment before she nodded. “Well, I’m glad she found someone. But I’d rather hear about your big news. She said you told her some big secret, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was!”
My heart sank as it all clicked into place.
Alex had told Amanda he was gay now, and that it was her fault.
Mostly as a way to hurt her. And it must’ve worked, because she’d tipped off our parents.
Not only that, but she did it intelligently.
I’d threatened her with a defamation suit if she went making false claims. But Amanda was smarter than I gave her credit for. The girl was playing chess.
She’d planted a seed in our parent’s heads without telling them anything.
In fact, all she said were truths, but she’d spun them in a way to back Alex into a corner.
Now, one way or another, he had to give up something big.
Diane wasn’t the kind of woman to accept just any answer.
If it wasn’t a big enough secret, she’d keep pressing until he caved.
That or she’d go back to Amanda for more details and that would undoubtedly make the situation spiral out of control even further.
“I… I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Alex said. “I don’t have some big secret. I’m just feeling better.”
“She said it was a huge announcement,” Diane pushed, not giving up just like I knew she wouldn’t. “Amanda called it life-changing. That’s gotta be something!”
“I don’t—”
“It’s my announcement,” I said, cutting him off. “Amanda got things mixed up.”
Diane turned to me, her smile never wavering.
Alex, on the other hand, went pale. That cool detached exterior of his crumbled as he stared at me.
I didn’t have to read minds to know what he was thinking.
He thought I was going to give away our secret, that I was going to admit everything we’d been doing for the past two weeks.
He expected me to act just like Amanda, vindictive and cruel because he’d broken my heart.
But I just couldn’t do it. I… I loved him too much to do that.
“The villa isn’t rented,” I said, my voice shaking. “I… I bought it. I’m moving to Italy.”
Silence.
Across the table, Alex’s face went through several emotions. Relief, disbelief, gratitude, and understanding. As if, at that moment, he suddenly realized just how much I cared for him. That I was willing to throw myself in front of the proverbial bus to save him.
My stepmother’s fork clattered against her plate.
“You… bought it?” Diane’s voice had gone up several octaves. “Leo, that’s a massive financial decision. Have you thought this through?”
“Completely,” I said, though it wasn’t strictly true.
I’d thought about buying the villa as a vacation home that would bring in extra income while Ben and I weren’t there.
The moving to Italy part after we broke up was a knee-jerk reaction.
“I’ve been unhappy for a long time. With my job, with my life back home, with everything.
And then I came here, and I finally felt like I could breathe again.
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I just didn’t know how to say it. ”
My father was studying me with that quiet intensity he usually reserved for people he was trying to understand. I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes, the way he was processing this information and filing it away to discuss with my stepmother later.
“But your career,” Diane protested. “Your clients, your reputation. You can’t just abandon everything.”
“I can work remotely,” I said. “I’ve already started reaching out to some of my old contacts.
People who appreciate my work and don’t care where I’m physically located.
I’m going to do interior design for vacation homes.
There are plenty of wealthy people looking for that kind of expertise in Italy. ”
It wasn’t entirely a lie. I had been thinking about it, in those moments between sex and sleep when my mind would wander to the future. But I hadn’t actually done anything about it yet. I’d been too busy living in the moment with Alex, too afraid to think about what came next.
But now there was no future with Alex in it, so I had to focus on my own.
“This is quite sudden,” my stepmother said, her eyes full of surprise. “You’re just… leaving us.” I knew she didn’t say it to hurt me, but it stung nonetheless. “Honey, are you doing all this because of Ben?”
I felt Alex tense across from me. My jaw clenched involuntarily at the mention of my ex-fiancé’s name.
“No,” I said quietly. “It’s not because of Ben. This move is about me. For once in my life, I’m doing something that’s just about what I want. I’m not trying to hurt anyone, but I… I need this.”
There was a weight to those words that I hoped my parents wouldn’t fully understand. Because what I actually wanted was sitting directly across from me, nursing a glass of wine and looking at me like I’d just thrown myself into traffic to save him.
“Well,” my father said, breaking his silence. He reached over and squeezed my stepmother’s hand. “I think that’s admirable, Leo. It takes courage to make a change like that.”
Diane looked like she wanted to argue further, but something in my father’s expression must have told her to let it go. She turned back to her plate, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“You’ll visit us though, right?” she asked, her voice trembling. “You’re not just going to disappear forever?”
“Of course not,” I nodded, taking her other hand. “I’ll come visit and you guys can always come out here too. You’ll both be retiring in a year or two, and you can come see me whenever you want. I’ve got lots of bedrooms.”
Diane seemed to relax slightly at that, though I could still see the worry etched into the lines around her eyes. My father gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze before releasing it, and I felt a small measure of gratitude toward him for his support.
The rest of lunch passed in a blur of conversation that I only half-participated in.
My stepmother talked about their flight, the drive from the airport, how charming the countryside was.
My father interjected occasionally with observations about the architecture and local wine.
And Alex... Alex barely said a word. He just sat there, pushing food around his plate, stealing glances at me when he thought no one was looking.
Each time his eyes found mine, I felt that sharp twist in my gut all over again. The reminder that he’d just told me this morning that none of it meant anything. That I was just an experiment. That he was leaving in three days and never coming back.
Except now I was staying. I’d bought a house in Italy and I was going to build a life here. And he was going to walk away from me like that last two weeks had never happened.
The injustice of it made me want to scream.
Instead, I smiled politely and accepted compliments on the location of my new home, and pretended that my world hadn’t just imploded for the second time in as many months.
When we finally left the restaurant, my stepmother linked her arm through mine as we walked back up the hill toward the villa. Alex was walking ahead with my father, maintaining that careful distance he’d been keeping all evening.
“I’m really proud of you, Leo,” Diane said quietly, and I could hear the sincerity in her voice even if I didn’t fully believe her words. “I know it scared me at first, but I think this is good for you. A fresh start.”
“Thanks, Diane,” I said. “I really appreciate that.”
“Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself,” she continued. “And that you’ll keep in touch. No disappearing off the grid.”
“I promise,” I said.
“Maybe you’ll find a nice Italian boyfriend here,” she smiled. “Like that young man that drove us from the airport. He was very handsome.”
I nodded, forcing a smile even though Matteo held almost no appeal to me. Nobody was appealing to me. Nobody but Alex…
“Yeah,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Maybe I will.”