Chapter 7 #2
“I want to have a visit with my sister. Surely you don’t have to monitor every word I say. I promise, it won’t be that interesting.”
Before he could answer, footsteps echoed on the marble floors.
We all turned as Salvatore entered the room.
He wore a T-shirt and jeans, the V-neck clinging to his sculpted body.
His cobalt-blue eyes locked on mine, and my heartbeat quickened, my body suddenly tingling, nipples tightening, every hair standing on end.
A moment later, he released me from his gaze, his posture relaxing as he nodded to my sister and smiled at Effie struggling with the plastic.
“Thanks, Marco. You can go,” he said.
Marco nodded and left the room. Salvatore walked over to Izzy.
“I don’t think I’ve met Lucia’s sister officially. I’m Salvatore Benedetti.”
She took his hand. “Isabella DeMarco.”
“Good to meet you. And this is?”
Effie looked up. “Got it!” She held up the plastic triumphantly, then checked out Salvatore. “I’m Effie,” she said, rising to her feet from the floor and holding out her hand.
Salvatore took it. “Nice to meet you, Effie.”
Rainey walked in with a tray and set the glasses of lemonade down on the coffee table. We stood awkwardly.
“I’ll let you and your sister have some privacy,” Salvatore finally said, his tone casual, his gaze wavering. “I’m going to take a shower.”
He waited. My body still did that vibrating, tingling thing as the air crackled between us.
“Thank you,” I finally said.
He nodded and left the room. We watched him go. Only when he was out of the room did either of us breathe. My thoughts wandered to what I’d found in his room. I wondered if he’d think he’d forgotten to lock the door between our bedrooms, or if he’d know I’d broken in.
“Wow. He’s intense.”
I exhaled. “Yeah.” I couldn’t tell Izzy about what he’d done. What I’d done. Hell, I wasn’t sure myself what it all meant or how I felt about it.
“Effie, it’s polite to offer chocolates to others first before you dig in.”
My sister tried to sound strict, but I saw the proud smile she worked to hide.
Effie turned her big, pale blue eyes to her mom, her mouth working on a second piece of chocolate. She rose to her feet and walked over to us.
“Would you like a chocolate?” she asked, turning to me first.
“I’d love one.” I chose a dark chocolate and thanked her. Izzy declined, and Effie shrugged a shoulder and helped herself to a third.
“How are you doing? You didn’t answer any of my messages. I thought he wasn’t letting you use the phone!”
I shook my head with a weak smile. “No, it was just drained. I only checked the messages a few minutes before you got here, actually.”
“Well, you’re going to have to answer next time. I got worried.”
I nodded.
“You okay?” she asked quietly.
I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t want to cry.” As I said it, the first tears wet my lashes.
“Shh.” Izzy dug for a tissue in her bag.
Rainey walked out of the kitchen and toward us just then. I turned my face away.
“I’m getting ready to bake cookies in the kitchen. Maybe Effie would like to help?” she asked Izzy.
Effie’s eyebrows rose, and she bounced up to stand. “Oh, can I, Mommy?”
“You sure?” Izzy asked Rainey.
After a glance and a small smile at me, she nodded.
“Sure,” Izzy said. “Thank you.”
Effie took Rainey’s hand easily, and they walked off.
“That was nice,” Izzy said.
“I haven’t yet figured her out.”
Izzy took my hands. “Are we okay, Lucia? This is important. I know we haven’t talked about it, about me leaving. I was wrong to just take off. I know that. I’m back now, though, and I’m not abandoning you again, okay? You’re not alone, even though it may feel that way right now.”
I smiled. More tears fell. “We’re okay, Izzy.” It felt good to say that. Felt good to have my sister back, actually.
She hugged me tight to her, then whispered into my ear. “Are there cameras? Listening devices?”
Her question surprised me. “I don’t know,” I whispered back. “I haven’t seen any but can’t say for sure there aren’t.”
She pulled back and looked at me. “The pool looks amazing.”
I knew what she wanted. “Let’s go check it out.”
We walked outside and away from the house toward the swimming pool.
“How is he? When no one’s around, I mean?”
“Bossy.” I couldn’t tell her about earlier. About any of it. “And gone, mostly. He just got back from wherever he was, actually.”
“He looks at you like he wants to eat you alive.”
He scared me, but I didn’t want to say that out loud, and not to Izzy.
“I can’t figure him out. He’s horrible one second, then nice.
Almost…caring. Like he gives a shit what I feel or think.
” I picked a single dandelion growing in the otherwise immaculate lawn.
“But then he’s a jerk again, and then he disappears. ”
“Is he making you…” she hesitated.
“Sleep with him?” I thought of what I’d found in his bedroom and felt my face heat up.
She nodded.
“Not yet.”
“Good. Are you able to come and go?”
“I don’t know. Not on my own, I think.”
“Okay, that’s fine. I’ll just come get you. If he wants to send someone to follow us, we’ll deal.”
“It doesn’t matter, Izzy. I’m stuck here.”
“Luke and I…We’re not going to sit back and let them have everything. Let them have you.”
“Luke?”
“Just because we lost one war, doesn’t mean we can’t start another.”
“Izzy.” Even in the heat of the day, a shudder ran through me. “You can’t. We lost once, and we had an army to back us.”
“We don’t need an army. We’ve got access now.”
“What?”
Izzy suddenly laughed out loud as if I’d told a joke. It was then that I saw Salvatore standing in the window of his study, watching us. “By access, you mean me.”
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes.” It was all I’d thought of for the last five years and for good reason.
“I want my freedom. And I want Franco Benedetti to pay for what he did to us. For what he made Papa do.” I remembered the last time I’d seen my father.
It was in that horrible room when I’d signed the contract.
Why had I refused to talk to him all these years?
He’d tried. He’d come to the college once every month.
He’d call once a week. But I blamed him for my fate.
And he was to blame, but I also understood he had no choice.
I should have been more understanding of the strain he was under.
“And what about him?” she asked, cocking her head in the direction of Salvatore, who’d turned away from the window.
“I want my freedom.”
“Well, that’s a start. Let’s go inside, before he gets suspicious.”
“Cookies are ready!” Effie called out as soon as we got into the house.
“They smell amazing,” I said.
She watched proudly as Rainey carried a plateful of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies into the living room.
“I’m packing up the house,” Izzy said. “Effie and I are moving in.”
“You are?” I was surprised. Papa had still lived in the house we’d grown up in.
I didn’t think she’d want the house but was glad she wasn’t talking about selling it.
I wasn’t ready for that yet. The thought—it was just too final.
I wasn’t ready to say good-bye to it, ending that chapter of my life so permanently.
Izzy nodded. “I should have come back sooner than this. I should have forgiven him.”
“I didn’t.”
“It should have been me here in your place,” she said, her eyes downcast.
“I don’t want to think about that.”
“If it weren’t for me getting pregnant…”
“Do you keep in touch with the father?” I wanted to know who he was. It didn’t matter anymore, not now that Papa was gone, and even if he had found out, it couldn’t have mattered then either.
Salvatore chose that moment to walk into the living room. “I could smell the cookies from the study.” His eyes met mine first, his expression guarded, almost cautious.
“I baked them. Rainey helped,” Effie proudly said.
“Did you now? May I?”
She smiled, nodding.
He picked one up and took a bite. “Well, you did a good job. They’re the best cookies I’ve ever had.”
Effie gave him a big smile. “They are?”
“Yep. And Rainey’s a good cook, so that says something.”
Izzy checked her watch. “We should get going.”
“You can’t stay longer?” I didn’t want her to go. I didn’t want to be alone with him.
“I’ve got people coming to help with the house, and we’ll be back with bathing suits soon. Maybe you can come help? I’m packing up some things and moving them to the attic, getting rid of some things. Maybe you want to do your room?
I glanced at Salvatore, hating that I had to ask his permission. Ask him for a ride. Ask him for everything.
“When?” he asked.
Izzy shrugged her shoulder. “Tomorrow or the next day.”
“I think we can manage that.”
I felt like I went from my father’s house, to the nuns, to Salvatore Benedetti’s. I was powerless to decide anything for myself.
“Luce?” Izzy asked.
I nodded, adjusting my expression. “My calendar is free,” I said, giving Salvatore a smirk.
He didn’t react.
“Great, we’ll see you then. Come on, Effie, time to go back home.”
“Ugh. Home is so boring,” she said, her shoulders slumping.
“No, it’s not. We’ve just got to find your box of toys. Maybe you can pack up a couple of those cookies for home.”
I picked up a napkin, tucked the remaining cookies into it, and handed it to Effie.
“Here you go, honey. Don’t forget your bathing suit the next time you come, by the way.”
“I won’t, Aunt Lucia.”
She gave me a hug. Again came the thought that I’d missed out on the first years of my niece’s life. I didn’t know her. I hardly knew Izzy anymore. Or Luke.
Were Luke and Izzy really planning an attack on the Benedetti family? What did that mean for Salvatore?
Salvatore walked with us to the door. Once they had driven off and were out of view, he closed it. We stood in the foyer.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”