Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The walk to Matteo's study feels like walking to an execution.
My hand is in Enzo's and his grip is steady and warm but my entire body is shaking, trembling so badly I'm surprised I can still put one foot in front of the other.
My mind is racing, spiraling through every possible version of how this conversation is going to go and none of them end well, none of them end with Matteo understanding, none of them end with anything except devastation.
What will I tell him? How will I get him to understand?
He hit Enzo.
My brother punched the man I love in the face and I watched it happen and I couldn't stop it. The helplessness of that moment is still sitting in my chest like broken glass.
I will not let him lay another finger get on Enzo. Not after what he has been through. No.
Enzo may think he deserves it but I don’t deserve to watch the man I love being beaten by my brother that I love as well.
I can’t.
The study door is closed when we arrive.
Enzo reaches for the handle and I grip his hand tighter, stopping him.
"W-Wait," I whisper.
He looks at me.
"I'm scared," I admit, my voice coming out small and broken. "I'm so scared, Enzo."
He pulls me against him carefully, mindful of his wound, and wraps his arms around me.
"I know," he says quietly into my hair. "Me too."
"What if he—" I can't finish the sentence. Can't say out loud what I'm terrified of.
What if he makes us choose? What if he kicks Enzo out? What if he forces me to marry Vittorio anyway? What if this is the end of everything we just decided we get to have.
"Whatever happens," Enzo says, "we handle it together. Okay?"
I nod against his chest even though nothing feels okay, nothing feels remotely close to okay.
He kisses the top of my head and then opens the door.
Matteo is standing behind his desk with his back to us, looking out the window at the grounds, his shoulders rigid and his hands clasped behind him.
He doesn't turn when we enter.
"Close the door," he says.
Enzo closes it and the click of the latch sounds impossibly loud in the quiet room.
We stand there and wait. Matteo still doesn't turn around, just stands there looking out the window, and the silence stretches and stretches until I can't bear it anymore.
"Matteo—"
"I'm not fucking stupid." His voice is flat and cold. "I want to make that clear before we start this conversation. I'm not stupid, I'm not blind. So don’t fucking play with me when I ask questions.”
He turns finally to look at us, and the expression on his face makes my stomach drop.
Fury. Betrayal. Hurt.
All of it directed at us in equal measure.
"I want a full explanation," he says, and his voice is deadly calm.
"Everything. From the beginning. And I want the truth, not whatever version you think I want to hear.
" He looks at Enzo directly. "Because if you lie to me one more time, Bianchi, I will fucking kill you, no matter how important you are to me. "
I believe him completely.
Enzo nods once. "I understand."
"Then start talking."
Enzo takes a breath and I watch him decide where to begin, watch him choose his words carefully.
"Four years ago Isabella told me she had feelings for me," he says. "On the porch at the cabin. She was eighteen. I rejected her."
Matteo's jaw tightens but he doesn't interrupt.
"I rejected her badly," Enzo continues. "Cruelly. I said things I shouldn't have said, things designed to make sure she never came back. Because I knew if I was gentle about it, she would keep hoping and I—" He stops. "I couldn't let that happen."
"Why not?" Matteo asks.
"Because I didn’t think I deserved her, because I didn’t want to betray your trust.” Enzo's voice is steady, honest and devastated. "So, I made it ugly. I humiliated her. I made sure she left hating me."
My throat is closing up listening to this, hearing him admit it out loud to Matteo, hearing the truth of what that night was laid bare in this room.
"And then?" Matteo prompts.
"And then I spent four years keeping my distance. Making sure we were never alone. Never letting myself—" Enzo stops. "But then the wedding happened. Killian's men came. You sent us to the cabin together for her safety and—"
"And you couldn't keep your fucking hands off her anymore," Matteo finishes, his voice hard.
"Yes."
The single word lands like a stone.
Matteo looks at me. "Is that accurate? From your perspective?"
I nod because my voice won't work properly.
"I need to hear you say it, Isabella."
"Yes," I manage. "That's accurate. He rejected me four years ago. We didn't—we weren't—nothing happened until the cabin."
"And at the cabin?"
My face goes hot. "We—"
"I don't need details. I need timeline." Matteo's voice is clipped. "When did this start?"
"Everything really started at the cabin.”
"And you didn't think to tell me." Matteo's hands curl into fists on his desk. "You didn't think your best friend and boss might want to know you were sleeping with his sister."
"I was going to tell you," Enzo says. "Last night. We were going to tell you together when I got back from the factory. But then—"
"But then you got stabbed and I had to watch my sister fall apart over you and realize what was happening without either of you having the fucking decency to tell me yourself."
The accusation in his voice makes me flinch.
"Matteo, please—" I start.
"Don't." He holds up one hand. "Don't defend him. Don't make excuses. He's a grown man who knew exactly what he was doing and chose to do it anyway without consulting me first."
I stiffen. "I don't need your permission to—"
"Yes you do!" Matteo's voice rises for the first time. "Yes you do, Isabella, because you're my sister and he's my Underboss and there are rules about this, there are protocols, there are—" He stops and takes a breath. "There are ways to handle this that aren't sneaking around behind my back."
"We weren't sneaking—"
"You were absolutely sneaking." His eyes flash. "Days of this. Of whatever this is and neither of you said a word. Do you have any idea how that feels? To find out this way? To have to piece it together myself because neither of you respected me enough to be honest?"
Tears are running down my face and I can't stop them, can't do anything except stand here and take it because he's right, he's completely right, we should have told him.
Matteo turns to Enzo and his expression goes colder.
"You broke her heart four years ago," he says quietly.
"You stood on that porch and you destroyed her and I watched her come back different, watched her pull away from you, watched her build walls that took years to come down.
And you knew. You knew what you did to her and you did it anyway because you're a coward who couldn't handle his own feelings. "
Enzo doesn't defend himself, just stands there and takes it.
"And now," Matteo continues, "now you've decided you want her. Now it's convenient. Now you can't stay away. So, you seduce my sister, you sleep with her, you make her fall in love with you all over again, and you still don't tell me. You still lie to my face every single day."
"I never lied—"
"Lying by omission is still lying." Matteo's voice is ice. "Don't fucking insult my intelligence."
The silence that follows is suffocating.
"You're not my Underboss anymore," Matteo says finally, and the words drop like bombs. "Effective immediately. You're done."
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
"Matteo—" I start, my voice breaking.
"I need you to leave," Matteo says to Enzo, ignoring me. "Pack your things. Be out of this house by tonight."
"No!" The word tears out of me. "No, you can't—"
"I can and I am." Matteo looks at me and something in his face softens slightly but his voice stays hard.
"He betrayed my trust, Isabella. He went behind my back with the one person in the world I trusted him to protect without—" He stops.
"I can't have him here. I can't work with someone who would do this, not when all I want to do is kill him. "
I'm crying so hard I can barely see, barely breathe, I look at Enzo and he's just standing there, not fighting, not arguing, and I want to scream at him to say something, to fight back, to not just accept this.
"Let me marry her."
Enzo's voice cuts through my spiral.
Matteo goes very still.
"What?"
"Let me marry Isabella," Enzo says again, and his voice is steady.
"Please, Matteo. Instead of Vittorio. Call off the wedding, tell Salvatore there's been a change, let me marry her.
I'll find another way to secure the alliance.
I'll handle the O'Rourkes. I'll do whatever it takes. But let me marry her, I beg you."
My heart is in my throat.
He… he wants to marry me?
Matteo stares at him for a long moment.
"No," he growls.
The word shatters something in my chest.
"Isabella won't marry Vittorio if she doesn't want to," Matteo continues, and he's looking at me now. "I won't force that. If you don't want to marry him, you don't have to."
Relief floods through me so fast I almost collapse.
"But you sure as hell won't marry someone who betrayed me either," Matteo finishes, and the relief turns to ash. "You think I'm going to hand my sister over to a man who lied to me?"
"Matteo, please—" I'm begging now, openly, desperately. "Please don't do this. I love him. I'm in love with him. You can't—"
"I can." His voice is firm. "It’s for your own good, Isabella. You deserve better than someone who treats you like a secret."
"He didn't—"
Matteo looks at Enzo. "You have until tonight. Pack your things and leave. If you're still here by morning, I'll have you removed by force."
"No!" I'm screaming now, "No, you can't do this! Matteo, you can't—"
"It's done." He won't look at me.
I turn to Enzo, desperate, looking for him to fight this, to argue, to refuse to leave, but he's just standing there looking at Matteo, his face is unreadable and I can't breathe, I can't think, everything is falling apart.
"Say something," I beg him. "Enzo, please, say something."
He looks at me finally and something in his expression breaks.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I'm so sorry, Isabella."
And then he turns and walks out of the study.
Just leaves.
Leaves me standing there with Matteo and the ruins of everything we had planned.
I can't breathe. I can't see through the tears. I can't—
"Isabella—" Matteo starts.
"Don't touch me." I back away from him, my voice raw. "Don't you dare touch me."
"I'm doing this for you—"
"No, you're not. You're doing this because you're angry and you feel betrayed. You want to punish him and you're using me to do it." I'm shaking so hard my teeth are chattering. "I love him, Matteo. I love him and you just—you just—"
I can't finish.
I run from the study, my vision blurred with tears, and I don't stop running until I'm in my room with the door locked behind me.
I slide down to the floor, pull my knees to my chest and I cry.
I cry for Enzo who just lost everything.
I cry for me who just lost him.
I cry until there's nothing left except the hollow ache in my chest and the knowledge that everything just fell apart.
And I don't know how to put it back together.