Chapter 27 #5
“I’ve been analyzing the situation, Signorina, and I think it’s best to prepare your famiglia for your extended stay. Stick to the same narrative of the passionate romance. It was a good idea and makes your desire to remain in Italy believable.”
I sighed, squeezing the black device between my fingers. Extended stay. It was a curious way of putting it.
Luca motioned to me, and we walked the rest of the way down the hallway, stepping out into the main living room.
Midday light streamed through the glass shutters and fell directly on the two massive black leather sofas positioned in the middle of the rectangular room, spreading out to the bookshelves filled with books that lined the walls and gently touching a granite fireplace.
I took a seat on one of the sofas, and Luca took a seat right across from me. When he motioned for me to start the call, I nodded.
“Honeybee!” Aunt Lizzie answered on the first ring, and I smiled with a twinge of sadness, seeing her cheerful face on the screen. “How’s that adventure going?”
I smiled back, swallowing the usual lump that formed in the middle of my throat every time I called home. I missed my aunt, but I couldn’t let her tell. “Very well! Pasquale is… wonderful.”
“Ooohhh! So, things are getting serious?”
If only she knew.
I nodded, forcing a smile, while Luca’s watchful gaze monitored the situation down to the last detail. “He… wants me to stay in Italy.”
The corners of Aunt Lizzie’s mouth turned down very slowly, her joy evaporating. “Daisy.” My name slipped from her lips in a disheartened whisper. “What do you plan to do?”
I took a deep breath and my cheeks ached as I held the smile.
“I don’t know. I miss you all, but he’s very special.
” It hurt to say that. Every conversation I had with Aunt Lizzie or Olivia always felt like the last one, and it always sounded as if I were trading them for a dick.
It wasn’t like that. It would never be like that.
“Pasquale… I never thought I’d find someone who made me feel this way after Lester. ”
Those words made me stumble over my own emotions, and I had to bite the inside of my cheeks to pull myself together, because I realized there was some truth in them. Camillo was my future murderer, and yet something was revived inside me after meeting him.
There was sadness in Aunt Lizzie’s expression and, at the same time, a smile full of tenderness.
“Love really is a complicated thing,” she told me.
“If staying in Italy makes you happy, do it, Honeybee. Life doesn’t stop, so you might as well seize it while you can.
And Lester, my love, won’t come back, no matter how much you wish for it. ”
“Thank you…” I whispered, my eyes filling with tears. I took a deep breath and tried to hide it. “And Oliver, how is he?”
Aunt Lizzie sighed, and a mischievous expression appeared on her face. “He’s fine. Ready to be… a dad.” My heart skipped a beat, and a deep, sincere smile spread across my aunt’s face. “In about five months, you’ll have to come to Mississippi to meet your little cousin, Daisy.”
This time, it was impossible to hold back the tears. Like a little child, I cried quietly, my free hand trying to cover my face. Aunt Lizzie was pregnant… and I wasn’t going to meet that child.
“Oh, Daisy! No!” Aunt Lizzie groaned. “Please, Honeybee! This pregnancy can’t overshadow your happiness!”
“But… Aunt Lizzie… I’m in Italy, while you’re there, pregnant and—”
“And I’m a grown ass woman and I have Oliver already settled here at home! Fulfilling his duties as the grown ass man he is.” She fired back, but suddenly her brow furrowed. “Speaking of adults… Isn’t there anything you want to tell me?”
I sniffed a few times until I regained control of my emotions and blinked at the phone screen. “Tell you what?”
“The mortgage has been paid off.”
My alarm bells went off, and Luca sat up straight in the seat in front of me, his eyes widening.
My brain worked fast. “Oh, yes. You see, the… Pasquale! Pasquale has a friend who’s the owner of a company.
He hired me, and since he knew I had that loan, we made a deal and he paid off the debt. In exchange, I get to work for him.”
“Daisy… That was a fortune,” Aunt Lizzie whispered.
I shrugged, knowing how absurd that story sounded and how little I could do to make it more believable. “Italians are generous, and my boss wanted to return a favor to… Pasquale.”
My aunt didn’t seem convinced. “I’m so happy to see you happy, I swear I am.
All I’ve wanted all these years was for you to find love again.
But it was all so sudden, Daisy. So strange.
One day you were with us, the next you were on your way to Italy with some Italian guy.
Are you sure everything’s okay? You didn’t get mixed up in anything shady, did you… ?”
“Of course not, Aunt Lizzie! When I go back to Mississippi, I’ll bring Pasquale with me so you can meet him.
I promise!” That seemed to reassure her a little, and I took a deep breath.
It wasn’t about me; it wasn’t about her finding out.
If I could, I’d tell her the whole truth.
But I feared what Camillo might do to them.
I took a deep breath, and my gaze met Luca’s over the screen at that moment, and things became clear in my mind.
My aunt was pregnant, and I would never leave Italy alive.
“Speaking of which, since I’ll be staying with Pasquale, I…
would like to transfer my share of the house to your name. ”
“Daisy! No.”
“Seriously, Aunt Lizzie. There’s no point in keeping the property in my name, and besides, I know you’ll take good care of Papa’s house.” I murmured with a resigned smile. “Think of it as a gift from me to the little cousin on the way.”
Aunt Lizzie whined a bit, but she eventually accepted it.
After hanging up with her, I called Olivia. My best friend didn’t take the news that I was staying in Italy very well.
“Hoe! I’m getting tired of your stupid ideas.” She growled and I could hear shocked reactions in the background, which meant she was probably at work. Which also meant she was really pissed off, since she would never use that language in formal settings. “Bring that flat ass back to Mississippi.”
I sighed loudly. “Liv, as much as I love you, I’m staying.”
“Oh my fucking— LISTEN HERE, you dumbass! I don’t know what kind of demon possessed you, but try to use your brain. You barely know that man!”
“I know him enough.”
“Daisy Peonia Mary Parker. No dick is worth the risks you’re taking.
” She kept going on about how insane the situation was and how stupid I was being, and I couldn’t help but shiver at the idea of her discovering the truth.
Only the Lord knew what Olivia would be capable of. “ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?”
“Yes! And I ain’t changing my mind. Sorry, Liv. I have my reasons.”
She then raised a few more questions similar to my aunt’s, but eventually became frustrated and came to terms with it. And that was when I found out that Camillo’s plan had worked.
“Lord, I just hope you’re not involved in anything shady.” I heard her whine. “Senator Jones passed away.”
“Oh… Wow. Really?”
“Yes, Daisy. And it happened the night you disappeared.”
I swallowed hard. “Oh, come on, Liv! Are we seriously doing this right now? Are you really implying I had anything to do with that?”
“I don’t know! You tell me! The police have ruled Senator Jones’s death a suicide, and the case is already being closed. But I can’t ignore the coincidence.”
I exchanged a quick look with Luca Condello, who had been way too serious since the subject came up. Olivia couldn’t connect the dots, couldn’t start looking into it. They would kill her.
“What coincidence? Me sucking a dick dry that same night? How is that even related?” Saying Luca Condello was mortified by hearing me saying such things was an understatement, but I would do anything in my power to stop Olivia from sticking her nose in the wrong business.
“No, seriously, Liv. Do you really think I would be capable of hurting Lester’s mom? ”
Olivia huffed. “Of course not. I just… I just want you to come back.”
I rolled my eyes. “And your plan was to frame me for murder?” Couldn’t ignore the irony in all of that conversation.
If she only knew…
“Well, it would probably work.”
“How touching.”
“Anyway.” She sighed. “Really, babe. Are you staying with that man? Are you sure?”
“I am.”
We talked a little bit more. I gave her a few more reasons to stay and then overloaded her with details about Italy, making Luca Condello smile the moment I talked about how delicious Donatella’s cannoli were.
But when the call ended, all my strength vanished and the information Olivia just gave me, about the death of Senator Jones being ruled as a suicide, weighed down on me.
I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant from now on.
Would they kill me soon?
I handed the phone back to Luca and sighed, sinking into that sofa and covering my eyes with an arm.
Aunt Lizzie was pregnant. Life would go on even after I was gone.
“Are you sure you want to transfer the house into your aunt’s name, Signorina?” Luca’s question took me by surprise.
I uncovered my face and stared at him intently. He was standing next to his sofa, on the other side of the rectangular marble coffee table that separated us, and my phone was already resting in the pocket of his jeans. “Why are you asking that, Luca? You know full well that your boss wants me—”
“Signorina, I beg you, don’t talk about the boss’s plans without him being present. Only the three of us know that information, and no one else can find out, capisci?”