Chapter 20
TWENTY
GINO
Six months. Six months of actual hell; that’s what this feels like.
It’s the end of November now, and the first snowfall came last night, which puts into perspective just how long it’s been.
I understand Mateo is probably actually living in hell, but this feels like it for me.
I feel like I’m reliving the same hellish day every day.
The leads are completely gone, and every conversation with Lorenzo has gone nowhere. I’ve given him everything he’s wanted, and here we are.
I’m in my sister’s kitchen. She texted me saying she needed my help with something, and I have no clue what it is.
I’m nervous she’s going to interrogate me as to why I haven’t figured out how to bring her husband home.
I rock on my heels as she walks into the kitchen with a box.
“Ness, let me help you with that.” I grab the box from her. “What’s this?”
“Some things for the nursery. Could you take them upstairs?”
“Yeah,” I reply.
I turn and walk through the first floor and walk up the stairs. After all these months, my sister is still as glowing and as positive as she can be.
“Which room is it?” I ask.
“The second on the left,” she replies, pointing.
Walking into the room, the walls are freshly painted in a light green.
“I see why you asked me to come over,” I say, looking around the room.
She snorts. “Fine, you caught me. But no, I wanted to spend time with you. These months have been hard. Hard on everyone, especially you.” Sadness overcomes her.
“Gino, you’re going to be an uncle, and I wanted to talk to you without anyone around.
And the conversations we’ve had recently have all been related to how my husband can’t be found and how sorry you are.
So this conversation is going to have ground rules.
No mafia talk, no ‘I’m sorrys’, and for the love of God, no conversations about Lorenzo.
Agreed?” She sticks her hand out for me to shake.
I huff a laugh and shake her hand.
“Okay, Ness, what do you want to talk about?”I ask.
“First off, I want all the information on you and Juliet. Can I say I was right? Cause I was right. How did you start dating?” Each sentence rushes out quicker than the last.
I could spill the whole secret right here, but I can't because she looks so eager for something good, so I give some of the truth.
“So after Dad’s funeral—” I start.
She cuts me off, yelling. “Are you kidding? You two have been together for that long, and no one knew?”
“No, we, uhm, slept together that night,” I reveal to her, looking down.
“Holy shit,” she exhales, then she starts laughing. And not a giggle; she full-on cackles.
“What’s so funny?” I ask.
“Nothing, just that I was right. You two were in love when I first met you?” she says, trying to hold back her laugh now.
“Well, I’ve been in love with her longer than that,” I whisper.
“Gino, how long have you been in love with her?” she asks flatly, like she knows the answer.
“Since the moment I met her,” I reply, looking right into her eyes.
“You’re down so bad, aren’t you?” She stares at me, giving me her best ‘caring sister’ expression, but I can see it in her eyes that she wants to make a joke out of it.
“Yes.”
“Gino, does she know that?” she asks.
“Probably not.” If my sister only knew.
She rolls her eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very bad at communication?”
“I’ve been told many times,” I grumble. “You’ve told me enough times.”
“Now we’ve established that, tell me, how many years has Mateo been telling you to ask her out?”
“Can I say all of them? I tried for years and things just happened–”
She cuts me off and starts, “Nope, I know what you 're going to say, and you deserve to be happy.”
“But—”
She cuts me off again. “Gino, no. We will get Mateo back. I fully believe that. I’m hopeful it’s sooner rather than later, but he will come back.”
I don’t know how she does it. She’s a light through all this dark.
The man she loves, the man I basically forced her to marry, has been missing for months.
He’s missed her entire pregnancy thus far; she didn’t even know she was pregnant until after he was kidnapped, which I think adds more to this.
Since Mateo doesn’t know he’s going to be a father, it benefits him.
If he knew, he probably would have tried to escape and probably gotten himself killed in the process.
He loves his wife fiercely. I’ve never seen him care about someone more.
He was a certified bachelor before he met her and barely even looked at other women.
I also know if the roles were reversed and I was in his position, he would do the same thing I’m doing.
Looking for every way to find me without causing another war.
No one anticipated Lorenzo would do what he did. Anthony still doesn’t believe his son is capable of this, but we all know he is.
Pulling me from my thoughts, I hear Vanessa’s voice. “Can you help me with this?”
I look at what’s in her hands. She has some frames.
“What are these?”
“Photos of Mateo and I. I want there to be photos of him everywhere so they know what he looks like. Just in case.”
My throat is thick with emotion. “Yeah, where do you want them?”
“I think along this wall.” She points at the wall right behind us.