Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
JULIET
After Gino told me the truth about the finances, I needed to get out for a bit.
I know he didn’t do it to control me, but it sure feels that way.
Outside of my parents, only Vanessa would understand, but she had too much going on, so I don’t want to bother her with it.
There’s only one other person I can trust with this.
We haven’t spoken much recently, but I need someone.
I run upstairs and close the door to my room, and I dial her number.
“Hello,” she says.
“Hi Lucy, could we meet? I need to talk to you about something,” I ask.
“I’m at Vanessa’s. Why don’t you come over?” she replies.
“Could we talk alone?” I ask.
“Juliet, are you okay?” she asks.
“I’m—” I don’t know how to say it.
“How about lunch at the Cambio family restaurant in an hour?” she says after a brief silence.
“Okay, I’ll see you then.” I get ready, and when I leave, I notice how Gino’s office door is closed.
Once I get to the restaurant, I am seated at a table towards the back of the restaurant.
Lucy arrives not that long after me and sits across from me.
Lucy is beautiful with her curly brown hair, brown eyes, strong jawline, and lightly tanned skin.
She’s wearing black pants and a navy blue top.
Vanessa trusts her like a mother, and she’s in this life, so I’m hoping she can guide me in the right direction.
She looks at me with a soft smile. “Juliet, is everything okay?”
“I don’t know. I want to get your advice,” I say.
She smiles again. “Advice on what?”
Do I tell her Gino and I are not actually dating, and our first kiss since we started ‘dating’ was this morning? Or do I lie?
“If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell Vanessa, at least not right now?”
“What is it? Is something wrong with Gino or Mateo?” she asks nervously.
“No, umm, Gino has been…” I pause.
This is probably normal to her. Kevin has probably been doing this for years.
“Ahhh, you found out, or did he tell you?” she asks.
“Tell me what?” I reply.
“That he’s been paying for everything and that he’s been in love with you for a very long time. It just took him a long time to admit it,” she says.
“How did you figure that out?” I ask.
“Well, for one, I see the way he looks at you, and two, he’s just like every man in the mafia. They want to provide but sometimes forget how to say that or do it in the standard way,” she says.
“It’s probably normal to you,” I say.
“It wasn’t at first, but once I got over my need for independence, I realized Kevin was giving me more freedom than I ever experienced,” she says, the adoration for him visible in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I didn’t grow up like any of these men. My father made some bad bets and owed Antonio a lot of money. The compromise for him not getting killed was for me to work for Gino’s father. When Vanessa’s mother died, Antonio asked me to take care of Vanessa with Kevin.
We built a relationship and created a life for ourselves over that first year.
The second I got off that plane in Salt Lake City.
I was Kevin’s; I just didn’t know it yet.
It scared me for months, the constant pursuit of me.
I thought he was doing it to have control, but he was doing it to show how much he cared.
It’s in their blood to care for their partners.
Sometimes it feels suffocating, controlling, and unnecessary, but it’s who they are, and trying to stop it makes them do it even more. ”
I take a deep breath. “Gino and I, our relationship is different.”
“How so?” she asks.
“Well, for one—” I get cut off before I tell her our secret.
“Lucy,” a woman's voice behind me calls out.
I turn and see Marco, Jake, and Gabe’s mother, Francesca. She has her dark brown hair in a low bun and is dressed in a sleek black dress and heels. Her green eyes look between us, and her olive skin is lit up by the lighting in the restaurant.
“Francesca, hello. I was just telling Juliet about what it's like being in love with a man in this mafia world.” We both get up and hug her.
I’ve met Francesca a few times. She’s always been very kind, but she made it known her issues with what some of the men have done. Especially when it came to Antonio and her husband, Emilio's decisions.
“Ahh, sit, sit, this conversation will need more coffee and bread.” She waves over a server and sits with us.
“Did you have this conversation with Vanessa when she and Mateo got together?” I ask Lucy.
“She already knew what it was like, but yes, I talked with her at great length about it.” She sighs. “Juliet, why are you bringing this up now? You and Gino have been dating for how long now?”
I pause; I don’t know how to answer that. The answer is never, but…
She looks to me as a moment of realization hits her. “Ah, I see. It seems like your relationship is very similar to how Francesca and Emilio got together. Seemed to work out well for them.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Lucy looks at Francesca. “You tell her. I’m not the one who pretended to date my best friend, so I wouldn’t have to marry another man.” My jaw drops, and I look at Francesca.
“Ah, that was a long time ago, Lucy, but yes, Emilio and I had been friends our whole lives. And, well, my father decided it was a good idea for me to marry a man from a different family who would move me to Chicago. Emilio was not happy when I told him, so he thought it would be a good idea to say we were together. What he wasn’t anticipating was my father then saying he needed to marry me.
Emilio didn’t seem too upset about the idea, and I didn’t want to marry a man I didn’t know. ” She smiles softly.
“So, Juliet, why did you and Gino pretend to date?” Lucy asks.
“I feel like I am betraying him by telling you this.”
She laughs softly. “It’s not betrayal if we figured it out. And I’ll give myself credit for figuring it out so quickly in this conversation.”
They both look at me expectantly.
I sigh. “Shortly after Mateo went missing, I started getting texts and phone calls from an unknown number. At first, I didn’t tell him, but after getting one about a bounty on Mateo, I told him.
It was Gino’s idea, and he thought that it would hopefully get the unknown person to stop messaging me.
It worked to an extent, but then he decided not to tell anyone we weren’t actually dating.
So everyone just assumed. Honestly, how could I do that to Vanessa with everything going on in her life? She’s Gino’s sister and my friend.”
Lucy sighs, “Vanessa will understand, trust me on that. But you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to be in a relationship with him.”
“I-I want to. I’ve wanted to for a while, but what if something happens to him? What if this whole situation with Mateo never gets solved? It will kill him.”
“Gino has wanted you for a long time. The way he looks at you, Juliet… He has loved you since you first met.”
“What?”
“That’s why Antonio offered you a job. He knew you were Bianca and Henry’s daughter, but Gino asked him to hire you. He knew that would be the only way Henry would allow you to be close to him.”
My jaw drops again. This has been going on for ten years.
“Why hasn’t anyone told me that before?”
“Oh, we all thought you knew,” Francesca says. “My boys always talk about how upset Gino would be after you came home from a date or were talking to any man that wasn’t in the crew.”
“Juliet, you have to admit, most housekeepers and accountants don’t live with their boss and have full control of the house. And they definitely don’t sleep on the same floor as their boss.”
“I know, but why did he lie to me?”
“Because he’s a man,” Francesca says. “Men have trouble showing and sharing their emotions. My husband and sons still are like that, no matter how much my daughters or I try to convince them.”
Francesca and Emilio truly followed the mafia rules of having lots of kids. They have five children: three sons, Marco, Gabe, and Jake, and two daughters, Emily and Julia.
“The first thing I'll tell you is, don’t back down,” Lucy starts.
“Gino, just like Emilio and Kevin and every other man around here, will ask you to stay back or wait. At times that’ll be the right call, but sometimes it won’t be.
Trust your gut and tell him when you think something’s a bad idea.
He thinks of you as an equal; don't forget that.”
Francesa then continues on the same idea.
“My husband tried to tell me opening this restaurant could go south quickly if I didn’t allow anyone from the crew in here.
I still said no. They could eat here, but no mafia business happens here.
That’s my hard line, and it’s worked out well for us all.
When Antonio died, this restaurant became our source of income after Emilio decided to retire. ”
We spend the rest of lunch talking about how to date a mafia man.
Once I leave the restaurant, I see I have seven missed calls and texts from Gino asking me where I am and to please come back.
What the hell did I miss?