Luckily the announcement of Serena’s mother’s arrival interrupted his thoughts on the matter, and he lead Serena to her mother, plastering on a broad smile fit for the host of the evening.
At first glance, Serena didn’t look anything like her mother. The woman was blonde, perhaps a little too thin, but knew how to perfectly accentuate her assets. A beautiful woman. The kind Luciano tended to gravitate toward. There was a sharpness to her that was the complete opposite of Serena’s sharpness.
Mrs. Valli clearly knew how to move around the world as an important businessman’s ex-wife. She knew how to dress and flatter and what parties to go to in order to be seen. She had thesocialitepart of her role down while Serena channeled all her energy into understanding the business. As long as she had that crutch, she did very well for herself. But left to her own devices, well, she’d no doubt be home with her cats.
No, he could not see any similarities between the two women, and when Serena did not immediately step in as she often did, Luciano knew it would be his role to take the lead tonight. Between two opposing, though related, forces.
Luciano moved forward, all gallantry. “Welcome to my home, Mrs. Valli. I hope you’ll allow Eduardo here to take your things.”
She gave a little nod and handed off her wrap and purse.
“May we get you a drink?”
Mrs. Valli studied the butler, Luciano and the room around them with quick, cunning eyes. “Surprise me.”
The butler nodded his head and then disappeared. Before Luciano could guide Serena’s mother deeper into the apartment, she reached out and grabbed Serena’s left hand. She drew the engagement ring into the light, moved Serena’s hand this way and then that. Luciano could not account for howstiffSerena seemed as her mother studied the ring on her finger.
“It’s positively exquisite,” Mrs. Valli said, with very little inflection. Then she trilled out a little laugh as she finally dropped Serena’s hand. “Honestly, it looks more suited to me than it could ever be to you, darling.”
“I quite like it,” Serena said, and Luciano could not ignore the note of hurt in her voice that she tried to hide.
“Of course you do,” Mrs. Valli tutted. “It’sgorgeous. It’s simply that a gorgeous piece like this tends to require a…” The woman sighed and pouted a little as she studied her daughter. Then her gaze turned to Luciano. “You know what I mean.”
He did not, but as his goal was to charm Serena’s mother, he smiled broadly and gestured her inside. “Come. Sit. Let us drink to a happy future together.”
Mrs. Valli made a noncommittal noise, but she stepped ahead with Serena toward the dining room and the well-appointed table just as the waitstaff appeared with the drinks and theprimi.
“You have a quaint little place here,” Mrs. Valli said as Luciano held out a chair for her. She seated herself grandly while Luciano tried to deal with the strange slight of his expensive and luxurious penthouse being calledquaintandlittle.
“Grazie,”Luciano managed to mutter before moving to the next seat and holding it out for Serena. “I thought having a nice, private celebration of our families joining would allow us a better opportunity to get to know one another.”
Mrs. Valli made that same odd humming sound, that was somehow both polite and a disagreement at the same time. Luciano looked at Serena. Her gaze was out the windows, as though, inside her mind, she was anywhere but here.
Luciano found he hated that too. Because he had never once seen Serena remove herself like this. She was always the first to handle things, putting on that armor and brave face to handle whatever needed to be dealt with.
What would cause her to shrink in on herself instead? His gaze turned to the mother, and he wondered if hischarmtactics were all wrong. He took his own seat at the head of the table and lifted his glass. “A toast?”
Serena blinked, as if awoken from some spell, but then held up her glass as well. Mrs. Valli, however, only looked from the glass set in front of her, to the ring on Serena’s hand, to him. Her lips were pressed together as if in deep thought. Then, after a great drawn-out moment, she raised her glass and smiled.
“Let me congratulate you both. It’s an inspired decision, truly.”
Luciano thought the choice of words odd, but there was no point dwelling on it.“Salute.”
Serena echoed the word with little inflection. There was no fierce determination. No ice. No fire. She seemed a ghost in her own skin.
As they ate, Luciano shared the details of the wedding planning he and Serena had agreed upon. If he managed to lure her into conversation, she gave one-word responses. Everything about her was muted, dull.
Mrs. Valli, on the other hand, was vibrant and talkative. Andvocalabout what she approved of. What she didn’t. In some ways, he could see Serena in the woman. The way she noticed everything, filed it away.
But there was anunnecessarycruelty to her that Serena didn’t have. When they’d discussed the procession and forgoing the tradition of having someone walk Serena down the aisle, Mrs. Valli had rolled her eyes.
“I’m surprised there’s no animal parade walking her down the aisle.”
“What a lovely idea, Mother,” was the only thing Serena said the whole dinner that reminded Luciano of theactualSerena.
She was clearly being sarcastic, but Mrs. Valli used it as an opportunity to complain about Serena’s cats and the crumbling castle she haunted, and then reached over to touch Serena’s styled hair. “How many times have I told you to leave it loose? You look like an ill Victorian child with it all scraped back from your face.”
“Perhaps it was the look I was going for.”
