“Are you okay?” I asked.
He glanced back to me as he led us down the hallway. “No. I’m not. I can’t believe Gianni’s alive. I can’t believe our parents were killed for nothing.”
The anger in his voice was palpable. He was gripping his hand into a fist, his dark hair falling around the back of his neck. It had been so long since I’d seen him that it was hard to believe this was the same man who had played Barbie dolls with me and protected me from bullies. He was so different. They’d destroyed the parts of him that I’d loved and created someone who was the shell of the brother I remembered so fondly.
Giorgio opened the door to one of the waiting rooms and waited for us to go in. He was sweating profusely and his dark brown hair was attached to his skin as he slammed the door closed behind him. He let out a sigh of relief as he took a seat in a nearby chair, which was upholstered with the cross along the back. He placed his head in his hands and Alessandra placed her hand on his back as he keeled over. I was still nervous about what would happen to Romeo, but I was glad to be out of the situation. We needed to gather ourselves before moving forward.
“I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve had enough,” Giorgio said, still facing the ground. “First our parents, then Antonio, and now this. I can’t do this anymore.”
“What do you mean, Antonio?” Alessandra asked, lifting her hand from his back. “What happened?”
Giorgio had tears in his eyes as he raised his eyes to us. “You didn’t hear?”
His expression told me everything I needed to know, and I figured it out then that the worst had happened. It was a visceral reaction that caused my hands to shake and my stomach to knot. I couldn’t stop the anxiety that riddled my body, causing me to feel as though I was going to puke. I felt faint and had to lean against the wall. It was too much in one day. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Antonio’s been dead for months. They shot him dead when he tried to escape from his cell. No one told you?”
I was at a loss for words. Everyone had kept it a secret from me. Not even Alessandra, who had always promised me that we’d never have secrets, had kept it from me. No one could look me in the eyes at that moment. There was a sense of shame that passed between the three of us and I felt a hole forming in my chest. My own family had deceived me.
Alessandra turned to me and sighed. “I’m sorry, Chiara.”
“You fucking knew?”
“You have to understand,” she said, walking towards me. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”
I clutched my hand into a fist. So everyone knew, except me. Marcello didn’t tell me. My twin didn’t tell me. Lucia didn’t say a word. I had to find out like a fool.
Alessandra reached out to touch me and I hit her hand aside, shaking my head. “Don’t touch me. I’m leaving.”
I knew I couldn’t leave the church, but there were plenty of spaces to go to so that I could be alone. I left the room, not wanting to speak to them any longer. I was glad to see Giorgio, but I wasn’t in the right state to spend too much time with him. I need a moment to gather my thoughts. It was upon leaving the room that I heard the sound of the ambulance pulling up. I ducked down the hallway and ran into the room that Lucia had used to get ready. I took a seat on the couch and let my head fall back.
I didn’t know what to think—about Antonio, Marcello, Lucia. What had happened to Romeo? I just had to wait and see. Everything was a mess, and I had been betrayed by my own family, and from the man I’d come to care about.
It was all a lie.
24
Marcello
Ikept my foot down on the gas, forcing the Escalade to go as quickly as it could. I’d already lost their vehicle, but I had a hunch. It was an instinctual feeling that was tugging inside me. I had an idea of where he would take her.
It was a place that no one else knew—a secret hideaway that Gianni had used for his own devices, which often meant when he used the drugs we sold. A cabin where he hid his private stash. He’d only told me in confidence when he was blackout drunk one night, and I followed him there once. It was way out in the wilderness but I could find it again. I had to.
I had the feeling that was where he’d take her. It was outside of the city, and he already had a few minutes to race down the street. He likely knew shortcuts to get there. I just had to try to keep up.
I could still see the picture of him in my mind as he injected himself as soon as he got to the remote cabin. I was sure that was where he’d been staying while we all thought that he was dead. His disappearance, mixed with the tension between the Bonifacio’s and us, had caused us to kill Chiara’s parents in cold blood. It had all been for nothing.
Gianni wasn’t in his right mind, and why he’d done any of it at all was beyond me. What did he need from Lucia? It wasn’t as though he was in love with her. I could tell that there was a connection between her and Romeo. I couldn’t see her running off with Gianni. No. She’d been taken captive, and she was in danger.
I had to make sure I got to her before anything bad happened. I could only imagine how Romeo must have felt. If someone had done the same thing to Chiara, I’d be seeing red.
It was part of the reason I had to bring Lucia back unharmed. For my brother’s sake. We hadn’t always seen eye-to-eye and I resented him in many ways, but I had seen a change in him since he met Lucia.
I turned onto the offramp, careful not to bring too much attention to the vehicle. I was trying to remain only 20 over the speed limit—I couldn’t afford to get pulled over. Not at that moment. I couldn’t reach them if I was caught speeding, and I had to be careful when I did exceed the limit. Being aware of all the cars around me, I tried to match the speed of the person who was driving the fastest. It was as my father always said—always have a patsy.
I was gripping the steering wheel, white-knuckling it as I drove. I kept checking my phone in the holder on the dashboard, waiting for any news. I didn’t want to think that Romeo would die. I had to believe that he was going to be okay. It would be hard to live without him, even if he did piss me off most of the time. At the end of the day, he and Gianni were my brothers. I couldn’t bear the thought of one of them killing the other for no logical reason.
I had to get answers from Gianni. It would haunt me if Gianni did something to himself and I never got closure. Our family was in disarray, and we’d murdered and destroyed a whole family over him. I hated him, but I couldn’t deny that sympathetic feeling in my chest. Despite the destruction he’d caused, I still wanted him to be okay. The thought of him not getting the help he needed, and just killing himself made me want to slam down the pedal, but I had to show restraint.
