She nodded and followed as I led the way down the stairs. She waited at the passenger’s side door until I hit the button to unlock all of the doors. The Escalade was hot when I sat inside, the leather seat sticking to my dress shirt, which was unbuttoned at the top. I threw the suit jacket into the backseat and started the car with a press of a button. The AC came on immediately, and felt cool against my skin, almost relaxing me.
“How are you feeling?”
I took the steering wheel in my hands and pulled out onto the street. There was no music—just silence. I wasn’t sure how to answer that question at that moment. My world had fallen apart, and I’d killed my older brother. The wedding that everyone had planned so meticulously had been ruined, and there would be no celebration because the groom had been shot. The one time I’d been looking forward to a family celebration, and it had ended in bloodshed, as everything we did ended up.
“I’m not sure, really. I’m still a little shaken from what happened today,” I said, and gripped the steering wheel, remembering the sound of my brother falling to the ground, lifeless. “How are you feeling?”
Her head began to hang down towards the dashboard. The sound of her laughter filled the Escalade, causing me to nearly veer off into the next lane. She started to hyperventilate until she was crying. I continued driving down the road and reached my hand out to touch her, but she pushed it away.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Antonio?”
I should have known that it would come up eventually. I’d avoided it up until that point, but there was clearly no reason to continue. I turned the car off the road and pulled off onto a side street, parking in front of a few residential houses. I fell silent and leaned back in the chair as she cried next to me. She was hurt, and it was the last thing I wanted to cause her.
“Well, tell me.”
I turned to her slowly and watched as she wiped the tears from her eyes, which were already red from what had happened at the wedding. “I didn’t kill Antonio if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to upset you, Chiara. I knew that the moment I broke the news, you’d see me differently. My family did an awful thing, and there’s nothing I can do to take that back. Everything that’s happened has been out of my hands, and I can’t imagine how you’re feeling.”
Her tears began to dry as her lips quivered. “I just don’t get it, though? So much has happened already. The least you could do was be truthful with me.”
“I just don’t want any more bad blood. And it’s because,” I paused, trying to gather the strength to say the words, “I love you.”
She brought her eyes to mine. “Really?”
“Really.”
She sniffled. “Promise not to do it again. I don’t want to be left out anymore.”
“I promise,” I told her, and smiled lightly. “I won’t lie to you again, either. I’m sorry.”
27
Chiara
The sound of those three words rang through my mind.I love you. I turned them over, inspected them, internalized them, and was still in shock. He’d promised that he’d never lie to me again, but what was an empty promise to a girl that he’d already deceived? I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think that he truly cared about me.
As I peered into his blue eyes, there was that small glint that I’d seen the first morning after we’d slept together. That gentleness that he saved only for me. He was gripping the steering wheel as he waited for my answer. I never enjoyed being put on the spot—my father had done it all throughout my life. There was an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach as I considered how I felt about him. There was a nervousness that filled my entire body, causing me to feel as though I wanted to run.
People were passing the Escalade, and I spotted them in my peripheral vision. I tried not to pay them any mind as Marcello kept his eyes locked on mine. Then, there was the feeling that I’d discovered since meeting Marcello. It was a light feeling, as though I was floating. I didn’t know if it was love, as I’d never been in love before. How would I know? I thought about him all the time, and he was always someone I looked forward to seeing. He caused me to act in different ways, but I was happy about the changes that I’d seen in myself. It was as though he’d allowed me to flower into becoming a proper woman.
“How did you know that you were in love with me?”
He gave me a half-smile. “I just knew. Are you not sure?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said, unsure of how to tell him. “I mean, I know I care about you. But how can this work? Especially with Angelo and Romeo ruling over my life? I don’t want to spend the next year as a prisoner, all while being with you. You know as much as I do that it’ll only make things go horribly for us.”
He nodded. “I have a plan for that. I’m going to tell them myself, and I’m going to make a case for you and your sister.”
“Like a lawyer?”
“Hell no. Lawyers only have a fifty-fifty chance of winning. Whereas I intend on winning them both over completely.”
“So, you think it will work?”
“I might not say much,” he said, giving me a knowing smile. “But I can be persuasive.”
