I thrust the paper back at her, the chest pain turning into full cardiac arrest. “Tell me.” Leaning over my legs, I tried to breathe in the humid air. It was too thick.
“She didn’t say either way. If she told him yes or no, I mean. She just said that he asked her.”
“If she wrote about it, it must be on her mind.”
“Yeah,” she said. “What did you expect?”
I stood, raking my hair back.
“Oh, look there,” Maggie Beautiful said, her voice holding that childlike quality to it. She went from one extreme to the next, something that would leave a normal man spinning in his spot. “A doe! It’s right over there, between your property and the next-door neighbors. It’s chomping away, not a care in the world. Ohhh,” she cooed toward it. “Pretty doe.”
Transfixed, I couldn’t look away from the creature.I’m partial to deer. They have beautiful eyes.Scarlett had said that to me years ago, as we took a walk in the woods behind her father’s cabins.
“Did you hear me, Brando?”
I turned to find Maggie Beautiful watching me. “That was a nice thing you did, for that wench of a girl. Janet. Jane, I mean. Even though she destroys Scarlett’s pictures on purpose. I know a woman scorned. She’s scorned.” She rose from the rocking chair, coming to stand beside me. “It’s a truly mean-spirited person who doesn’t have the guts to kill an animal that’s hurt beyond repair. It’s a terrible thing to have to do, but kind all the same. You have that sort of kindness in you.”
She sighed, turning around, watching the doe some more. “Why!” She stomped her foot and the wooden boards trembled. “Why would you go see him?”
I couldn’t face her, or the doe, so I replaced her on the rocking chair, keeping my eyes on my hands. “Lui dice la verità.”
She threw her head back and laughed, almost like a witch would at some spell that could never be broken.He speaks the truth, she muttered through mad laughter.
“Oh, sorry, sweet doe,” she crooned toward the animal, once she got a hold of herself. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just scared that poor animal, that’s how ridiculous your excuse sounds. The truth? Is the truth he shares with you his or yours? Sometimes a man’s truth is just his reflection talking back. You think you’re going to be just like him, don’t you? That you’re going to hurt her beyond repair? Like he did to me.”
“I will. He sees it. He tells me like it is.”An arranged marriage would be better suited to the lifestyle you are destined for. You need a woman who knows the risks. Can be ruthless, if needed. You will destroy this one. You are the stakes. You aremyson.
“Yeah, he always thought he was good at that. Telling it like it is. It’s all a bunch of flaming bullshit, if you ask me. But no one ever does.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Fall for him, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
It took her a moment to answer. When she did, she was fifteen again, her naiveté lost to the power Luca Fausti wielded with his eyes alone. How many times had I heard that? His eyes were mine.
“You and I both know we have no say. But, I was young. The world was an innocent playground. I assumed—” she shrugged, “—that love was too. He stole that from me. I haven’t always been a good mother to you, Brando. I haven’t always been smart or known what to do with you, but I do know some things. I know there’s a difference between you and him, however small. A slight crack can still allow light in. You can kill the animal out of kindness. He slaughters it out of spite simply because he can.”
She turned to me, tears in her eyes. Wiping them away, she gave me a watery smile.
“Even a simpleton like me can tell the difference, maybe even better than the most educated man in the world. It takes a certain…childlike quality to see through the lies the world tries to sell. Here’s the truth you should want. Itisharder to kill the animal if you love it and it belongs to you. But it’s even harder on the animal if you don’t. Because then the creature is left to wonder if you ever truly loved her like she loved you.
“You could do it with Jane because your heart doesn’t belong to her. It was swift and merciful. But leaving someone to suffer, no matter if you love them or not, is just inhumane. Torturous.” She sniffed. “And that is something Luca Faustiwould do. You have a choice,mio figlio. If you cannot love her like you feel she deserves to be loved, tell her. Let her go with the dignity and peace she deserves. Or else…she might end up like me after all.”
After some time, Maggie Beautiful finally smiled in her usual way, pointing across the yard. “Oh, look, there she goes. She’s chasing a butterfly! How about that?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brando
September came and it didn’t bring cooler temperatures. The streets of Paris were stifling hot, even after the moon had replaced the sun. I stood against a shading tree, waiting, sweat soaking through my thin shirt.
Pnina had told me that Scarlett had an event to attend tonight, going in place of Maja Resnik, so I watched her walk in with Cerise and Nemours. Then I claimed a spot not far from the entrance.
We had some talking to do. And my coming was not going to be met with open arms.
The sound of heels tapped behind me. I stood taller, the closest thing to a grin on my face.
