As much as Rocco reflected Luca, he also didn’t.
Rocco didn’t have Luca’s way of giving his father his utmost respect while finding a way to stand on his own two feet. Brando respected Luca, but he had a niche for the game that few rivaled. He could walk the tight rope between yes and no like no one else.
I’d even seen Uncle Tito shake his head in astonishment when Brando had turned Luca down for something, an offense he would have maimed and killed another man for.
Luca wasn’t a stupid man, though, or one to rest when he wanted something.
He might not feel regret for what he’d done to his brother, but he loathed the idea of his sons taking the same path. Not only to avoid bloodshed, either.
He thought in practical terms.
If the two sons turned against each other, it showed weakness to the rest of the world. Lothario had already done some damage, in terms of the Fausti’s reputation. Luca had quickly patched the foundation before the entire tree sank into the ground.
The issue here, and Luca recognized it, was Rocco. He had lusted after what Brando and I had from the start.
His marriage to Rosaria, though not without its passion, had been a long road, a struggle.
Then Luca annulled his marriage to the woman he had committed himself to, at his father’s request, and turned around and married Maggie Beautiful.
Not for family obligation, but for unbridled love.
All of this came at a cost to Rocco.
Sometimes when he drank too much, I saw the longing for something different in his eyes, and it squeezed my heart. He knew I could feel his loss too—he craved it. I acknowledged his hurt, letting him know that someone saw him for…him.
It was no secret that Fausti men were the type of men that women loved to capture and then attempt to tame—to save them from themselves.
That wasn’t what they needed nor wanted.
They wanted to be loved for the man and the beast, regardless of shortcomings and sins.
Roccowasa good man. And perhaps if Rosaria had decided to marry for love… No, I doubted that even a marriage of choice could change her.
Her resentment didn’t come from the arrangement. If anything, she loved that aspect of it. With Luca around, she loved it even more.
Even empathy itself had a hard time reaching out to Rosaria, though she was not unworthy of love.
I sometimes got the feeling she was terrified of it. Of giving over to it. An arrangement had been a safe bet. She didn’t have to love, only follow the rules and be loyal to the family as a whole.
Rocco wanted so much more. He deserved it.
Could Rosaria give him that? She could. I always thought she could. But I had no clue what could bring it out in her—in them.
Sighing, I lifted my hands from the bars, the pressure releasing. “I suggest giving Rocco your blessing to do whatever makes him happy. Allow him to make the choice. His marriage to Rosaria, or whomever, will not make a difference with his family obligations. He’s loyal.”
Whatever Luca had been expecting, it wasn’t that. His eyebrows raised before they came down, making his eyes fiercer. I almost stumbled back, something in the unguarded expression reminding me of my son, who only had unguarded expressions at this point in his life.
As insane as it made me sound, the yearning to have my son in my arms, his heart close to mine, made me almost reach out and take Luca in my arms and hold him close.
The fact that Luca never even considered this possibility—that he could give his sons freedom to make the right choice on their own—went to prove how in control he had to be. It wasn’t time in jail that made him react this way, either; it was bred in these men.
“Allow him to make the choice,” he repeated in Italian. It wasn’t done to hear an answer, but to be said aloud by his own mouth. “What do you think, daughter? That I would force him to abandon his wife?”
“No.” I shook my head, then lapsed into Italian. “But whatever you say to him, he will do. If you give him the choice, your blessing to find happiness—” I shrugged “—you will find the truth of the matter.”
His face took on a new look, this one turned inward, more thoughtful. In that moment I saw a reflection of Dario.
“I see,” he finally said after a minute.
