“This is what you planned to do. Capture our truth.”
I couldn’t tell if this was a question or not. Rarely did it seem like the men in this family asked them, but even looking back on my time with Nazzareno, they got answers regardless.
“I’m sure you’ve gotten an extensive history on me. You know I’ve been obsessed, or as I prefer to call it,passionate, about the Fausti family for years. You might even know about the posters on my wall and the cards I made.”
His brow scrunched up, and I had to stifle the urge to laugh.
“Posters, I understand this. Cards…”
“Like the ones they make for baseball?” Why was I making it sound like a question.
His face relaxed. “Sì.I know what this is.” He grinned. “Do these cards include stats?”
“Some of them do, but mostly it was a way to keep track of the different branches.”
He nodded. “I would like to see these. You are a creative soul, Ava. A passionate soul.”
We walked a few more steps, and it was like he was leading me in a dance.
“Tell me about yourself. Even if I can form a picture from your behavior on paper, the canvas walking with me is open to interpretation.”
He was fucking good. He’d turned my point around on me.
I’ve found there’s a difference between what we read in books and reality.
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and…my mouth opened and flowed with information. I told him everything—about Sonny, about Janis, about my entire fucking life.
Why did I do it?
Probably because, like Nazzareno, these men were men to depend on, and although I should have been terrified (and in a way, I was), I mostly felt safe with him. Like he’d bloody his knuckles for me, or even take a bullet for me.
The same as my husband.
And something Edna had told me long ago came rushing back to me.“Marzio was as warm as the sun, and I was the innocent flower opening to him, trusting he wouldn’t burn me. They are like that, you know? It’s easy to open up to them.”
I’d asked her point blank if it had been sexual. She shook her and said,“I wish, but he wasn’t interested in me in that way, even if I had been old enough.”
One day, I’d tell her how right she was. Except this man was making me feel like honey oozing out of the comb.
I finished my sad rhapsody with, “Nazzareno is my family now, and I can’t lose him. We have…” I took a deep breath “…a bond I can’t even explain in words, but his death would killme.”
We reached the bench, and he stood until I sat. He took a seat next to me.
“Do you not have faith that your man can stand against his challenger?”
Great, a question that was impossible to answer without making my husband look weak. “No. I mean. That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“I know why you are doing this. You are afraid.”
“Terrified,” I said.
“It was an honest question about your husband. Is my nephew too weak to stand against the challenged?”
I knew it!The challenged.Nazzareno had challenged Renato somehow. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. I still had to answer this man with an even voice.
“I know, and the answer isno, but…as his wife, it scares me to think that one small second can go wrong, and I’ll have all this love to give but no one to give it to. Nazzareno is it for me. The end of my story.”
“You are poetic. My father would have enjoyed your company. You are stunning as well.”
