Like most of the world, I wanted what my parents had. And like most of the world, I’d kill to have it.
I’d kill to have her.
There was a fucking lion in my chest, roaring to the beat ofherpulse.
Just as my mamma had predicted, and my sister too, an arranged marriage was a fucking joke compared to what I’d felt when I found Stella. I knew I’d found my true mate. As mamma said many times to me and my siblings over the years, I’d found myalways.
Evelina took another drink from her cup before she turned to her suitcase and unzipped it. She removed a box and a folder. She sighed and looked at Mia. Mia reached over and took my hand and squeezed.
Mia cleared her throat. “I don’t know if it’s hard to get to know someone or not through their history, but I feel like I got to know Stella and her mamma a bit through what we found. The thing is, though…” My sister hesitated, and her green eyes were watery when she continued, her voice even softer. “Estella Valentina, Stella to us, her past is such a sad one, Teo. Her mamma’s parents were abusive to Magnolia, that was Stella’s mom’s name, but she went by Nola, and as soon as she could, she left home. Nola ended up stripping for a place called The Bunny in Slidell.”
Slidell is a small city on the outskirts of New Orleans. Goose bumps rose on my skin when I thought about how close Stella had been to me, since I spent a chunk of my life in Natchitoches, where my parents had met and fallen in love. It seemed like fate had set us close to each other, and when Stella was pulled fromme, I’d found her in Paris. Some people might consider that notion fodder for the romantics, but I was the son of Brando and Scarlett Fausti. It didn’t seem all that farfetched to me. Not when a pear had brought my parents together.
“She was close,” I said, and my voice sounded tight, like the words had gotten caught in my throat before I forced them out.
“Three hours if papà drives. Five if mamma is behind the wheel.” Mia smiled at me and squeezed my hand again.
“Four hours if it’s someone who drives in between,” Evelina added. She pushed the box and envelope closer to me.
Saverio set his cup down without a sound. “The club is out of business now, but the man who owned it all those years is still alive. Chad’s his name. I tracked him down. Decent guy.” He nodded to the box and envelope. “He gave us whatever Nola left behind. He said he’d felt sorry for her and kept her things.”
I looked at my sister and she nodded, as if to say,okay, I’ll keep going.
“HenriBabin is Stella’s father. When Nemours was looking for mamma, he wasn’t alone. Henri was one of the men the family sent to spy on mamma. Or that’s what we came up with, in terms of why Henri was in Louisiana in the first place. It just makes sense. He met Nola at the club, and they got together, and Stella was born. From what the owner of the club said, everyone who worked there felt like Henri was good to Nola.
He said the club was like a family and they were all rooting for Nola’s happily ever after. Except, Henri would come and go a lot. Sometimes Nola wouldn’t see him for months. Then a good bit of time passed, and she got sick. Ovarian cancer. The doctors couldn’t give her a definite answer, regarding how she was going to respond to treatment.” Mia picked up her water and sipped on it. Saverio handed her a cracker, and she leaned over and kissed his cheek before she faced me again.
“This was when she brought Stella to live with the Nemours. Apparently, Henri had told Nola that he was going to leave Régine. That it was a marriage of show, for business, and nothing else. But we pieced together this was the time that Régine did something to him to make him sterile. Maybe he’d spilled the truth about Nola and Stella and Régine became so enraged that she turned him into a eunuch.” Mia waved a hand.
“Point stands that Henri never returned to Louisiana. Then, after Nola gets sick, she doesn’t have anyone in Slidell to leave Stella with. The guy running the place wasn’t cut out for kids. He’s nice enough, but I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving my child with him either. Nola was right not to. None of the girls she worked with were stable enough to take care of Stella, either, since financially, all of them were barely getting by too. Henri would send Nola money for Stella occasionally, but when he stopped coming around, so did any money. We spoke to some of Nola’s friends, too, and they all collaborated what the owner told us.
“At this point, Nola was desperate, and she took whatever money she had and brought Stella to Paris. She left Stella at Henri’s apartment door with a note, explaining why she was desperate enough to leave their daughter with him. She said she hoped she could come back and take her home someday, if the treatment went well.”
“It didn’t?” This from Marciano, who was speaking so low, it sounded like his voice was grating against something sharp. He was sensitive about mammas, and I could tell the thought of Stella losing hers pushed him into his sensitive side, as Magpie put it. Out of all of us, he was more in touch with that side. But he also had fists that could hit as hard as two bowling balls flung from a slingshot.
“No one knows if it would have or not,” Mia whispered. She looked into my eyes, and whatever she saw there urged her togo on. “Saverio found her medical records. Her treatment was going fine. There was hope she’d recover and live a normal life.”
Before my sister could finish, I finished for her. “Régine Nemours had her killed.”
“The coroner report says overdose before a fire broke out. Records say that she set a pot on the stove and turned it on before she took the lethal dose.”
“Let me paint it for everyone,” Mariano said. “The doctor gave Nola drugs for the treatment, in case she was in pain or feeling sick, and those were found in her system.”
Saverio nodded. “Too many of them.”
“And the Nemours are known for pushing drugs,” Evelina said. “Especially on their dancers.”
“Mamma,” Marciano whispered. Even though he was being soft spoken, there was a dangerous energy going through my brother that was going through me. Even Mariano was feeling it. He was squeezing Marciano’s shoulder, keeping him seated.
“Those are some of the things Nola left behind,” Evelina whispered. “Her former boss gave them to us. Not much, but maybe Stella might like to have them.”
It felt like an invasion of Stella’s privacy to open the box. Even the envelope. I just stared at it all, not sure where to place all the anger boiling inside of me. My mind was blank, except for one command:kill in my heart’s honor.
“The man who owned the club showed us what’s inside. Pictures. A phone book. A journal of Nola’s time. Chad said Nola kept it to give it to Stella whenever they reunited. They had a week in Paris together before she left her at Henri’s doorstep.”
“Left her in hell,” I barely got out.
“From what Chad said, Nola thought Stella might have a decent life with Henri, even if he put her in an expensive school in France. Henri seemed to give Nola the impression that he and Régine had more of a business partnership than a relationship.Nola mentioned them not sleeping together, or Régine caring about who he was with. He only stuck around to be the face of the business. He was older than Nola, with ‘French refined charm,’ as Chad says. Either way, he had the means to take care of Stella.” Saverio set his hand underneath Mia’s hair, on her neck. “It seems like Nola thought Stella would get a nice life if she left her with Henri.”
