“Régine has two daughters, and only one, Odette Babin, is from Henri,” Evelina said. “So, that tells us she was sleeping around on him, but he wasn’t allowed to do the same to her.”
“Stella is a good dancer,” Mariano said, and all eyes turned to him. “Maybe Régine Fucking Nemours didn’t give a shit about the affair. She didn’t want Nola coming back for her newest star attraction.”
Saverio made a check mark in the air. “Stella is worth a lot of money to the Nemours. They’ve built her up to be bigger than Scarlett Fausti.”
“Mamma was supposed to be a vampire or something,” Mia said. “Stella is supposed to be some kind of celestial being.”
I had no control over the sound that started in my heart and left through my mouth. It was a fucking growl. Or maybe it sounded like I was being stabbed in my chest.
We all grew quiet, and the sounds of Venice rose up around us. All that Nola had left for her daughter sat in the middle of the table, a history that probably haunted Stella. I couldn’t even imagine being in her shoes. Going from having a parent who loved you to the horror that was the Nemours. I wasn’t sure if Henri did anything to protect his daughter, but after Régine had killed Henri, Régine was who Stella was left with.
Without even thinking about it, my feet in control, I pushed away from the table and stood. Mia put a hand on my arm, and her green eyes, so much like our mamma’s, pleaded with me notto go. “Wait, Teo. You need to see something and remember that the way we are doing it—planning—is the only way to go.”
I stared at her for a second, before I fixed my suit and sat back down. Mia set the envelope directly in front of me.
“I know you probably want to let Stella open all of this, but you have to see what’s in the envelope. I feel that would be okay, because it’ll mean something to you too.”
I trusted my sister, as much as I trusted my mamma, and I opened the envelope. What looked like phone records were inside. I lifted a few out and read over them, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.
“When Nola brought Stella to Paris, she gave her a matching watch. A girl at the club was seeing a guy who was into new technology, and part of that new technology was a watch that pinged back and forth. If you missed the owner of the other watch, you pinged them. That’s a report of how many times Stella pinged Nola and vice versa. It was steady from both sides when Nola was still alive, but she stopped after she died.”
I cleared my throat. Once. Twice. Three times. “But Stella never stopped pinging her.” My voice sounded like it was being shredded.
“No.” Saverio’s voice had turned quieter, sadder. “The tech guy never turned off the service after his girlfriend—now wife—told him the story. Stella still pings her.”
Evelina wiped her eyes. “I don’t even want to say this, but…Nola was buried with her watch. Or wanted to be. When she didn’t know what was going to happen with the cancer, she’d asked for that.”
When my eyes rose, everyone at the table was either crying (my sister and Evelina) or looking away. Marciano sniffed a few times. I looked back down at the envelope, my hands trembling, and noticed something heavier at the bottom. It was an ornament. A star. Not interlocking like the one mamma hadgotten made for us, but just one lone star. On it were the words “un amour écrit dans les étoiles.”
In French it meant:a love written in the stars.
In Italian it would be:un amore scritto nelle stelle
And in Sicilian:na muri scrivutu ne stiddi
No matter what the language, though, I knew the words were created for us.
Our love was written in the stars, and it had always been meant to be.
Nothing was going to stop me from having her, not even death.
Chapter 6
Matteo
The weather in Venice at this time of the year was cold and dreary. It seemed like the entire place had a silver shadow hovering over it. The water looked as if it had turned dark and, rising to the sky, had turned upside down and mixed with the clouds. It felt like a representation of the mood we were all in—somber. But underneath the surface of my sadness, an anger like I’d never felt before churned. I almost wondered if it was going to manifest itself into something the world could see, hear, and touch.
When a woman named Stella gave me a glimpse of heaven and then bolted on me, I found myself standing at the gates of hell. After what my sister, Saverio, and Evelina told me, I was standing in it, nothing stopping me from going aftermine.
Where we were headed was part of that journey, but a lighter part of it.
Cappello's had serviced the Fausti family as their exclusive jeweler since the Faustis had been the Faustis. It was usually an occasion to go to the actual store. And the stores were strategically placed for our convenience, even though the original, and main store, was in Venice. The second store was in Southern Italy, in Palermo. A special code had to be given tomake an appointment. Our family was the only source of income the Cappello's had. It was plenty enough.
“A minute,” Marciano said, grabbing me by the arm of my jacket and stopping me from entering the jewelry store.
I nodded for everyone to go ahead of us. We were here for Massimo to pick out a ring for Chloe, and it was always eye opening to see what our family had stored in our vault. I hadn’t decided if I wanted something antique or newly designed for Stella. Fate would have a say.
After everyone was allowed entry, my brother looked at me and cleared his throat. Out of all of us, Marciano was the bulkiest. Our uncle, Uncle Tito, had asked that Marciano be his name. Uncle Tito hadn’t been far off. Marciano boxed on the side, for fun, but he had formed a company that dealt in personal security. And he was one of the smartest motherfuckers I’d ever met. He was a walking, talking, dictionary with a deadly right hook. Mamma always said he was her plush lion, though. That was because she’d never been put in a headlock by him or had one of his fists impale her skin. He was strong enough to break a man’s ribs by picking him up and shaking him. He’d done it before.
