That was a point of contention, though. Rocco didn’t seem like he was of a sane mind to run it, not like before. After what his son had done in Natchitoches, it seemed like he became an island of man. Then there was Matteo, who I could tell was a step away from surrendering his position. I tried to talk to him about it, plead with him about it, but it only made him drink more. And he was drinking a lot more than he used to. I’d find him outside in the cold, sitting at the table, an entire bottle of whatever with a glass of it next to him, staring into the distance.
Scarlett told me to give him time, but she’d said, “Do not let anything, and I mean anything, get in the way of this time for you and the baby. Matteo knows life can’t be controlled, and he’s just feeling whatever he’s feeling about it, and that will get better. But you don’t want to look back on this time and regret a day of it. It all goes by so fast.”
So, that was what I was determined to do. Enjoy my time with the baby, in feeling every emotion that the next nine months would bring. And acting in this beautiful movie that would be filmed in Italy, Noemi directing it from behind the camera.
After Matteo loaded up the car, refusing to let the men do anything for me if he could help it, we got to the town and settled in. It reminded me of Nonno and Magpie’s walled city, and the soldiers who swarmed the area seemed right to be there. And my costars? They were warm and excited to be a part of this project, especially the women, but the men? They nodded at me out of respect and that was that.
My husband lurked in the shadows, those dangerous eyes always turned on.
The acting thing was an experience, at first, and some nights Noemi would come over and we would discuss things, but she made a comment to me one day that I was a natural. She knew Iwould be, and that was why she wasn’t surprised, but she wanted to tell me regardless.
Then…
Matteo was on set one day, reading an article about how the wife of Matteo Fausti was going to be the new Grazia Angeli of Italy, though I was not born there and didn’t speak the language natively. But I was a Fausti, the wife of Marzio’s great grandson, and the movie was going to be a throwback to the golden age of film.
Something completely changed in my husband’s face. I’d seen it with my own eyes, which, even when I was working, were on him. I was worried sick about him, because as the days pushed forward, I could tell he was struggling more and more. Like he expected the worse to happen any second. I didn’t know what to do, and after he’d read that article, I really didn’t know what to do.
His face was frozen in that same mask Scarlett wore when something, a feeling, ruled her. At night, he’d wrap me up in his arms, and I could feel the tremble beneath them. And his skin would run so hot, it was like he was trying to kill something inside of him like a fever.
A thought? A feeling?
I had no fucking clue if it was either, because he refused to talk to me about it!
Even Noemi watched him, worry etched on her features. She nudged me one day and asked, “Is Matteo okay?”
“Just worried,” I said. “He’s been treating me like…glass, ever since he found out about the baby.”
She nodded. “Fausti men can be like that, but…” She let whatever she was going to say after that go. “I’ll reassure him we’re going to wrap up before you’re too far along. Valentina isn’t pregnant in the script. And we’re ahead of schedule. You’re brilliant, Stella. I wouldn’t just say that.”
I squeezed her hand. “I know. Thank you.”
I texted Scarlett before Matteo could come out of the bathroom.
Might be nice if you and Brando visited.
She texted back right away.
On our way.
I sighed, feeling like maybe something would change once they arrived. Maybe there was a magic spell the two of them could cast to get Matteo to come around. Come back to himself. But even when he saw them, all he did was kiss his mom’s cheek and shake his dad’s hand.
Brando’s eyebrows drew in, and he looked at Scarlett. She stared at Matteo. And after the two men walked off to grab some drinks, she asked me where the article was. I’d saved it. I had no fucking clue if it had words in it that disappeared when I read it. It seemed harmless. A nod to the Fausti family. It painted them in a romantic light.
Scarlett’s eyes moved over the page, and when she looked up at me, she sighed. “Grazia passed from cancer,bebe.”
Okay…what did Grazia have to do with me?
Scarlett squeezed my hand, probably reading the confused look on my face. “Think about the similarities—besides what Grazia had. Matteo will run the family. Marzio ran the family. Grazia was an actress. You’re an actress. Matteo is…probably putting himself in Marzio’s shoes and you in Grazia’s. He even gave you her ring. He’s already…terrified.”
“Oh.” I looked down at the ring on my left finger and then rubbed my stomach. “He thinks we’ll follow in their footsteps.”
“He’s fighting it. Fighting you both stepping in their footprints, so it doesn’t lead you both down the same road.He’ll change something in the similarities to make the paths different.”
“Like what?” I asked.
She didn’t even have to answer. He answered for her when he came up from behind us with Brando. Father and son were both lurkers.
“I’m giving up my position in the family.”
