I sighed at the thought and set my hands over my husband’s arms. He had wrapped himself around me, and I never wanted him to let go. I was terrified of it. My worst fear—being in love this way—had morphed into…if I ever lost this love…
Him.
The thought made me soften and harden at the same time. Even if Mariano had created a vulnerable spot in my life, I wasstill a strong-willed woman who refused to allow her family to come between her and her heart.
“That’s my Annie,” Mariano whispered in my ear, then he kissed me on the temple before he turned me around to face the only home I had ever known until him, and the people inside of it.
He took me by the hand, and after we greeted his family, we started for the door. Atta snatched my wrist before we made it there. Angelo and Atta would be at this meeting as well. Atta had never set foot in the family palazzo in Venice.
As she had said before we left, she was “nervous as all get out!”ZiaBianca did not feel comfortable with her being inside its walls either.ZiaBianca was on the taxi with Atta and Angelo; however, she was not attending the meeting.
Ty was in Wyoming with Hannah. She could no longer run the ranch alone, and someone always needed to be with her.
“You said I looked okay before we left, but do I? Seriously. You have to tell me, Sistine!” She rarely called me by my full name. She was full-on panicking.
Angelo turned her to face him. “You are my wife. You are the most beautiful woman tome.”
He said these words in a manner that was meant to shield my cousin. To give her an armor in this world that nothing could penetrate. The women in our crowd all sighed. Mariano narrowed his eyes on his cousin before the narrow stare came back to me.
Brando Fausti had done the same thing, the look landing on his wife.
Scarlett and I looked at each other, and if our eyes could have grinned, they would have. She reached out and squeezed my hand. Our men were mad that they had not caused this reaction from us.
Nonno and Magpie led the way, the rest of the group falling in line by hierarchy. However, at the door, Nonno stepped back and allowed Mariano and I to take the lead.
Our doorman, Zorzo, greeted us.
Zorzo blinked at me a few times before he mouthed my name to himself. He recognized me, but not at first. Mariano squeezed my hand. Atta squeezed my arm. Love must have suited me. I had had a metamorphosis of sorts.
A starving soul seeking love as sustenance and plumping up on it, changing into who she had always dreamt to be.
Me.
Sistine Evita Fausti.
A woman who was given love and loved in return—beyond measure. A love so fulfilling that her lover claimed she glowed from it.
I cleared my throat. “We are here to speak to my grandfather and father, Zorzo,” I said to him in Italian. I pulled Atta next to me. “This is Atta Watt Fausti, Bianca’s daughter.”
“Hiya, Zoro,” she said, but it was not full of her usual Watt…wattage. She had called him Zoro. She was forever getting people’s names wrong when she was nervous.
He did not notice, it seemed. His eyes widened and then narrowed, and he slowly took her in. It was clear to deduce he was comparing her to Bianca and Capri. She resembled them both. I was the odd duckling in my family.
Angelo took Atta’s hand after the five of us—Mariano, me, Atta, Nonno, and Magpie—entered, Zorzo moving aside and sweeping a hand toward the entrance.
Although Nonno and Magpie were beside us as we walked in, I knew this was not the norm. Nonno was allowing Mariano to lead because he felt this was mostly Mariano’s situation to settle. When the entire group came to a halt in the foyer,my grandfather and father made their way from upstairs as Mariano’s eyes roved all over the grand palazzo.
It was a romantic place to grow up. I love the Watt ranch, but the palazzo was spectacular as well. We had visitors at all times of the year wishing to see it. It had all the Venetian charm and a long history. It had a timelessness that I had not found anywhere else. I could appreciate the art of it, the design, even if my upbringing was not the most nurturing inside of it.
It was not nurturing to me as a daughter at all—only to what I could do for the family. I knew I was an employee of my family, therefore the Fausti family, before I understood that I was blood-related to my people.
I noticed Scarlett’s eyes were taking in the place as well, as if she had never stepped foot in a place so palatial before. However, her look was more of…appreciation for the beauty of it. Mariano’s was different. It was almost a look of wonder.
“What?” I breathed out before my grandfather and father made it down the stairs.
Luca did not have to check his watch, but I knew he was keeping track of time. We were never late for the Fausti family, either early or exactly on time. We were early arriving, so my grandfather and father were going to be exactly on time when they met the man who led the family, my husband’s grandfather.
Was this to show the gavel was in their court? I was not sure.
