“Anything could have happened!”
“It didn’t. Breathe. They’re both okay. Where are you going?” I asked, following him as he left the kitchen. Apparently, Luc was done with our conversation.
“I need to think.”
“Luc, what are you going to do? You need to speak to her.”
“I don’t know,” he said. I could hear the loss of control that he’d had for so long. “I don’t know. I just need to get my head around all of this.”
Chapter Seventeen
Mia
The service had been an ambush. If Sunday was the Lord’s day of rest, then I would place my bets on the fact that the Devil worked overtime. Gabe had refused to tell me where we were going, only that jeans would not be appropriate. The ensuing argument that I had nothing else hadn’t pleased him, and my request to stay at the house with Franco had subsequently been declined.
The sweltering day had made me wish I hadn’t lied about the contents of my bag, but being told what to do had never sat well with me. I longed to dress in flowing sundresses and skirts that would give me some reprieve from the scorching day, instead of denim that stretched at the waist, to accommodate my growing stomach, and stuck to my skin. As Gabe pulled up outside the church, I dug my heels in, refusing to leave the car until Franco threatened to physically remove me, causing an unnecessary scene. The frustration made my skin prickle worse than the heat of the sun, and by the time I slid from the car, most of the revelers had moved inside.
Father Duffy’s voice echoed in the cavernous room as he preached to the flock before him. I hadn’t been raised in faith and the loss of my mother had driven Dad and I further away from God. Churches were only frequented for weddings and funerals and even then I didn’t understand the necessity. There was the sense that I might burst into flames after two decades of uninhibited blasphemy, but judgment from God was the least of my concerns. It was the rest of the congregation I feared most.
When I’d walked up the aisle, Gabe leading the way, the tension was palpable. Conversations dropped and eyes landed on the pregnant, unmarried traitor. The one thing I longed to keep to myself was no longer a secret and had been unveiled in the most public way I could imagine. The humiliation burned in my cheeks and up my throat as the whispers picked up again. How could I have been let back into the family after what I had done to them? How had I suffered no consequence? They had no idea of the threats Xavier had laid out, or the way his gaze pierced me as I squeezed past him to sit in the pews with his family, wedged securely between Gabriel and Franco.
As the Father droned on, I lifted my head and peered across the aisle. I was tucked into the right side of the church with the rest of the Moretti family, minus Tori. She had placed herself beside Dante on the other side of the room in an open display of her loyalty to him and trust in their relationship. The profiles of so many familiar men brought the deep-rooted longing back to my chest. Whenever it rose, it wasn’t gentle but made me feel unsteady. My eyes scanned along the pews, hunting for the figure that I knew best. Luc had always been set deep in his faith and I expected to see him amidst the congregation, but he appeared to be missing.
A pair of blue eyes locked with mine and widened in shock at being caught. Katia Shultz turned her head away so quickly I was worried she might have suffered whiplash from the movement. Everyone wanted to look, everyone would want to gossip, but no one would risk getting caught. I was an uncertain bet, still shrouded in too much mystery for them to warrant a conversation or, apparently, even a glance. A small, uninhibited part of me wanted to stand up and tell her to take a photo but the larger, more logical part of me reminded me the best way to survive this mess was to keep my mouth shut.
“Stop that,” Gabe said, turning his head toward me. His hand lifted and I released my bottom lip from my teeth. His thumb brushed across it and I jerked away from his touch to see my blood stained the pad of his digit. Franco let out a low disapproving hum as I knocked into him.
“Sorry,” I muttered, and he bowed his head again.
“It won’t be much longer,” Gabe said, wiping the blood on his thigh, a small dark streak staining the pale grey of his pants.
I didn’t say another word, settling back in the seat and letting the words of God fall on deaf ears. My mind was more preoccupied with Luc and where he would be on Sunday morning, if not at church. Dante was bound to have an answer.
With the mutterings ofamen, my own slightly delayed thanks to not knowing the protocol, and lack of attention, the service came to a close. People got to their feet and the conversation once again buzzed in the air as women fanned themselves with their hands and hymn books and men unbuttoned suit jackets. I spied Dante gesturing to Tori to walk ahead out of the row. It took everything in me not to call out to him.
“Excuse me,” I said to Gabe, but he didn’t move. Instead, he settled his cool gaze on me.
“Where are you rushing off to?” he asked.
“I want to speak to Dante.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
The anger at being cornered into this whole charade still ran through me, forced through my system with every beat of my heart. “Why not?” I spat through gritted teeth.
“We’ll see you back at the house, Gabriel,” Emilia cut across our conversation. Xavier’s wife was a mousy woman. The last time I’d seen her was New Year’s Eve. Without all the finery she looked less impressive. She was a Moretti by name, not by blood. Maybe that spark came down to genetics. Gabe straightened his jacket and nodded, watching as his parents cleared the aisle.
“I’m not coming with you,” I said to him when they were out of earshot. “I’ll go back to yours.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so, Mia.” There it was. I saw it more often these days: the flicker in the façade that assured me that Gabe had Xavier’s DNA coiled in every cell. Calm and composed until something didn’t go their way, according to their plans. “It wouldn’t be a smart move to make an enemy out of me right now.”
I clamped my mouth shut, knowing he was correct for a multitude of reasons. Pleased with my silence, Gabe turned and walked out of the row while I stood seething at the impossible position I was in.
“Do you still remember how to walk?” Franco asked from behind me, and I bit back on a response before following after Gabe.
