I shifted my weight from my haunches so that I knelt down in front of her. Reaching out, I hesitated when I saw the bracelet Luc had gifted her still clasped around her wrist. Another physical glimmer of hope that Mia hadn’t severed every tie with my brother. Taking her wrists in my hands, I gently pried hers away from her face. “What was your fault, Mia? You barely spoke to Xavier.”
“I overheard a conversation I shouldn’t have,” she whispered. Her voice shook with the words, but no tears fell. I thought that would be all she gave me, but it was almost as if I could see her cracking in front of my eyes. “He was talking to Maria. I went to visit her, and I heard them. I ran. I tried to lie and tell him I didn’t know anything, but he knew. He threated my Dad, but I didn’t think he’d do anything. I hadn’t told Luc. I planned to but I hadn’t yet. Xavier must have known I wouldn’t hide it from him.”
The floodgates had opened. As Mia spoke, the pace of her words became quicker until they were tripping over each other in a haste to spill the truth. “I didn’t plan to, but I went to see Maria the next day to get a straight answer from her, and she admitted to it all. I couldn’t keep it from Luc. I was going to marry him, D. I couldn’t have started a life with Luc knowing that lie. She must have told Xavier, because I went to see Dad straight after and… and…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
When Mia ran from Luc, she also ran from a sense of closure. The rest of us had stood there in the pouring rain and watched as Hector was committed to the Earth and handed over to our Heavenly Father. It was a sparse funeral, the guest list consisting of all of us that worked for Luc. That was the last thing he had done for her before he’d closed himself off.
In that moment, I knew I needed to take advantage of Mia’s muddled thought process. She was an open book and I needed to extract the one piece of information that would complete the puzzle. I pushed down on the guilt that had started to wind its way up my body. My line of work required me to leave my conscience at the door, and most of the time that wasn’t a problem, but working against Mia for my own gain was a little harder to swallow. “What were you going to tell Luc?” I asked, sliding my grip from her wrists so that I held her hands. She gripped them with surprising force, turning my skin white.
There was a war raging inside of Mia and for a brief moment I thought I might be on the losing side, but she had already revealed so much, and the weight of carrying the secret had finally broken her. A tear rolled down her cheek as she whispered, “Xavier is Luc’s father.”
Throughout my life I had seen and done things that would drive most to insanity. Naïvely, I’d believed there was nothing left in this world that could catch me off guard, until Mia spoke those words. “That’s not possible,” I whispered back, the shock seeping through to even my vocal cords.
“Maria admitted it, Dante,” Mia told me, tears falling freely now. “She’d lied and said Luc was Charlie’s son.”
I wondered if this was how Pandora felt when she opened the box. Driven by curiosity and the intense desire to find an answer, I’d overlooked the fact that it may be an answer that I hadn’t expected, let alone wanted.
By the time I had met Luc, Charlie and Maria had already divorced. I had little knowledge about their relationship, aside from the fact that every now and then, fueled by a little alcohol, Charlie would lament the breakdown of his marriage to the love of his life. Growing up, Luc spent less and less time with Maria, who remarried and had Stefan, and fell into step with Charlie. There had always been a small spark of envy in me, watching father and son resemble each other in their temperament. Luc had something that I would never have, but I never wished it away from him.
I’d been there for the aftermath of Charlie’s death. Borne witness as Luc spiraled out of control without the man who had been his guiding hand in life. This would push him over the edge if he found out. Deep down I knew there was no if about it. Telling Luc the truth would mean he’d lose Charlie all over again, but keeping it from him meant he would lose the woman he loved and their baby.
“Who else knows?” I asked her, though I felt I already knew the answer.
“No one,” Mia confirmed, to my relief. “As far as I know, no one. It’s not something he wants as public knowledge.”
There was no doubt Xavier would want to keep this secret hidden. If word got out, then it would do irreparable damage to his reputation, put a spanner in his marriage, and put further strain on his relationship with the twins. Everything Xavier stood for would be pulled from under his feet, and the delicate balance of our world would be tipped off its axis.
And maybe that was what we needed, but in a more controlled manner.
I stood up from the floor and brushed myself off. Luc wasn’t here. There was no one giving me direct orders, which meant that I was flying solo. Where most people in the family craved power, I wanted none of the responsibility that came with it, but there was no alternative. I was about to make a handful of decisions that would probably upset multiple people, including Vittoria, and yet that knowledge didn’t cause my thought process to waver.
“You’re coming home, Mia.”
Mia’s head snapped up to look at me and she shook her head. “No. No, I’m not. I’m never going back. I have Xavier and Luc after me. There is no way.”
“How long do you think you’re going to last?” I asked her, coolly. “You thought that you were well hidden with Carmen, but we found you. A change of name, a change of country… Mia, you’re never going to get rid of us, I can assure you of that. Luc will keep hunting and he’ll find you.” After a moment, I added the words, “And I’ll help him.” I knew my brother better than anyone and he wouldn’t rest until he’d fulfilled this ridiculous desire that had been planted in his soul. “You’ll spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. Is that how you want to live?”
“What’s the alternative, Dante? I walk straight in front of the firing squad?” Mia bit back, getting to her feet.
I kept my tone level as I told her, “The alternative is that you come back home and tell Luc the truth, and we deal with Xavier as a family.”
“Walk straight in front of the firing squad…”
Looking her in the eye, I placed a hand on my chest, just below my heart where a specific piece of ink lay. “I swear to you, on my vow, that I won’t let Luc harm you.”
Chapter Seven
Mia
The moment Dante had guessed was the moment I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I’d spent so long alone with this secret that it felt good to share it with someone else. It lifted the heavy weight that had sat on my chest and made it difficult to breathe. What I hadn’t expected was for him to turn on me and force my hand to come home. Dante and I had always been close, and I’d thought he’d understand my predicament and keep me safe. Instead, I was being told to return home or I’d be hunted down like a fox by hounds. Predator and prey. The roles would never change.
“Do you trust him, Mia?” Carmen asked, standing there with her arms folded across her chest.
Dante and Emilio were in the living room; the deep hum of their voices came through to the bedroom as they spoke. Even if the door had been open, I doubt I’d have been able to pick out the exact topic of conversation with the way the blood was pounding in my ears. My heart thumped as if I had just run a marathon, as if it knew the end was near and was making up for the lifetime that would be lost.
“Mia,” Carmen said forcefully, so that I turned my head to look at her. “Do you trust, Dante?”
There was a time I wouldn’t have thought twice about this question. I would have told her that Dante was family and I trusted him with my life, and I was sure he’d have said the same. That foundation had been worn away until we were standing precariously on rocky rubble, wondering if we would fall or if we could rebuild. Such a delicate balance with no guarantee which way we would sway.
