“What do you want?” Tori fired down the phone the moment she picked up. Good to know that she hadn’t deleted my number. I still held some potential use to her even if neither of us were clear on what that would be.
“Why are you trying to get a hold of Mia?”
“She doesn’t have time to pick up the phone, but she can run to you about it,” Tori said.
“She didn’t run to me,” I replied, resting my head on the wall. “You called when we were all here. What do you need?”
“Nothing from you.”
“I might be able to help.”
“I want to talk to her.”
I considered how painful it would be to smash my head against the wall. Caving in my skull seemed like a very attractive prospect in comparison to dealing with Tori when she was like this.
“Luc’s on a warpath, Vittoria,” I told her. “You’d be best to leave her alone.”
“Mia’s more than capable of fighting her own battles. She doesn’t need you or Luc stepping in for her.”
“No, she doesn’t need us, but we’ll keep doing it anyway,” I hissed angrily.
“What is it with all of the men in my life?” she almost screamed down the line, and I pulled it away from my ear. “You with Mia. Gabe with Chas. Dad with literally everyone else. Am I invisible in this life?”
We were a carefully constructed house of cards, built over decades and suddenly the foundations were crumbling. Everything we knew was changing and if you didn’t like change, then you were going to suffocate in the subsequent avalanche when the entire structure was collapsed and reshuffled. Vittoria had clearly lost her footing. She wouldn’t side with us, Gabe had found something to fixate on and Xavier had left them without so much as an explanation. She was looking for someone to pull her from the rubble but there was no one reaching out.
“Maybe if you acted like you needed people once in a while, they’d be there for you. Maybe if you gave something back to them,” I told her.
The line went dead. Once again, I hadn’t played to her narrative. Tori wanted someone to sympathise with her and as much as I ached for her, as much as I wanted to go to her and comfort her and tell her she had never been invisible to me, it was too big of a risk.
I’d done everything within my power to protect her from everything that was on the horizon. I made Mia promise me that Vittoria wouldn’t be a direct target in all of this mess. She’d agreed without hesitation, but I knew there were caveats. If Tori did anything that put Link or Luc in danger, then I fully expected Mia to go back on her word. For that not to be the case, Tori needed to keep her shit together but there was no guarantee of that. She was sounding desperate and lost.
Pushing myself away from the wall, I walked back into the house ready to put the pressure on my good-for-nothing cousin in hopes of avoiding the worst case scenario.
Chapter Eighteen
Mia
“Black doesn’t suit you,” Dante said as I walked into the living room. “It’s too...” He waved a finger around in my direction, trying to find the word. “Dark.”
“Good thing she’s not parading at a fashion week,” Luc quipped, his eye twitching. He wasn’t happy about this and I was hoping to slip out without a complete meltdown this morning. “It’s a funeral.”
Dante gave a sheepish grin and kissed Link’s forehead before handing my son to me. “You’re a better woman than the rest of us, Mia. No one’s sad to see Silas go.”
“She’s not doing it for him,” Luc snapped, and I was ready to step between them. “She’s doing it for Chastity. Though why you feel like—”
“Enough, Lucas,” I told him, and his head whipped around to me. It wasn’t often I called him Lucas these days, but we’d gone round and round with this argument since news of the funeral broke.
Gabe’s sudden protective streak had caused a stir. Dante was right in what he said. No one was sad to see Silas go. Chas had quietly informed the family of the funeral arrangements, quick and simple and miles away. Everyone I mentioned it to in passing scoffed when I asked about their attendance, including Luc.
He’d made it perfectly clear that he had no inclination to spend the better part of his day fake-mourning a man he was happy to see put in the ground. When I suggested that I go, Luc looked ready to pop several blood vessels. Mourning Silas Perkins would not look good for us and we couldn’t afford to put a step wrong since Gabe had just got rid of a blight in the family. I’d argued back just as fiercely that for once, I didn’t want to do something for appearance but because Chas deserved a friendly face on what would be a difficult day for her. He folded eventually but it felt too easy and I was wary he might stop me before I left the house.
“Babe.” I softened again and reached up to kiss his cheek. Luc relaxed under my touch. “We both know what it’s like to lose a parent.”
“Charlie and Hector weren’t homicidal maniacs,” Dante muttered under his breath and I shot him a look.
“This isn’t about Silas,” I told them both, thoroughly done with the conversation and wanting to move away from it before Luc changed his mind. “It’s about supporting Chas.” I picked up Link’s changing bag and slipped it onto my shoulder, but Luc instantly took it from me and walked out of the room.
Dom joined us in the hallway and as we stepped out of the house, my heart sank. Three black cars were lined on the drive, windows tinted so you couldn’t see the occupants.
