“I don’t believe you,” she tried again.
Luc just shrugged at her as if he couldn’t care less. Because he couldn’t care less. Whether Tori believed him or not didn’t change the fact that it was truth.
“He’s telling the truth.” Even Mia, with her quick smarts, couldn’t figure out how to stuff the cat back into the bag. “I found out and—”
“You’d say anything to destroy this family,” Tori told her viciously.
Luc stepped forward but Mia planted her palms on his chest. “Don’t,” she warned him firmly. She turned around to look at Tori. “You walked into my home, Vittoria,” Mia said. “You demanded answers, which you got. I’m not trying to destroy this family. I’m trying to protect mine. I won’t apologise for that anymore. Not to you. Not to anyone. You know where the door is. You can see yourself out.”
I thought Vittoria might argue but she turned, not even sparing me a glance and stormed away.
Mia sagged against Luc and he kept her upright. “She’s going to tell everyone,” Mia said, looking at him.
“Let them know,” Luc said. “They can all tear a strip from him when we find him.”
“I’ll be back,” I said, leaving the doorway and jogging after Tori. When I caught up to her, she had a hand on the car door. “Vittoria!”
She looked at me. “I don’t want to hear it,” she said sharply and held a single finger up before wrenching open her door. I dashed to her side as she got into the car and stopped her from closing the door on me. “Move, Dante!”
“Are you planning to make me?” I asked. Tori looked like she was about to take aim at my crown jewels, and I dropped to a squat on the driveway. I’d rather her aim for the face. When the punch didn’t arrive, I continued, “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” she said through her teeth. “Is it true? Do you believe them? Seriously believe them?” Vittoria turned her head and looked at me properly, her eyes were glassy, though, whether it was from anger or hurt, I couldn’t tell.
“They’ve got no reason to lie,” I told her. “It’s why Mia left. Xavier threatened her.”
Tori bit her bottom lip and nodded her head. “Okay,” she said eventually. She blinked rapidly, ridding herself of the tears. “Okay. Even if it is true, that doesn’t give them the right to try and get rid of him.”
“But it gives him the right to get rid of them to keep his secret?”
Her face crumpled before smoothing out again. Vittoria would rather die than be vulnerable, but this hadn’t been what she expected and she was struggling to keep her emotions in check. “Does Mom know?”
“You think Maria would be breathing if she did?”
“Gabe?”
“If he does, it wasn’t from us. It’s not something we’ve tried to advertise, given how fickle the family can be.”
Tori sniffed and rolled her neck before sticking her key in the ignition.
“Tori?”
“I need to get home.”
“And then?”
“And then I don’t know, Dante.”
“Are you planning to tell Gabe?”
“Why is it you’re always clearing up his mess, D?” Tori asked, gripping the wheel so tight that her knuckled turned white. “Why are you always defending him?”
“I’m not doing anything that you wouldn’t do for Gabriel.”
It was an infinite loop, the argument of why I chose to side with Luc rather than stay loyal to Tori. To stay loyal to Tori was to sit with the Moretti family and I wouldn’t get a return on investment. The loyalty and respect I had with Luc, the love I had from my found family was something I didn’t want to swap for ridicule and the constant need to prove myself. But I needed to word it in a way that would hopefully talk her off the ledge. That might finally get her to understand my point.
“He’s never once lied to me, no matter what the repercussions might be,” I explained. “He’s the family that I can rely on and I know he won’t turn his back on me. Why wouldn’t I defend that, Tori? That’s hard to come by in this life so I’m going to hold onto it.” Something that she didn’t have because the Moretti family may have looked perfect but looks were deceiving. There was a coldness that seeped through and kept them all eerily distant when they were alone together.
“I’d like to leave now,” Tori whispered.
