“No,” she sobbed. “He would never.”
It was only her heart he’d hurt. And she couldn’t even blame him for it. He’d warned her of the kind of man he was, and still she’d gift-wrapped herself for him.
She’d never known it was possible to miss someone so desperately, and one day, maybe soon, she would get a call or a message from her cousin telling her Gino was dead.
She’d come close to calling him a hundred times just to hear his voice. The only thing that had stopped her had been the unbearable thought that she would hear a woman’s voice in the background.
“Do you think you need help?” Artu said. “As in professional help? You’ve not had nightmares since you were little. Something’s brought them out again.”
Gino’s words floated in her head.You know the future that you don’t want, so now you need to figure out the future you do want and go out there and get it.
She rubbed her eyes and sat up, swallowing back more tears. “I know what’s brought the nightmare out,” she whispered. “And I know how to make it stop.”
Gino’s lightness didn’t last. He’d decided to hang around Naples and pay a visit to his club there, then fly back to Milan. The weight had been back in his limbs before he’d walked through the club’s front door. Now, walking into his apartment as the sun was starting to rise, the weight had spread. It was everywhere, in his guts, his brain, his heart…
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he breathed in deeply and opened a bottle of bourbon. Just the smell was enough to remind him of the way Francesca’s nose wrinkled whenever she took a sip of it.
Her clothes still hung in his dressing room.
Francesca looked at Mattia and Siena’s shocked faces, and blanked out her parents.
“Say that again?” Mattia demanded.
“I said I’ll do it. I’ll marry Elio. But I have two conditions. The first and most important one is that you have to let Gino live.”
They all reared back as if she’d slapped them all with one well-aimed flick of her wrist.
Siena looked at Mattia before leaning over to take Francesca’s hand. “Chicca, we came to see you because there’s been a change of plan.”
Now Francesca was the one to rear back.
After her nightmare, she’d spent the rest of the night working out details of the plan that had formed in her mind, then, when her mother was serving up breakfast, said she wanted to call a family meeting about the marriage. She’d thought it was serendipity when her mother replied that Mattia and Siena were on their way to discuss the same thing.
The ice she’d woken from her nightmare with reformed in her chest. “What change of plan?”
“I’m going to marry him,” Siena said.
Her mouth dropped in horror. “You? But you can’t.”
“I can and I will. It’s all agreed.”
“But youhatehim.” She’d seen it on Siena’s beautiful face whenever Elio’s name was mentioned.
“And he hates me too, so it’s a great match.” With a guilty smile, Siena added, “It should have been me to begin with. I was being a stubborn bitch about it because I’d just dodged one marriage I didn’t want, but that’s how things are with us. We do what’s best for the family, and this is for the best, and at least this time it’s my choice and not one being imposed on me, so it’s easier for me to live with…something I think you will understand.”
“But you’re throwing your life away,” she beseeched.
“Chicca, if I don’t marry him, there will be a war, and only God knows which of us will survive it. I can handle that arsehole much better than you can.”
Francesca closed her eyes. She would not cry.
Since she’d returned, the only one who’d seen her tears had been Artu. The boy she’d spent her life happily annoying had proved her greatest ally and protector. While Francescaunderstood why her parents had felt compelled to go along with Mattia’s plan for her to marry Elio, that Artu had been excluded from the talks was very telling. In his own way, Artu had railed against the constraints of their lives as much as she had and could have been relied upon to fight her corner. He understood her in a way none of the others could.
She wouldn’t let herself think that Gino knew and understood her better than anyone.
Siena squeezed her hand. “It was easy for us to forget that this isn’t your world – not your real world, which I am assuming is why you are suddenly bent on saving the man who kidnapped you?”
Francesca locked her eyes back to hers. “Don’t kill him. Please. I beg you.”
