I pause, key in hand. "Yes, partly. But I'm also very tired, sweetheart."
“Is it because the man in the black suit was talking to you? The one who kept looking at me?"
I freeze. "What man, Enzo?"
"The black sheep. That’s what Valentina calls him. He was watching us earlier."
Luca.
He'd been watching our son before I even told him.
But he didn’t seem to have any suspicion when he corralled me into the study.
No.
He was angry that another man might have touched me. The nerve of him.
I spend the evening with my son, playing games, feeding us dinner, giving him a bath, and later tucking him into bed.
The storybook lies open on my lap, but I've been reading on autopilot, my mind elsewhere.
"Can we have pancakes tomorrow?" Enzo mumbles, his eyelids heavy.
"Of course." I lean down to kiss his forehead.
His small fingers grab mine before I can pull away. "You're still sad."
Not sad. Shattered. Confused. Angry. Longing. But I force a smile. "I'm just tired. Sleep now."
I watch him drift off, his face peaceful in the soft glow of his nightlight.
My beautiful boy. My miracle.
The only good thing that came from loving Luca Dante.
Later, I sit on our small porch, wrapped in a blanket against the evening chill.
Stars speckle the sky, and I remember how Luca once pointed out constellations to me on the Dante estate's roof.
Back when I believed his promises.
Just get out or die.The words Luca says his father told him echo in my mind.
The explanation differs from what Don Lorenzo and Alessandro said. According to them, Luca left willingly, turned his back on family obligations.
Alessandro had called him a traitor, too wild to be contained.
Don Lorenzo himself told me Luca chose power over family, over me.
Yet today, Luca spoke as if he'd been forced out. As if he'd had no choice.
Someone is lying. Perhaps everyone.
I take a sip of wine, remembering how Don Lorenzo's face would harden whenever Luca's name was mentioned.
The old Don had been kind to me, protective after Luca left, especially when my pregnancy became apparent.
He gave me this cottage, ensured that Enzo would want for nothing.
