I hesitate, taking a sip of my coffee, but my eyes never leave them. They're in the main library, not locked away. That has to mean they're fair game. Right?
I pull one down, and my breath catches.
The leather is butter-soft, aged to perfection. The stitching is impeccable. Tiny, even, clearly done by hand. The "V" isn't just stamped; it's tooled into the leather with gold leaf accents. Wow.
I sink into the worn velvet chair by the window, still clutching my coffee, and crack open the cover.
The very first page stops me cold.
A family portrait. What has to be Salvatore's parents. His mother is stunning, his father dark-haired and elegant; he's exactly what you'd expect a mafia boss to look like, and five boys are arranged around them. My eyes scan the faces until I find him.
A young Salvatore, maybe ten or eleven, standing behind one of his brothers. His hand is raised behind his brother's head, making bunny ears.
Bunny ears.
A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. "So I guess you used to be normal."
I study the other faces. Everyone is attempting to smile for the camera except one kid whose face is as serious as stone. He stands with his arms crossed like he means business—all while wearing a Mickey Mouse hat.
"That must be Elio," I murmur to myself, grinning.
I turn the pages slowly, letting myself get lost in this window into a world I never expected to see. Salvatore's mother, I'm certain it's her now, smiles beautifully in every photo. There's so much light in her face, so much warmth. She looks like the kind of woman who laughs easily and could light up an entire room.
His father is the opposite. No smiles, no gimmicks, just a straight face that could freeze water. The quintessential mafia patriarch.
Except.
I find one photo of the two of them together. She's leaning into him, clearly having just said something, and he's... smiling. It looks almost involuntary, like she pulled it out of him against his will, but it's genuine nonetheless. Real.
I take a sip of coffee to wash it away.
The next page makes me actually coo out loud. "Awww, they had a dog!"
It's a chaotic shot. All five boys clustered around a massive German Shepherd while their mother is clearly struggling to hold onto the leash. The dog's tongue is out, one of the boys (the bunny-ears victim from before) has fallen over, and even the serious Mickey Mouse kid is reaching down to pet the dog's head. Salvatore is laughing, and I see so much joy in his face. Not the cold man I have to marry.
I trace my finger over the photo.
This was a family. A real one. Before whatever happened to make Salvatore into the man who kidnapped me in a parking garage.
I'm reaching for another album when I hear footsteps on the stairs.
I snap the album closed, my heart hammering, but I don't try to hide what I was doing. What's the point? They probably already know.
I wait to see if anyone walks in, but thankfully, no one does.
My phone buzzes and Lindsay's name flashes on the screen.
I grab a book to take back to the room with me before heading for my walk in the gardens.
The moment I step onto the path, the world softens. Gravel crunches gently beneath my shoes, and the low hush of wind moves through hedges clipped into careful, elegant lines. Roses spill over wrought-iron trellises, their petals heavy with color and scent, and somewhere nearby, water trickles over stone, slow and unhurried.
It’s so beautiful and peaceful here that for a few stolen minutes, with this book under my arm and the sun warm on my skin, I almost forget where I am.
My phone buzzes again, snapping me back to reality, and I head towards my room.
Time to reach out to Lindsay before she starts freaking out again.
Lindsay: I've been patient. I've been understanding. But you ARE NOT missing our date night. I won't have it.
