Page 53 of Entangled

“You called Tommas?”

“Lower your voice,” her uncle snapped.

Cara’s back straightened at the sound of a man scolding her.

Fuck. That. Shit.

“I am not in a predicament. I am pregnant, and by whom, is my fucking business to handle how I please.”

“I know Gian Guzzi is the father, Cara. Or I have a strong enough suspicion to use his name, for good reason. And considering your reaction, I am not wrong. Tell me I am wrong.”

“And so what if he is?”

“He’s a married man!”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” she cried, throwing her hands wide. “I do know that, Claud!”

“Have you considered how difficult this road will be for you and the child?” her uncle asked quietly. “To be the mistress of a made man and the bastard boy, born to a goomah mother? Have you considered that at all?”

Cara felt the familiar prickling behind her eyes that signaled her tears were trying to fall. She held them back, and settled for hiding the trembling of her hands at her sides.

“I know I made choices that might not be what everyone else would make,” Cara replied, level-toned and stone-faced, “and I know this won’t be easy, but don’t toss those words at me just because they’re the ones everyone else wants to use. You only see the surface, and how that looks, but you don’t care about the rest. You don’t care to know the details, about me and him, about us, or why. So that also means you don’t get to tell me fuck all. Not what to do, how to handle this situation, or anything else about me, my baby, his father, or what I should do with my feelings. Take your opinion, and shove it up your—”

“Cara,” her aunt called softly from behind her.

She turned to find her aunt standing a few feet down in the hallway. No doubt, Daniele had heard every single word.

Walking past her aunt, Cara said, “Well, there you go. Now you know who. Does it make it better, Zia?”

Daniele didn’t say a thing.

She didn’t have to.

Cara knew the answer.

No, it was not better.

Cara dug into a takeout container full of noodles, as the news program on the television repeated the highlights of the day. She checked her phone, seeing a new message from Gian, one in reply to her latest update on the baby’s gestation.

I like Marcus for a name, Gian had wrote. It’s my middle name, and my grandfather’s father’s name. A family name.

Cara thought to reply, but she decided she would do that after she finished eating. She had just taken a good mouthful of noodles when a shot of Gian came across the screen.

New Guzzi Crime Boss Released, the headline read across the bottom of the screen. That wasn’t exactly news to Cara, as she had known Gian’s date of release for a good month, and had counted down the days. She also knew, through Chris’s last update, Gian might need to lay low for a few days before she would see him, it really just depended on circumstances.

That, Cara had also understood.

What she didn’t understand—or like, for that matter—was seeing a shot of Gian fresh off release, walking into what looked like a restaurant with his wife on his arm.

Then, the shot changed.

Gian stepping out of a car, moving to the other side, and then helping his wife out. She kissed his cheek, her wide-brimmed red hat that matched the color of her heels and dress, hid half of her face, but not enough.

Cara had not been able to forget what Elena looked like since the moment she had seen those wedding pictures. It was burned into her fucking retinas.

“Gian Guzzi, heir apparent and new boss to the Guzzi Crime Dynasty is free today,” the anchor said. “We were unable to question the purported Don on his release, or the investigations the police say continue to be active, as he moved directly from the jail to a restaurant, where he seemed to meet with his father-in-law, while his wife was close by. Guzzi’s father-in-law, Gabriel Canali, is another well-known gangster from an Ottawa organization, a leader of a Camorra clan, who was also recently released from jail.”

The anchor continued talking, but Cara shut the television off, and tried to focus on eating her food. She no longer had an appetite.