Page 155 of Matteo

“You had your chance last night. You want to explain now? Now that you've had time to figure out a story and ...” He shrugs, “I don't know, cover your tracks?”

He seems so convinced.

“Someone is planting evidence against me.”

He shakes his head and makes to move away, like he can't bear to listen anymore. “I need a little distance from you.”

The words knock the breath from my lungs and I stumble back a few steps, reeling from his words that are as vicious as a slap. He walks away, leaving me feeling small and wretched, like I'm unwanted. Disposable.

I find myself thinking, should I stay here for the next two days? I can’t, not with the way Matteo has left.

But Vlad wouldn't like it if I cut my vacation short and I don’t want to get him involved in my problems—even though he'll see through whatever lies I come up with to explain Matteo’s absence. He'll figure out that something's wrong. If he knows I'm hurt, he'll want to fix it and the last thing I need is for him to get involved in mine and Matteo's lives.

When I walk back to the table, Vlad is watching me. He throws his hands up in the air, as if to ask me what’s happened.

I shake my head, plaster on a smile and wave at him dismissively, like it’s no big deal.

But it’s the biggest, biggest, biggest deal, and I am heartbroken.

***

MATTEO

The journey from Dubrovnik passes in a blur.

I spend most of the flight staring out of the window of the small, chartered jet, watching the darkness swallow the Adriatic below. Elizabeth’s face haunts me every time I close my eyes. I see the hurt in her eyes.

The lies.

The evidence.

And yet none of it makes sense.

By the time I land near Verona, at the airport closest to Soave, where Mama lives, I have a throbbing headache. I take a taxi to her house, and the familiar drive is quiet, the roads almost empty at this hour. As the car winds through the ancient town walls and narrow streets, something inside me begins to loosen.

For the first time in days, I don't feel like I'm bracing for impact. It's been like that being with Elizabeth and her friends. She's been on tenterhooks, and so have I.

The driver pulls up outside Mama's house just before nine o'clock and I climb out and make my way up the stone path.

I didn't tell Mama I was coming, but I see her watching through the windows, and I catch the way her face brightens when she sees me.

The front door swings open.

“Matteo!” She clasps her hands to her chest. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly. She's so tiny, a slip of a woman who is easily engulfed in my hug.

I exhale a sigh of contentment. After the headfuckery of the last few days, this feels like home.

“You came home, figlio mio.”

My son.

Her comforting words heal my bruised heart. I didn't realize how much I needed to hear them.

I step inside the house, immediately assailed by the scent of garlic, tomatoes, fresh bread, and the faint sweetness of something baking in the oven.

After the chaos of the last few days, after everything that's happened with Elizabeth, I can finally let go and unwind.

Being here illustrates just how complicated everything with Elizabeth has been. It's such a contrast from what we had. She meant something to me. She was precious and different, and perfect, but now I question everything that happened between us. I wonder if she's been planted into my world, into Knight Enterprises, for sinister motives.