Anger bubbled up. “Adamo, who ran away?” A horrible suspicion was taking root in my head. I didn’t want to give it room to grow. It couldn’t be.
“Our mother, she ran away. Today. Gone. I don’t know where she went.”
I frowned, trying to understand what he was saying and wondering how much of it was the result of his drug haze. “I thought you saw her in the hospital. She can’t leave there. Remo’s given clear orders…” A feeling of dread was taking hold of me.
“He gave the orders that only one of us brothers could get her out.”
I closed my eyes. “You helped her get out of the hospital?”
“Yeah … she was crying and apologizing. I thought we could … I don’t know… I didn’t want her to die.” He released a shuddering breath. “But she used me. She ran off when I fueled up the car. I don’t know where she went. She isn’t right in the head. Fuck, Kiara. I’m such an idiot.”
Adamo was adrift and looking for an anchor but he kept looking in the wrong places when a safe haven was always waiting for him in these walls.
“Come home,” I urged. “We’re all worried about you.”
“Remo and Nino will never forgive me for setting her free.”
“Of course, they will. They love you. They’ll go through fire for you, just come home. Everything will be fine.” But I wasn’t sure it was true. Remo and Nino hated and feared their mother equally. She was the thorn in their flesh, the tether to their cruel past and the gasoline that could fuel the fire of their monstrosity.
I said, “Let me help you. Let me pick you up.”
“No.” His voice was already fading as if he was lowering his phone. “I’ll have to find her. I’ll have to … have to … so Remo and Nino forgive me.”
“Adamo!”
The line went dead. I tried calling him back, but he rejected the call. Alessio woke from my shout and began crying. What was I supposed to do?
CHAPTER 25
KIARA
Remo and Nino were the strongest men we knew, but there was one thing with the power to destroy them still after all these years. Their mother. Serafina knew it as well I did. We had to protect them and our families at any price, but how?
Serafina and I sat on the sofa in the living room, watching over Greta and Nevio as they played on the floor. I rocked Alessio gently in my arms, hoping to get him to sleep.
“We have to find a way to get her before they find out what happened,” she said fiercely.
“The hospital will certainly alert them soon. Something will come up, or one of the other doctors will want confirmation, and Remo will get the call.”
Serafina shook her head, scrunching up her face in despair. “What was he thinking? How could he believe a word she said after what she did to his brothers?”
“He wasn’t born when it happened. For him it’s an abstract scenario he can’t comprehend, but she was there in front of him, crying and begging. She was real and he wanted to help her. You know how much he struggles.”
“Because of what my family did to him.”
I looked into her eyes, wondering if she noticed how Adamo used her to remind himself of the past. I didn’t think she was aware about the extent of his struggles, maybe none of us was. Adamo had become a master at hiding his addiction, his battles. “We have to protect them,” I whispered. It was ridiculous, us trying to protect Remo and Nino, but in this case they needed protecting.
“Fabiano is the only one who can help us.”
I traced Alessio’s hairline gently as I held him in my arm. “He’s loyal to Remo. It won’t be easy to convince him to go behind Remo’s back.”
Serafina huffed. “It isn’t betrayal if he protects Remo from himself.”
“I have a feeling he and Remo won’t see it that way.”
“What about Nino? He bases his decision on logic. I bet he would agree with our plan to involve Fabiano.”
“Maybe.” Nino had come so far from the man I first met more than two years ago. He still had trouble with emotions, recognizing them, feeling them, showing them, but we were on a good path, or had been. The thought that this could set him back, it terrified me. When I hadn’t known Nino any other way, his lack of emotions had been tolerable. Now I knew how he could be if he actually felt them. I didn’t think I could survive faked emotions from him ever again.
“But it’s different where their mother is concerned.”
“Fabiano is our only chance. It’s either that or telling Remo and Nino.”
Serafina and I stared into each other’s eyes, and hers like mine filled with tears. “I’ll call Fabiano. We’ve got at last two hours before our husbands will be back.”