“Mom?” I asked.
“What?”
I looked over at Antony, and I saw him sigh.
“Come sit down, Mom.”
“No,” she said.
“Please?” I asked.
“I said ‘no.’”
“Then let us at least fix you a—”
“I said I don’t want to eat!”
She slammed her rag down onto the kitchen counter, and I saw it. For the first time. With my very own eyes. The woman who raised me and clothed me. Who chased me around the yard and beat my ass when I stepped out of line. The woman who prayed over my life every morning and tucked me in at night with kisses was hunched over the counter of our family kitchen, crying.
“Was this what you wanted to talk about?” I asked.
Antony shot me a look before he strode over to Mom.
I got up from the table and went over to her side. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close as Antony rubbed her back. There it was. The breakdown the two of us had been anticipating. Not once had we seen her cry, or lose it, or lose herself at all since our father had died.
“Ssshhh,” I said. “It’s okay. We’re here.”
“I miss him,” my mother said.
“We do, too,” Antony said.
“Why is he gone?” she asked.
I led my mother into the living room and sat her down on the couch. Antony grabbed her a glass of water and held it out to her before sitting down beside her. I crouched in front of her and took her hands, bringing them to my lips to kiss.
This was why I wanted peace between our two families. This was why I wanted to usher in a new era for the Martine family.
Because we had lost enough.
CHAPTER 3
JULIA
“Uncle Stef!”
I watched Matteo run into the arms of my uncle as Stefano picked him up. He swung the small boy around as Enrico, my personal bodyguard, shut the door closed behind us. I looked back at him and his eyes connected with mine, and I saw a shadowed grin tick his cheek.
“Afternoon, Enrico,” I said as I greeted my guard and friend..
“Glad to see you up and about, Miss Bianchi,” he said.
I knew the night before had flustered him. I’d left without his guidance and without his presence to meet Romeo, but I hadn’t wanted to go in there with intimidation tactics. Even if Romeo had come with them. And I knew Enrico wasn’t happy about Romeo carting around all those goons with him, especially to sit down with me.
“How’s my boy?” Stefano asked.
“Good. I slept so long, and I ate a really big breakfast,” Matteo said.
“You did? What did Mommy cook for you?”