“Let me get this straight.” I stood, tipping my chair backward. “You abandoned me when I was young. You left me with a stranger, who later dropped me off at another stranger’s house to live. I grew up being physically abused and emotionally wrecked. I ended up on the streets and somehow managed to survive it all to get where I am today, and all that you want to know is how I got tangled up with the Capri family?”
“Sienna,” she took a long breath then tossed her napkin on the table and stood, “as overwhelming as this is for you, it is for me too. I apologize for my lack of warmth and empathy. I tend to hide it at the worst of times. Leaving you was the hardest and worst decision of my life, but I had to do it. Though I thought things were going to turn out differently, they didn’t, and I’m still trying to understand it all. Please,” she pointed to the chair that was upright again, thanks to Oscar, “take a seat, and let’s try this again.”
Francesco had moved a bit farther into the room when I overturned my chair. He gave me a pleading look to do as she said. I eased down into the seat and nodded for her to begin.
“Let’s start slow and work our way to the bigger questions as we get to know one another.” She poured some ice water into a glass that held cucumber slices. “I read in the article that you’re a journalist. What led you into that profession?”
“You,” I answered simply. “I figured I could find you if I dug hard enough. I needed a job that would let me do that.”
“I didn’t want to be found.”
“Apparently.” I couldn’t help but feel a sting from her answer.
“There were reasons for it.”
“I bet.” I sipped some water. “Why do you need an entourage of men?” I swept my hand about to indicate the obvious muscle around her.
“Protection.”
“From whom?”
“From the ones who want to hurt me.” She leaned back and motioned for one of them to come over. “However, Ugo here is your first cousin.”
I blinked up at the man who looked nothing like me, and more like Elio, and tried to digest that I did have family.
“Nice to meet you, Ugo,” I said softly.
“You as well.”
“Can you tell me a little about—”
“Back to your post.” Elenora cut me off as her curt voice directed Ugo. Taken back, I threw her a look. “We’ll get there,” she said as she turned back to me, her voice lowered.
Well, that was a warm way to discover my cousin.
“Do I have any other family?”
“A little, yes.”
“Are any of them on my father’s side?”
“Yes, there are some there, too. Where are you living now?”
“Somewhere safe.” I kept my answers as vague as she did. After all, why should I give her any detail when she was the one who held all the cards? “Why now, why here?” I blurted, feeling drained with the dance we were in. At this rate, I realized I might have to take notes in a journal just to remember the tiny bits of information she was giving me.
“Because of this.” She pulled a copy ofFab Magazineout of her purse and dropped it in front of her. “Why did you do it?”
“It’s the same answer as why I chose the profession I did—to find you.” I shrugged, not understanding what she wasn’t getting. “I did it in hopes that after all these years, it might lead you to me. And it did.”
“It also will lead others to you.” Her face morphed into a serious expression.
“Others?”
“I left you because our lives were in danger, and we still are in danger, Sienna.”
“I guess I missed the family newsletter, because this is the first I’ve heard of this.” I folded my arms, mad as hell that, for the second time in my life, I was being told that someone may want to hurt me. What did I ever do to make all these people angry with me?
“Why didn’t you stay in Sicily?” She changed direction again.