“She’s managed to not know it for nearly a decade.” I rolled away from him. “I think she’ll be fine.”
“Sienna,” he sighed, “you’re putting me in a bad position here.”
“And though I deeply appreciate what you’ve done for me, dear cousin, no one is holding a gun to your head to stay.”
“Are you always this stubborn?”
“Yes.”
“I’m giving you until tomorrow. After that—”
“After that, what?” I was like a robot, hollow and empty, working only because my mechanics did so with no thought.
“Just,” he grunted, “just, get some more sleep.”
When I heard the door shut behind me, I pulled my knees to my chest and held myself together as another wave of emotion ate away at my insides.
One more day, that was all I needed before I would decide. I almost welcomed the pain, as it made me feel something, but even it didn’t last as I gave in to the cold darkness that consumed me.
I wasn’t sure what time it was when the hotel door opened, but I groaned, not wanting to hear about food or my mother.
“Ugo, I’m fine.”
Suddenly, the bed dipped. I couldn’t see who it was because it was so dark in the room. As soon as I caught a whiff of his aftershave, I rolled into his chest, buried my face, and broke.
“You don’t look fine,” Wyatt whispered in my hair.
“No matter what,” I forced the words past my lips, “you can’t leave me.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to.”
I dragged my hand across my face, smearing the tears, and his eyes bulged when he took in my swollen, bruised face.
“Did someone hit you?” He peered at me in the semi-darkness, but with only the low cast of the outside streetlights, he couldn’t clearly see.
“Mariano.” I held up a hand to stop his anger. “Don’t worry, I got a few of his teeth.”
“Teeth?” he shouted as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “Tell me what the hell is going on.” He leaned over me and switched on the bedside lamp to see my face.
I bit on the inside of my lip. I knew my best friend would hear me out and say he understood, but there was tiny part of me that was worried. What if he turned his back on me?
“Sienna?”
“Seems I have monster blood running through my veins.” His face scrunched in confusion. “Apparently, you’re best friends with a Coppola.” His mouth dropped open.
“As in…”
“Yup,” I flopped my arm over my sore eyes, “as in the ruthless monsters who have been trying to kill me and take out the Capri syndicate.”
“How?”
“Apparently, my ever-so-forthcoming mother had an arranged marriage to the Don of the syndicate.”
“Here I was off chasing story leads, and you were here stumbling over a huge one of your own!” Wyatt’s voice was incredulous.
“Aren’t I lucky?” Sarcasm dripped from my lips.
“Wait, so you’re the Coppola princess and Elio’s the Capri prince. You two are the modern-day Romeo—” His voice was excited now as his imagination took over.