“Like mom said, Luca doesn’t seem to be anything like Dante, but it’s best to be prepared for the possibility. I wasn’t, and it blindsided me the first time I caught him with her.” She took a sip of her coffee. “When I met Dante, I was actually dating Marco.” She flashed me a smirk. “I’d talked my father into allowing me to pick who’d I marry as long as it was a Moretti, and Marco was who caught my eye. That is until I met Dante.”
“He was very taken with Adriana.” Rosa smiled at her daughter-in-law.
“I knew better than to get involved with him, but he was just so overwhelming. Nicki was on the periphery, but he assured me they were over. As time went by, I realized that was a lie, but by then, I was in love and blind to what a prick he could be.” She glanced at Rosa, and Rosa shook her head, understanding in her eyes. “By the time I was pregnant with Dante, it was like he knew I was stuck, and he got sloppy.”
“What happened?” I whispered, unsure whether I wanted to hear the gory details.
“It was all pretty cliché. He was working late, and I took him his dinner. He had her bent over the desk. Imagine it! Eight months pregnant and catching your husband banging his ex.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah. He assured me he wasn’t leaving me, and I needed to think about the baby. No apologies. No excuses.”
“How long had they been . . .” The tears welling in her eyes kept me from finishing my question.
“Who knows? I didn’t ask. It was clear it would keep happening, and I didn’t have a say in it. To think I trusted them working together because how could someone that loved me as much as he did do that? I was an idiot.” Adriana picked at her coffee cake, focused on the mess her fingers were making.
I looked at Rosa, hoping for some kind of explanation or reassurance, but was met with a grim smile.
“After Luca broke up with her in high school, and then Dante in college, she knew she’d never be a wife, but there’s a power in being the mistress to the boss.” Rosa’s voice was rough, but her eyes were clear of tears. “Once Dante Jr. was gone, she became my Dante’s lap dog. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. She’d been like family.”
Adriana frowned at her coffee.
“I know that hurt you, and I’m so sorry.” Rosa’s voice caught. This was clearly the first time they’d addressed the Nicki situation.
One jerk of her head and Adriana’s hair fell around her face.
“At first, I didn’t know about my son’s affair, but then he was gone, and it was too late to do anything about it. When I brought it up to Dante, he wouldn’t allow me to cut Nicki out of our gatherings even though it visibly upset you.” She let out a humorless laugh. “That should have been a red flag, but nothing had changed between us. He’d even taken me to Italy for our anniversary. It wasn’t until I started finding little trinkets and things around the house, and she started spending more time in the study that I woke up to the truth.” Clearing her throat, Rosa ran her hand over her hair. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were doing.”
“That’s awful,” I said, skeeved out by the whole situation.
“And disgusting,” Adriana added, her eyes still on her drink.
Rosa nodded. “A few months before he died, I worked up the nerve to confront him. I had it all planned. I’d even packed a bag if he didn’t promise to end things.” Her cheeks reddened, and she looked down at her drink. “Unfortunately, it was the same night Luca was shot, and I never confronted him. Instead, it was like almost losing his son snapped him back in shape. Nicki was gone, and it was like we were back in our honeymoon phase. I’m ashamed to say I let myself turn a blind eye to what I knew.”
“Was it the first time?” I asked without thinking.
“No.” Rosa looked me in the eye. “Nicki wasn’t Dante’s first affair. But it was the one that made my skin crawl the most. He was her godfather.”
The three of us sat in silence for a minute, each sipping our coffee.
“So, she got the complete set?” I murmured.
Adriana’s face finally lifted, her eyes blinking rapidly. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Rosa bit her bottom lip, a smile playing at her lips. She tapped her nails on her mug as she hit me with a playful glare. “Only you would make that joke.”
“I mean . . .”
Adriana finally smiled. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, especially from Nicki. He’s not a cheater. He has never been a cheater. I should’ve known better based on how Dante and I started, but Luca? He’s rock solid. When he found out Nicki cheated on him, he broke things off. After that, it was a series of serious girlfriends until he seemingly gave up.”
I perked up. We’d never really done an in-depth “exes talk,” and I was curious. “Gave up?”
“The last was Fern. He met her while he was in undergrad before he went to culinary school. They dated for what?” Adriana glanced at Rosa.
“Five years.”