Tor’s face softened as my words reached him.
“What?” Vincenza was shocked by my admission. “But I’m your sister.”
“Funny you say that,” I spoke sadly. “You never treated me like one.”
I could see she was stunned by my candor. “Vicky, please. Everything I did, I did for us. I sacrificed everything for this family.”
“Including me.” Her mouth gaped and for the first time in my recollection, she looked powerless. “You knew about this?” I asked Como and his hesitation said it all. I could barely contain my disappointment. “Of course, you did.”
The silence carried as I processed.
The emotions in the room intensified and Ettore wanted to avoid another Vero family drama. “I think it’s time to leave.”
He was right. It was, and I doubted I would ever come back here. Weirdly enough, I didn’t feel sad about it. Just… empty.
I slid my hand into his, looked up into his face and let out a weary, “Let’s go home.”
That night, I left my sister behind. That didn’t mean I didn’t love her. It just meant that I had grown enough to know she would never love me.
* * *
Sometime after midnight,I lay across my husband’s chest listening to his heart beat and just when I thought the numbness had consumed me whole, he breathed life back into me.
“I would have chosen you,” he whispered against my hair, pressing a soft kiss to the crown of my head. “Again, and again.”
My arms tightened around him and he held me until I fell asleep.
I guess I had to thank my sister for one thing and one thing only.
She gave me Tor.
Chapter19
‘Til death and beyond
Vittoria
It wasaround midday when I strolled up to Tor’s office under the guise of bringing him lunch, when really, I just wanted to be close to him. I sat perched on the edge of his desk and watched as he lifted the macchiato to his lips. That’s when I pounced. “You don’t talk about your previous wife.”
I wasn’t an amazing cook, but I had no complaints about my coffee. He placed the small cup back down onto its saucer. “No, I suppose I don’t.”
“Will you tell me about her?”
For a moment, I thought he was going to decline, but then he reached out and took my calf in his hands, massaging gently. “Her name was Amara and, the short answer is, one day she was here and the next, she wasn’t.”
Oh. “Was she ill?”
“Yes.”
His hands felt amazing. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
“She was never a part of my plans. Like you and I, we both went into the marriage knowing what it was, but she had this way of making things work. She was tough. Resilient. Not afraid of a goddamn thing.” A small smile tilted at his lips. “And God forbid you came for one of our kids.” He whistled long and low. “When she came marching, even I moved out of her way.”
I found myself smiling too. “She was a good mother.”
“The best.”
Girl, why are you torturing yourself?“And you loved her.”