"You and Fantino look a little worn, is all," Annette said soothingly. "Can I help?"
"With you living across country? What are you going to do, rock my daughter to sleep via video call?" Joyce's derisive tone took Annette aback.
"I could come stay if you want me to."
"I'm fine. My baby is fine. I can handle it," Joyce said with more anger than confidence, turning and storming to the other side of the terrace.
She pressed her hands on the rail, her grip so tight Annette could see the whites of her knuckles from where she stood in worried bewilderment.
"Trust you to upset your sister on such a special day." Her mother's voice had Annette spinning around.
Annette took a deep breath and let it out before speaking. "I wasn't trying to upset her."
"Not to be too indelicate, but you need to butt out, Netta. Your sister is fine."
The woman who had just snapped at her and looked like she hadn't slept in a week was not fine. "I guess we don't see the same thing when we look at her."
"No, we don't. I am not jealous of what she has."
The accusation hit too close to the bone for Annette to respond immediately. She wasn't jealous of her sister, but she'd had moments of envy she'd had to work through. Her therapist said that was normal, but Annette still felt guilty about it.
Without another word, Annette's mother walked away.
Typical. Why try to have a conversation with the daughter you barely acknowledged? If it wasn't for Joyce, Annette was pretty sure her family would simply have stopped acknowledging her all together.
"That didn't sound good." Carlo's concerned tone coming from behind her had Annette spinning around.
She'd seen him from a distance at the Christening, but had managed to avoid talking to him until now.
She frowned at him. "I wasn't being nosy. I'm concerned."
"Did I say anything?" he asked, his hands up in that gesture that meant he wasn't guilty.
Realizing she was reacting to her mother's words and not his, Annette felt heat steal up her neck. "I am sorry, I should not have snapped at you."
"What was that all about?" he asked, waving away the apology.
"Have you noticed that your brother barely smiles and that my sister looks like she hasn't slept in a week?" she asked, unable to believe she was the only one who saw how beleaguered both new parents had become.
However, Carlo flicked his hand dismissively. "New parenthood is hard. It is to be expected."
"You say that like you know something about it, but you don't have any children." And his mother had always had help, so Annette doubted sincerely this attitude was coming from Valentina or Alceu Messina.
"No, I don't. The woman who promised me marriage and a family left me standing at the altar." He said it sardonically, with little emotion, but the anger banked in his gaze said all she needed to know about how much he'd forgiven her.
Which was not at all.
Despite their night of uninhibited passion after their siblings' wedding and the texting and onlinefriendshipthey'd built since then. It would be smart of her to remember that.
"Okay, so neither of us is parents. Noted. That doesn't change the fact that they need our help." How could he not see that?
"I could offer to hire a nanny for them, but my brother is perfectly capable of doing so. I am unclear on what kind of help you hope to offer?" he asked, reflecting her sister's attitude almost verbatim.
"I could go and stay with them if they need me," she said, repeating what she'd told Joyce.
The look Carlo gave her was odd. "You realize that would require you taking time off of work. I thought you were busy with the new regional directorship."
"I did not say it would be easy, but I could do it."