"They do." It wasn't just grief. It was lack of love.
"Then they are fools." Valentina's bald statement without trying to convince Annette otherwise came as a surprise that almost stopped her tears.
"Yes, you pushed for your sister to get help. And I am grateful for it. We are all grateful. She deserves to be happy in her motherhood, but that is not such an easy thing always."
"No," Annette choked out.
"Fantino knows Joyce is still in a coma. He needs us to remind him she will come out of it."
"Cynical tycoon." Annette was still crying, but not as hard. A golden tanned hand reached out with a box of tissues. Carlo.
Of course, the man who did not love her nevertheless always knew what she needed. Except when he didn't, she reminded herself.
Jilting him hadn't happened in a vacuum.
Annette took the tissue and mopped herself up. "Thank you."
"Are you alright?" Carlo's gaze searched her face. "Fantino wants to see you."
Annette nodded. "Yes, I just…"
"Carry too much inside. I will remember that even when you don't look like you are going off the rails like the rest of us, you are inside. I should have realized after that appointment with the lawyers, but then you were your usual feisty self. Now, I know."
What he thought he knew she wasn't entirely sure, but one thing stuck. Carlo had acknowledged going off the rails. That was big. He put his hand out and she took it, concentrating on the warmth of his clasp and not the hospital sounds and smells around them.
They re-entered the hospital room that looked more like a high-end hotel room, but for all the machines and the IV hanging to the right of the bed. Alceu made a place for her beside the bed and Annette forced herself to approach and then stand there, looking down at the man whom she loved like a brother.
And whom her advice had nearly killed.
CHAPTER 13
"Annette, sister." Fantino's voice was not his usual strong tenor, but it was unmistakably his. "You saved my family."
"I…"
Fantino grasped her free hand. "Did not cross three lanes of traffic because you were too tired to be driving."
Annette stared first at Fantino and then at Alceu Messina, who looked back stoically. "You told him all of it, is that wise?"
"I remembered most of it," Fantino said.
"You wouldn't have been in California if not for me," she said. "I'm sorry. Carlo mentioned in home therapy, and it never even occurred to me."
"The decision to go to California was Joyce's and I agreed with it, even though it meant leaving our baby in your provenly capable hands. I want to see Jo-Jo." Fantino looked to his brother like he expected Carlo to make that happen.
"As soon as the doctor approves the visit, we will bring her." Carlo's voice rang like a promise in the room.
Fantino nodded, clearly satisfied. "Joyce will wake soon and she'll be annoyed I got to see Jo-Jo first."
"She's really looking forward to finally bonding with her baby," Annette said, doing her best to keep emotion from her voice and pretty sure she'd failed miserably.
"She is," Fantino agreed. "The treatment made such a difference for her. I got my wife back, thanks to you."
"You won't lose her," Annette said in as much a plea as a promise.
She could not stand losing her sister.
"No, I won't. She's more stubborn than me. She'll wake up soon."