Chapter 10 - The Night Alessandro Forgot How to Be ColdFor half a second, I felt nothing.
Then pain tore across my upper arm.
Not my chest.
Not my stomach.
My arm.
The bullet had grazed me.
I realized that seconds before Alessandro reached me.
“Julia.”
I had never heard my name sound like that.
He crossed the warehouse faster than seemed possible.
His hands went to my shoulders.
“Look at me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You are bleeding.”
“It’s my arm.”
“Medic!”
“I can walk.”
“Julia.”
“I’m fine.”
His face was white.
Actually white.
The cold, controlled man from Bella Notte had disappeared.
In his place was someone terrified.
“It’s a graze,” I repeated.
A medic reached us.
Alessandro refused to move.
Around us, everything else blurred.
Vittorio had been stopped near the rear exit.
Dario was on the ground with Marco restraining him until police took control.
Luca sat against a wall, stunned but alive.
Paolo spoke with officers.
None of it mattered to Alessandro.
Only the blood on my sleeve.
The medic cut part of the fabric away.
“Superficial.”
Alessandro exhaled.
Barely.
“You see?” I said. “I’m annoyingly difficult to kill.”
His eyes snapped to mine.
“Do not joke.”
“Why?”
“Because I am considering locking you in Teresa’s house for the next thirty years.”
“That seems unhealthy.”
“For me or you?”
“Both.”
The medic tried not to smile.
Twenty minutes later, I sat inside an ambulance while my arm was cleaned and bandaged.
No hospital admission.
No surgery.
Nothing serious.
Alessandro still looked ready to fire the entire concept of Sicily.
“Sit down,” I told him.
“I am sitting.”
“You are hovering while sitting.”
He looked at me.
I touched his hand.
“I’m okay.”
His fingers closed around mine.
“You could have died.”
“So could you.”
“That is different.”
I stared.
He sighed.
“I heard it.”
“Good.”
His thumb moved over my knuckles.
“I was wrong.”
“About?”
“Letting you go inside.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You trusted me.”
“I nearly got you killed.”
“Dario fired because Marco exposed him.”
“You still got hurt.”
“So?”
His jaw tightened.
I realized this was not logic.
This was fear.
I softened my voice.
“Alessandro.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t control every outcome.”
“I know.”
“No, you know the sentence.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
I continued.
“You don’t believe it.”
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he looked away.
“My father believed he could control everything.”
The admission hurt him.
“He made one decision because he thought he understood what Daniel was doing.”
“And it destroyed multiple lives.”
“Yes.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Then learn the opposite lesson.”
He looked back.
“Trust people?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“So is Sicilian cooking.”
His mouth finally moved.
A tiny smile.
“Terrible comparison.”
“You smiled.”
“No.”
“I saw it.”
The ambulance doors opened.
Marco stood outside.
His jacket was torn.
A bruise was already forming near his cheek.
Alessandro’s expression hardened again.
“Explain.”
Marco looked at me.
“You first. Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Alessandro stood.
“Now explain.”
Marco sighed.
“My father did work for Vittorio.”
“So Gabriel was right.”
“Yes.”
“He betrayed Daniel?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Dario’s father.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Ferrante?”
“Yes.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Enzo discovered the betrayal and tried to warn Riccardo. But after Daniel died, Riccardo needed someone to blame.”
“My father blamed yours.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed with my family thirteen years?”
“To prove it.”
“That is insane.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“Welcome to Palermo.”
I almost smiled.
“Why visit Vittorio six months ago?”
“To find records my father said still existed.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Marco pulled a small key from his pocket.
“Safe deposit records. Payments from Vittorio to Antonio Ferrante.”
Dario’s father.
“So Dario continued working for Caruso,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Why warn me instead of Alessandro?”
Marco looked embarrassed.
“Because Alessandro would have punched me before listening.”
Alessandro said nothing.
Marco glanced at him.
“See?”
Despite everything, I laughed.
The tension broke slightly.
“Where is Gabriel?” I asked.
Marco’s face sobered.
“Police found him.”
My heartbeat jumped.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“He had been held outside the city.”
“Can we see him?”
“Tomorrow.”
I looked across the lot.
Luca was being examined by medics.
A woman had arrived with a little girl.
His wife.
His daughter.
He had learned his entire identity was false in the middle of a hostage situation.
I felt an uncomfortable kinship.
“Does Luca know about Caterina?”
“Some.”
“Gabriel?”
“Not yet.”
The next morning, I met Gabriel Caruso.
He was sixty-one.
Thinner than I expected.
Gray at the temples.
A scar crossed his left hand.
When I entered the hospital room, he cried.
Immediately.
No dignity.
No hesitation.
He looked at me and cried.
“Giulia.”
I sat beside him.
“You protected me.”
“I tried.”
“My entire life?”
“As much as I could.”
“You let my mother believe you were dead.”
His eyes closed.
“For years.”
“Why?”
“Because my father watched everyone I loved.”
“And Luca?”
His face collapsed.
“I lost him.”
“How?”
“After the fire, Matteo got Caterina out first.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Gabriel looked toward Alessandro.
“Caterina did not die immediately.”
Alessandro went rigid.
“She was alive?”
“For two days.”
No one spoke.
“She gave birth to Luca early because of the injuries.”
Teresa covered her mouth.
Gabriel continued.
“She made me promise to disappear with him.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“My father found us.”
“What happened?”
“Matteo created false documents. Luca was placed with a family temporarily.”
“And then?”
“The family left Sicily.”
Gabriel’s voice cracked.
“We lost them.”
Twenty-eight years.
A father searching for his son.
A son believing his parents dead.
“You found him four months ago,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“How do you tell a man with a wife and child that his entire childhood was constructed to protect him from a grandfather he has never met?”
I understood too well.
“So you watched.”
“Yes.”
“Like my mother watched over me.”
“Yes.”
We sat in silence.
Then I asked the question that mattered most to me.
“Did Daniel know about me?”
Gabriel smiled.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Lucia told him the morning before he died.”
The room disappeared.
My breath caught.
“What did he say?”
Gabriel’s eyes filled with tears.
“He laughed.”
I started crying.
“He laughed?”
“He was so happy.”
Gabriel wiped his eyes.
“He kept saying he was going to be a father.”
My hand covered my mouth.
All my life, I had wondered if my father would have wanted me.
Now I knew.
Gabriel reached toward the bedside table.
“There is something.”
He opened a small envelope.
Inside was a silver locket.
“He gave this to Lucia.”
I opened it.
One side held a tiny photograph of my mother.
The other was empty.
On the back, engraved in English, were four words.
For wherever we go.
I pressed the locket to my chest.
Alessandro stepped outside, giving me privacy.
Gabriel watched him leave.
“He loves you.”
I nearly dropped the locket.
“He barely knows me.”
Gabriel smiled.
“I once loved a Marchesi woman.”
His eyes turned toward the window.
“They do not need much time to ruin your judgment.”
I laughed through tears.
Hours later, I found Alessandro outside the hospital.
He leaned against the car.
“How is Gabriel?”
“Emotional.”
“And you?”
“Worse.”
He nodded.
I held up the locket.
“My father gave this to my mother.”
Alessandro smiled faintly.
“I’m glad.”
I walked closer.
“Gabriel said something else.”
His expression became wary.
“What?”
“He thinks you love me.”
Alessandro went completely still.
For the first time since I met him, I had surprised Alessandro Marchesi into silence.
“Well?”
He looked at me for a long time.
Then his gaze softened.
“I have spent several days trying very hard not to use that word.”
“Why?”
“Because you met me while your life was falling apart.”
“That’s romantic.”
“Julia.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to choose me because I was standing nearby during a crisis.”
The sincerity in his voice silenced me.
“I want you to choose me when there is no danger.”
He stepped closer.
“No missing letters.”
Closer.
“No Caruso.”
Closer.
“No one chasing ghosts from twenty-eight years ago.”
His fingertips touched mine.
“If you still want me when life becomes boring…”
I smiled.
“Your life is never boring.”
“Hypothetically.”
“Fine.”
I looked into his eyes.
“What if I want you now and later?”
His breath changed.
“Then I am in trouble.”
“Good.”
I kissed him.
This time there was no interruption.
No phone.
No broken window.
No Marco.
When we separated, Alessandro rested his forehead against mine.
“Come back to New York with me.”
My chest tightened.
“Alessandro—”
“Not to move in.”
I laughed.
“That clarification came quickly.”
“I heard it.”
“What are you asking?”
“Go back to your life.”
He took my hand.
“Bella Notte. Your apartment. Rosa. Everything.”
“And you?”
“I return too.”
“You want to date me?”
His expression became offended.
“I was trying to make it sound more elegant.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
“Okay.”
His eyes warmed.
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Then someone called my name.
We turned.
Luca stood outside the hospital entrance.
Beside him was a little girl of maybe six years old.
His daughter.
She held something in her hand.
A folded piece of pale paper.
Luca approached slowly.
“My father said Lucia used to make these.”
He handed it to me.
An origami bird.
I stared.
My mother had folded them constantly when I was a child.
“How did you know?”
“Gabriel remembered.”
Luca looked at Alessandro.
Then at me.
“There’s one more thing you should know.”
“What?”
“The box Vittorio wanted?”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t the only one.”
My heartbeat changed.
Luca reached into his jacket.
He pulled out an old brass key.
“My adoptive father gave me this before he died.”
He looked toward the hills beyond Palermo.
“He said if anyone ever told me the name Caterina Marchesi…”
May you like
His fingers closed around the key.
“…I was supposed to open the room beneath Trattoria Marchesi.”
