Page 24

For the past four whole days, I’d barely managed to get out of bed, forcing myself to exit my room only when Gastone was home. My nights were haunted by dreams so dark that I’d wake up crying. In my dreams, we were on Gio’s boat, but they weren’t just punching him. They were ripping out his eyes, cutting off his tongue, killing him in ways that nightmares were made of.

In the mornings, after nights like these, I’d wake up and reach out my hand to find an empty bed. On finding it empty and remiss of his scent, I’d then remember what I’d done, or rather, been forced to have done.

Loneliness was my only constant friend. I’d sit alone, pretending to read, as otherwise Gastone would erupt in fits of rage, reminding me of my foolish ways.

I never said it. But Gio was not a mistake. It had felt like poison on my tongue when I told him he was. I sometimes replayed the conversation in my mind, over and over again, hearing the hurt in his voice.

You’d promised, Larissa.

I had. I’d promised that when the day came for me to return, nothing would change between us. I truly meant it back then, but we had never planned for external forces at play.

For a day or two, I waited for the phone to ring, to hear Gio asking for the truth, reminding me of past promises made. He never called.

Thank god.

Something told me he’d believed every painful word I’d slapped across his heart. It hurt to think he saw my words for the truth. But the alternative of seeing him hurt in his quest to fight for us was worse, so I tried to be grateful for this one silver lining.

He believed me, and that’s why he was safe.

My brother’s threat loomed in my mind at all times. I often found myself lingering in the hallway outside his office for news that he’d attacked Gio.

I never heard a thing, but was living in fear for the day when that ball would drop.

My bedroom felt like a prison cell, but I tried to stay in as much as I could, simply to avoid Gastone’s pompous smirks. He believed he'd won, that I'd chosen family loyalty over the enemy. He didn’t once see that I was slowly dying within.

My room was a place of comfort once, but as I’d sit and cry and cry and cry until the tears became a permanent fixture down my cheeks, I also knew that it was empty of the one person who belonged in it.

“This is for the best, Larissa,” I whispered to myself over and over like a mantra when the pain clawed at my chest and panic filled my senses. “It’s better Gio hates you than dies because of you.”

***

That night, the sound of car doors slamming interrupted my thoughts. I glanced down from my window at the driveway and spotted Carlo and Dino rushing out of a car. My heart lifted for the first time in days. I hadn’t seen my brothers since my return. Although they had hurried back, their flight experienced some engine problems along the way.

I rushed downstairs, my bare feet slapping against the marble floors. By the time I reached the foyer, my brothers were already inside, dropping their overnight bags on the floor.

“There she is!” Carlo's face broke into a warm smile as he spread his arms wide.

I crashed into his embrace. “I didn't know you were coming back today.”

“We wrapped up early in Milan.” He planted a kiss on the top of my head. “Couldn't wait to see our baby sister.”

Dino, the quieter of my brothers, waited his turn before pulling me into a gentler hug. “You look tired, Lari.”

“Do I?” I said, forcing a smile.

“Come, come. A good cup of coffee for all of us would help us, won’t it?” Dino suggested.

We settled in the kitchen where I made coffee while they unpacked little gifts they bought for me from the airport. It felt almost normal, this routine of ours. But nothing seemed the same. Not even when I thanked them for the gifts. It felt like I was simply moving through the motions.

Carlo ruffled my hair. “Where's Gastone?”

“Meeting with the Bianchi family. Won't be back until tonight.”

A look passed between my brothers.

“What?” I asked, feeling like the look had been more about me than Gastone.

“He told us about…your involvement,” Carlo offered.

“With that Lebedev fellow,” Dino growled.

“He was furious, but of course we told him you weren’t to blame,” Carlo explained, a look of protectiveness etched over his face.

“He manipulated you, we knew that from the start. God, Larissa,” Dino went in for a hug again from the chair beside me. “We can’t imagine how much he traumatized you for you to think you… you cared for him.”

I couldn’t believe this. My brothers were painting Gio as a monster, which was so far from the truth that I could have laughed.

I pulled out of Dino’s hug and couldn’t help the anger that flashed across my face. “Gio was nothing like that. I wasn’t manipulated in any shape or form.”

“Gio?” Carlo’s eyes narrowed. “What's going on, Larissa? Don’t tell me you willingly got mixed up with one of the Lebedev men.”

The moment had arrived sooner than I'd expected. But for some reason, I didn’t feel the need to hide or scare away. They weren't Gastone, which meant they might actually listen.

“His name is Giovanni,” I said, straightening my shoulders.

Dino's knuckles whitened around his mug. “Jesus, Larissa.”

“It's not what you think,” I continued quickly. “Yes, he kidnapped me, but he never held me as a prisoner.” I chose to omit the minor detail of being locked in the basement cell during my first two days there.

“What does that mean? He kidnapped you. You were a prisoner,” Carlo's voice remained calm, but I could see the tension in his jaw.

“I should have walked away, but...” I paused, searching for words that wouldn't trigger their protective instincts. “He was kind to me, Carlo. Different than what we've been told about them. His entire family was lovely and his sister Elena, she showed up for me when I needed her to.”

“Kind?” Dino echoed skeptically. “These are the same people who bring battles to the streets.”

“Did he touch you?” Carlo asked, his tone deceptively mild.

“No,” I lied. I couldn't bear to see the rage that would follow the truth. “That's what I've been trying to tell Gastone. Nothing happened.”

“Then what's the problem?” Carlo asked.

I fidgeted with my coffee cup. “I think... I started to have feelings for him. And Gastone found and was furious. But I’m telling you, Gio is the kindest man I’ve met.”

“Fuck,” Dino muttered, running a hand through his dark hair.

Carlo's expression remained carefully neutral. “And what did Gastone do?”

“He threatened to kill him.” The words fell between us like stones. “So I ended it. I told Gio it was all a mistake.”

My brothers exchanged another look, a silent conversation passing between them. Carlo sighed, reaching across the counter to take my hand.

“I know you don't want to hear this, but Gastone was right to separate you. The Lebedevs aren't people we can trust. Whatever this Giovanni showed you—it wasn't real.”

“You don't know him,” I protested.

“No, but I know what his family has done,” Carlo insisted.

Dino nodded in agreement, but his expression was softer than Gastone's had been. “Did he hurt you when you ended things?”

“No,” I whispered. “He just... accepted it.”

This detail seemed to surprise them both.

“Well,” Dino said at last, “at least he had the decency to let you walk away cleanly.”

It wasn't the defense of Gio I'd hoped for, but it wasn't the condemnation Gastone had delivered either. A tiny opening I could work with.

***

Over the next few days, I implemented my plan. I had noticed that, even though Gastone couldn’t be reasoned with, Dino and Carlo were a different story altogether. Perhaps if I could bring them under my wing, we could present a united front, forcing Gastone to acknowledge the truth.

That is, when I delivered it to them.

The fact that I was pregnant with Gio’s child and loved him with all my heart.

The plan wasn’t confrontational. It simply involved leaving little breadcrumbs that might challenge my brothers' preconceptions of the Lebedevs.

I started with the emerald earrings Gio had given me, casually leaving them on the dining table one night.

“These are beautiful,” Carlo remarked at breakfast, lifting one to examine it. “New?”

I nodded, buttering my toast. “A gift.”

“From who?” Gastone demanded, his focus on me now.

“Giovanni Lebedev,” I answered, meeting his gaze steadily.

The silence that followed was brittle.

“You accepted jewelry from him?” Gastone's voice was dangerously quiet.

“He was generous,” I lied smoothly. “I was going to return them, but...”

“But what?” Gastone pressed.

I shrugged. “They're too pretty to give back.”

Carlo chuckled, diffusing some of the tension. “She's got you there.”

Gastone scowled but said nothing more.

Next came the photographs. I had printed several from my phone—pictures from the day I took Gio to the orphanage supported by my family. Children climbing all over him, his concentrated expression as he helped a boy with homework. I left them mixed with the mail on the hallway table.

Dino found them first. “What's this?”

“Oh, just some photos from the orphanage we support,” I said casually as I passed by. “Gio came along with me when I visited.

He flipped through them with a frown. “The Lebedevs visiting an orphanage? That's rich.”

“Actually, they fund many charitable causes,” I corrected.

Dino handed the photos back without comment, but I caught him looking at them again later.

My final piece of evidence was the most direct: news clippings about safety initiatives in low-income areas under Lebedev control. Improved street lighting, security patrols, and women's self-defense classes sponsored by the local business community—all Lebedev work. I left them on Carlo's desk, knowing he'd read anything that resembled news.

“Interesting tactics,” he said that evening, finding me in the library. “The Lebedevs playing community heroes.”

“It's not play-acting if it actually helps people,” I pointed out.

Carlo studied me for a long moment. “You really care about him, don't you?”

I didn't answer, which was answer enough.

He sighed. “Larissa, even if this Giovanni has some redeeming qualities, he's still our enemy. There's blood on his hands, just like there's blood on ours. That's the world we live in.”

“Maybe it doesn't have to be,” I ventured. “Maybe there's a way our families could—”

“No,” Carlo cut me off firmly. “Some rivalries run too deep. I'm sorry.”

A week passed, and the hole in my chest only grew larger. My little campaign had softened Carlo and Dino somewhat, they no longer spat the Lebedev name like a curse, but they remained unconvinced that any real peace was possible. And Gastone only seemed to grow more hostile, as if sensing my silent rebellion.

But it was the lie that weighed heaviest on me. Every time I remembered Gio's face as I told him he meant nothing, I felt sick. He deserved the truth, even if nothing could come of us.

He had asked that we meet face-to-face. I had turned him down, but the truth was I needed to see him as much as I needed to breathe. I’d been without him for two weeks now, and I couldn’t take it any longer.

It was almost like I was a woman addicted, and he was my drug somewhere out there in the world, waiting to be found.

That night, I lay awake until everyone was in bed. Sometime past midnight, I slipped out of bed and changed into black jeans and a dark sweater that could blend into shadows.

I didn’t have a concrete plan, but whatever plan I had was simple. I would go to Gio’s, tell him the truth so we could both heal with love, and then come back home. I knew he’d fight me, insisting on bringing an army to get me back, but somehow I had to convince him not to do that.

No matter how angry I felt at my brothers, I didn’t want to see them injured in battle, or worse.

My only agenda was to see Gio and kiss him goodbye, to tell him I hadn't meant those cruel words. That I ended things to protect him, not because I didn't care.

The memory of that last kiss alone, I thought to myself with tearful eyes as I cradled my belly, would be enough to get us through the pain of not having him in the future.

Getting past the security system was easy. I'd watched Carlo reset it enough times to figure out the code, which he usually rotated every four months. The guards at this hour were usually scarce and mostly slept. The night air hit my face as I slid into the lawn and ran to the side gate, sliding out. The street was empty, eerily quiet.

I'd made it to the end of our block when the black van appeared. It pulled alongside me so suddenly I didn't have time to run. The side door slid open, and hands reached for me.

I fought, kicked, and tried to scream, but a cloth pressed over my mouth silenced my voice. As consciousness faded, my last thought was not of my brothers or myself, but of Gio.

He would never know I loved him.