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This time Caterina won’t be able to control me.
I will control her.
And through that, I’ll get the vengeance that I am owed.
3
CATERINA
Today
My hands shake as I move my necklace so the locket is in the center of the chain, heart-shaped and winking at my collarbone.
My makeup looks immaculate, and instead of the slightly disheveled single mom looking at me, I see someone else entirely.
Someone who has been coiffed within an inch of her life.
Someone elegant.
Someone who looks like she could be Elio Rossi’s wife.
I definitely look a little different than the last time Elio saw me. I use a lot more night creams and potions now, that’s for sure. My skin is slightly less naturally dewy, more artificially so.
There’s another difference.
When he saw me last, I was a girl. I was in my early 20s, sure. I had my degree in accounting from Columbia practicallyemblazoned across my chest, and I had just passed my CPA exams.
The world felt like it was going in my favor. I felt like I was made of sunshine and starlight, despite the fact that my family was active in the organized crime world.
I had everything I wanted, and I didn’t even know what that was.
I cringe when I think about that girl.
I thought I knew everything.
I knew nothing.
So, no. The woman who is heading to meet Elio today isn’t the same wide-eyed girl who saw him last. When I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t see someone who is swayed by pretty words and a handsome face.
My eyes are harder, my cheekbones more pronounced. I frown as often as I smile, and my lovely daughter has put more than one gray hair on my head, which I’ve carefully concealed with a well-timed salon trip.
No, this time I’m much less easy to fool.
And I’m kind of proud of that fact.
I push my shoulders back as I think about who I am now. I’m someone who has had a baby. A whole goddamn human grew in my body, and I care for her.
I have a job that I love, even if it’s one that others wouldn’t find very glamorous. But everyone needs a CPA.
Especially if you’re trying to dodge giving the government all of your hard-earned illegal cash.
I’m shocked to realize that I actuallylikemyself more now than I did then.
I wonder if Elio will like me now too.
I almost bark out a laugh at the thought. I’m not trying to win Elio’s approval.
Not this time.
