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Even to have my own brothers, who I love so much, see me as a real person is a struggle. There’s a lot of misogyny in our families, and even though all of my brothers pride themselves on being ‘modern’ men who think I can do the same things that they do in terms of my mobility, not one of them is willing to listen to my opinion when it comes to the family or the business.
Hence why Marco hadn’t listened to my pleas when I had begged him about making me marry Elio.
In his mind, he was doing something that was good for everyone. For me, for the family… everyone.
Too bad he had been more than just a little wrong.
“You’ve done a good job,” I say slowly. “Elio and the others seem to respect you.”
“Elio, yes. I’ve done plenty to earn his respect, and he’s done plenty to earn mine. The others… well…” She flashes me what I now know to be one of her signature toothy grins. “They’ve learned the hard way not to fuck with me.”
“How… did you do that?” I ask, genuinely curious.
Her eyes look like they could spark. “You should ask Sal.”
“Sal, my brother?” I’m perplexed. The words genuinely don’t make any sense.
“Yeah. Sal,” she practically purrs.
“Why would Sal specifically know anything about your reputation?”
“He’s never mentioned me?”
I shake my head. “No, not that I’m aware of, and he’s definitely the closest to me, in age and in relationship.”
“Hmm.” Gia purses her lips, and for a minute she looks a little bit perplexed, like the information doesn’t align with what she had previously thought. “Interesting.”
“I’ll ask, the next time I see him,” I assure her.
Ugh.
I’m not sure when that will be, and the thought hits me in my stomach like a sucker punch.
“You do that,” Gia says, her mood lightening again.
We’re quiet for a minute. The air smells good, like lemons, which I assume comes from the blossoming lemon trees in huge pots lining the pool.
Gia sighs, rotating so she’s laying on her stomach. “What’s it like having multiple siblings?”
“Um…” I’m not sure how to answer that. “It’s fine?”
“Okay, let me get more specific. What’s it like to have three brothers? One is plenty for me, so I’m not sure how you managed.”
I laugh. “Well, it’s mostly like having… three brothers. Marco was so much older than me, by the time I was old enough to remember him he was just a cool older brother figure that protected me but he wasn’t like a playmate.
“Dino was always in trouble, and Sal and I are only ten months apart, so we’re definitely the closest. I’d say it’s probably similar to having one brother but… three more times.”
Gia makes a face. “Ew. No thank you. Elio is plenty.”
That makes me pensive, and I turn to look at her. “You said Elio had to grow up fast. Did you mean after…”
I can’t bring myself to say the accident.
Gia shakes her head. “No, this started a long time before. I mean yeah, when Elio had to inherit the whole shebang in one night, that sucked. But he was pretty much prepared, Dad had been stepping back for years, so Elio was poised to take over pretty easily.”
I frowned. Marco had done the same, but our dad had always been lock-step with him, showing him the ropes right at his side. Business school was the only training that Marco had done alone, and in that case, he’d actually had Elio with him.
God.
