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I cleared my throat. “I can’t leave you alone while you’re not yet recovered.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, then looked away from me again.
“Salvatore—”
We started to speak at once, but he won. “I’ll make sure you have enough money to set yourself up, buy a house, take some time—”
I pulled my hand free of his. “I told you before. I don’t need your money.” I turned the back of my head to him in case he saw me wipe away a stupid tear.
We were back to this.
He picked up my hand and squeezed, making me look at him. If he saw my eyes were wet, he didn’t mention it.
“I’m going to take care of you, whether you like it or not, so just accept it as a part of life.”
“Do you know what you’re going to do?” I asked, swallowing a lump in my throat, not sure what else to talk about, needing there not to be any silence between us because in that silence, I would fall apart.
“Sell this house. Move. Look for Dominic. I don’t know.”
“You’re worried about him.”
“Yeah. He needs someone now, after everything. Not sure he wants it to be me, but I’m going to try.”
“Can you walk away from it, though? Can you just up and leave?”
“I’m going to.” There was a long pause. “What about you? Where do you want to go?”
“My sister is putting the house up for sale. I think it’s a good idea to start fresh. She, Luke, and Effie are looking at Florida.” For a moment, I thought I would go too, but then the thought of being without him made me stop. Didn’t I want this? Didn’t I want my freedom?
Strange, how priorities shifted. I thought I’d always want revenge for what they had done to my family, but that had all slipped away. All the anger, the hate, it just wore me down to think about it, and now, it was gone.
“Salvatore,” I started, but again, we spoke at once, our voices and gazes colliding.
“If you don’t know…it will take some time to sell the house. Maybe you can stay…” He trailed off.
I nodded. “That would be good. Izzy and Luke need their space, and I can help you get the house ready and make sure you’re—”
He took my face in his hand and drew it to himself to kiss me, swallowing up the empty words.
“I want to make love to you.”
“The doctor said—”
“I need you, Lucia. I’ve needed you for so long.”25SalvatoreI kept my promise to Lucia. Roman came to the house the following morning and handed me the initial contract she and I had signed. I set it aside and had him draw up another one. This one forgave any and all debt any DeMarco owed any Benedetti, real or perceived, and the two families were no longer bound in any way. And it could not be overturned at any time in the future.
I signed it and had a copy sent to Isabella. I would deliver a copy to my father personally. This insane vendetta was finished. I ended it as one of the two things I did during my hours-long rule over the Benedetti family before I gave everything—the reign, the rule, the power—over to Roman.
It was another week before I could move back upstairs to my own bedroom and another month before I was fully healed. All that time, Lucia stayed with me, caring for me like I didn’t remember ever being cared for by anyone apart from my mother.
I also saw Natalie and Jacob. She came to give me the news she too was moving away, along with her parents. She didn’t trust anyone but me, and with Roman now taking over and Dominic somewhere out there, she didn’t feel safe. She promised to keep in touch with me, though, and I let her go, let her take my nephew with her. I would miss them. It was another piece of Sergio that was gone, but I knew part of him would always be with me, no matter what.
As far as the house, it turned out I didn’t have to put it on the market. An anonymous buyer bought it outright, furnished, within hours of my talking to a real-estate agent. We needed to be out within two weeks. I let Rainey go with a hefty bonus to tide her over until she found work. I didn’t need to worry about Marco. He would go to work for my uncle. Lucia and I simply had to pack up our personal things, and we were free to truly walk away.
Those last two weeks in the house were strangely more bitter than sweet. Lucia would go to Florida, where her sister had already gone with Effie, while Luke took care of the selling of their house. I hadn’t yet decided what I would do. I couldn’t think about it for some reason. And I still had one more person to see before I could close this long chapter of my life.
