I pulled my knees to my chest, huddling into the corner of the mattress, suddenly feeling like her presence wasn’t truly hers, that it wasn’t safe. “What’s going on, Fiore?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “More than you could understand. I’ll speak to Brenno?—”
“Speak to Brenno?” I laughed in disbelief, shaking my head. “Brenno, as in BrennofuckingFera, my husband’s insane brother? Why are you here, Fiorella, what have they done to you?”
“You’re mad, I get it?—”
“Mad? Mad is like you stole my earrings, not that you’re here with the man who drugged and kidnapped me!”
She looked different from the Fiore I’d grown up with. That girl had been a warrior on the outside to cover the soft heart and insecurities she had beneath. This girl with cherry red lips and no ounce of regret on her face had eradicated her, but something about her spirit seemed broken.
Fiorella steeled her spine, standing up straighter as she pursed her lips and challenged, “Mad is alsoyourhusband marrying me off without a single care for what I want.”
“He said he’d fix it for you! Why are you defending the Feras?”
This made her look away, like it had deeply bothered her.
I knew that girl, or maybe I didn’t, but the girl who was my sister couldn’t be tamed once she was upset, and I knew there would be no reaching her now. I supposed I had myself to blame for that.
Fiore had always felt too much or too little. She’d always been too noticed or not noticed enough. One day, I hoped she’d find someone who could see her right where she was, but that certainly wasn’t going to happen with the Feras.
“He shouldn’t have to fix it, Sicily. He shouldn’t have taken away my choice in the first place.” Her voice broke and that wasthe first time I’d ever heard Fiorella Bianchi break. A beat of silence passed before she folded her arms, took a deep breath, and said slowly and quietly, “Is he going to fix what he did to them?” Her finger pointed to the door, her lip trembling.
If she knew about the contract, then one of the Feras had become very comfortable with her.
My stomach clenched in some queasy attempt to try and make this all make sense, but all it did was spin my head and squeeze my lungs.
She shook her head and then stepped toward the door, only stopping once the doorway was open. “You can shower, borrow some of my clothes, and come downstairs and we’ll figure this out, okay? Brenno wants to talk to you.”
“Brenno can shove his talking up his ass.”
The soundoflaughterreached my shower, and by the time I’d found a clean hoodie and sweatpants that were definitely my sister’s, curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I opened the bedroom door.
The Feras’ house wasn’t even a house; it was acottagemade of white brick, round windows, and mismatched, worn rugs that were warm beneath my feet as I walked through this unexpectedly…safeplace.
I walked past the corridor window and noticed how the sun soaked the green yard grass, but also how the earth here was overturned like something had been planted there recently. Daisies and colorful potted plants freckled the open space, a deep forest surrounded the vast landscape, and a lake ranbetween the meadows. Warmth sank into the crevices in the dark wooden floors and photographs of smiles and laughter crammed along all the walls like there wasn’t enough space for them all.
How could the sun shine where the devil lived?
I crept down the stairs, my heart thrumming at what I was beginning to suspect I’d find here.
Nothing.
There was no blood, no shouting, no violence, but instead, jazz music played gently from a speaker, and Brenno Fera, theCapo, was staring at my sister with agrinas she laughed at the youngest brother. The two of them sat at a long wooden dining table that looked expensive enough to be an antique.
It wasdomestic.
My sister shouldn’t have been a part of it.
“Sicily, you made it,” Fiore cooed, her smile growing as she noticed me buffering in the doorway.
I wanted to shrink into the floorboards, but all I could do was stand there, wincing at the false happiness circulating around this room. What I really wanted was to go home to my husband, to Adriano and Francesco, where the joy was real and earned.
The laughter that came out of me destroyed every smile in the room.“I’m sorry.” I chuckled, leaning against the doorframe with my arms folded. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
Brenno sighed. “Do you want to take a seat so we can talk?”
“No.” I gestured to the room instead, to my sister, to the illusion of peace this house was bringing. “How did you get Fiore here, hm? Let me guess… You kidnapped her. Method of choice for your family, is it?”
