Page 164 of Unravel Me

"Do you want to try some ricotta?" Tony leans toward Tommy. "It’s really delicious cheese. My uncle, Stefano, taught me how to make cheese like this myself."

Since Tommy has both hands occupied, he puts a piece into Tommy’s mouth, and as soon as my son starts chewing, I immediately see that he’s going to become a ricotta fan. He puts the figurines down and reaches out his little hand, grabs the edge of the plate, and pulls it closer to himself.

"Well, I can see we’re going to get along," Tony says with a grin, as Tommy is happily devouring his meal, one bite at a time.

In the meantime, Emilio and Gianni watch me with a certain curiosity, and then Emilio speaks.

"So you’re really staying for good?"

"Well. I’ll stay wherever Mauro is. He’s my True Mate."

Emilio and Gianni exchange smiles.

"We’ve known about it for a long time. Mauro waited for you for years. He believed that Fate would bring you together."

I lower my head, feeling uneasy. For some reason, I have this strange conviction that what happened unfolded exactly as Fate intended, which is kind of funny.

Fate’s Choice?

Coincidence or not, my marriage fell apart because of the scandal surrounding Mark at exactly the same time Mauro escaped from the Ferro family fortress.

It’s quite uncanny that such crucial moments in our lives happened so close together, and then we met again almost exactly when Rocco died, opening up a new path for us.

I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say about all that to them, so I simply turn my attention to my son and watch him happily eating his ricotta.

Suddenly, Emilio remembers something.

"Damn, the furniture you ordered with my dad arrived yesterday. We moved it into the room, but we haven’t put it together yet…"

He looks a little embarrassed.

"Don’t worry about it," I say. "After all, you didn’t know whether I would even come back. We can put it together tomorrow. I’ll have Tommy sleep with me in the bed tonight anyway because he might be scared. Such a big change for him."

Another wave of guilt washes over me because this is yet another move in Tommy’s life. First Alex’s little house, then Bay’s apartment, and now Renato’s house.

I look at my son, wanting to believe that I’ll finally be able to give him at least a little stability.

"Maybe you’d like something to eat too?" Tony asks.

"Sure, thank you," I reply with a touch of hesitance. "But nothing heavy. My stomach has been… clenched this whole time, you know, a lot… of emotions."

"That’s understandable," Emilio says quietly.

Tony leaves, and silence settles over the room. I feel foolish, like I should keep apologizing. I was stressed, yes, but he lost his parent.

Emilio is grieving, and I can sense it. His energy feels subdued, and his black clothes and pale face speak volumes about how hard his dad’s death has been on him.

Well… or his transformation, I should say.

"Sorry I ran off like that," I blurt out, even though I know I’m repeating myself. I still feel terribly guilty about the way I behaved, leaving them so soon after Silvio was shot. "Everything became too much for me. But if Tommy had been here and Rocco had shown up, it would have been a disaster."

"I understand all of that, Jared. Rocco fully descended into darkness. As a child, he was a sweet, sensitive boy. But Tito destroyed him. He stole his childhood and did something even worse: he made Rocco embrace the sickness he’d been poisoned with. Before long, there was nothing left of the boy he used to be."

"A sweet kid? It’s hard for me to believe he was ever different. He was a monster to me."

"Monsters aren’t born, Jared. Monsters are made," Emilio says grimly as he cuts the slice of bread into four smaller pieces and then slides it closer to Tommy.

"This Tito… he was originally supposed to be the capo, right?" I ask.