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I nearly laugh. “The answer’s been staring at me this whole time. Be better. It’s almost too simple to be workable.”

“Simple, yes. But not easy. You’ve had decades trying to keep up with a viper. That’s a lot of training on how to be shitty, so it’ll take time to undo that.” She stares downward as a raving Allegra stumbles into her house and slams the door, and there’s that little smile of hers again. Until she faces me. Then it fades. “But if you really want to be a better person, I know you can be. I’ve seen it.”

“You saw what you wanted to see, back when you still loved me. We all see the world through rose-colored glasses when we’re in love. That doesn’t make it real. Just ask Allegra.”

That little smile returns. “You’re the dumbest smart man I’ve ever met.”

I chuckle at that, unsure what to say. No one else does that to me. Not like her. Veda takes my hand, and neither of us says anything about it. I was speechless a moment ago, and now, with the electricity between us, I’ve got nothing left in me but a spark of hope.

Mark finally reaches us. He eyes the connection, but says nothing about it. “Ready to go?”

Veda nods. “Yeah. I think I’m ready.”

31

VEDA

The one good thing about the digital news cycle is its speed.

My name comes clean on the far side of the same news cycle that dirtied it. The Boston paper runs my exoneration with no apology. Just an update on the story. The European outlets pivot to the Brancati network as the story with the real teeth. Social media follows suit, and every post that dug my grave now reports on any sin with a Brancati near it.

Adeline sends me links to half of them, and follows the last one up with a text. Now come home and let me buy you a drink.

By rights, I should be booking the flight.

I don’t book the flight.

“Why not, exactly?” Mark asks as we settle in on the terrace, just the two of us. Coffee and biscotti, both Diana’s recipes. If she were here, she would have been nitpicking me to death while I worked.

I miss the nitpicking. But Diana finally had her hip surgery after trying to survive without it for two weeks after it broke in the attack on that lonely road. We bickered about it the whole time until the pain was too much, and she accepted the fact that she needed a hip replacement. Instead of saying so, though, she said she would have the surgery if it meant I would stop nagging her.

“Boston is complicated now,” I explain. “The hospital wants me back. Pruitt called⁠—”

“What? That’s fantastic!”

“It is. But I don’t know if I can walk those halls again. Patients’ parents research their kids’ doctors, Mark. If they don’t read the full story…”

He gets it all at once. “Ah.”

“And there are still depositions and a European mess to untangle. Going back this soon is unfeasible.”

Mark has been a fixed point in my spinning world. He sleeps at a hotel, showing up at the estate each dawn with the wariness never fully gone but softening at the edges. He and Lupo even played cards the other night.

Mark accused him of cheating only twice.

“You could come to Hawaii. Sun. Ocean. A brother who vets your dates for the rest of your natural life. Fresh seafood⁠—”

“Tempting. Genuinely. Ask me again in a month.”

His teasing smile dies. “But you’re staying. In Italy. Near him.”

“I’m staying near Sarah. She’s four days from a milestone in her maintenance protocol. I’m not handing that off mid-stream to a stranger. When she’s stable, I’ll figure out the rest.”

“Veda.” Mark sets his coffee down. “I watched the man set himself on fire for you. I’ll give him that. But he kidnapped you. He’s a criminal, and he’s a don, and his self-immolation doesn’t change either of those.”

“You don’t need to recap on my behalf, Mark. I lived it.”

“You keep ignoring those facts, so I thought they were worth repeating.” He pauses, thinking of how else he can try to convince me that I’m making the wrong choice. “I’d be a bad brother if I got on that plane pretending I’m fine with my sister living in this house.”