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“I’m sure you will meet someone else, Pia. He will be the person you’re meant to be with. These things cannot be rushed. Look at your papà and me. I was not much younger than you are when we met.”
“I know you’re right, Mamma, but the curse still worries me. If I don’t have an heir and someone else inherits Valentini, do you think Estancia’s curse will finally end?”
“What I think is you are being silly and overly dramatic. However, if you do not have an heir, there will be no one else to inherit. I do not have any siblings, and neither did my mother, nor her mother before her. Or before that.”
“Are you saying that there were no male heirs?”
“None after Estancia.”
“And no one had more than one child?”
“As far as I know. Even Estancia had only one daughter.”
“This is unbelievable. I need to know, Mamma, what happens if I never have a child?”
“I’ve already told you, Pia, I don’t know. I suppose the estate would have to be sold.” She rubbed her temples. “I don’t understand why you’re so worried about this. You will meet someone new. You’ll get married, have a baby or maybe many babies, and this conversation will be for nothing.”
When I left my mother and went back to the winery office, Georgio was waiting for me. I didn’t like the look on his face and wasn’t in the mood for another argument, especially after the frustrating conversation I’d just had with my mother.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
“We may have trouble fulfilling the order you wrote without consulting me.”
My head snapped up. “What do you mean? Our production levels are far above what was ordered.”
“There’s an issue with the vintages.”
“An issue? You are bitching that I didn’t consult you abou
t an order, but you haven’t informed me of an issue with our inventory?”
“Never mind.”
“What? What do you mean never mind? Explain, Georgio.”
He stomped out of the office, leaving me with my mouth hanging open. I was so furious I was having trouble breathing. I should fire him on the spot, but until I had someone else lined up to replace him, I couldn’t afford to do that.
Georgio came back a few days later, saying he was mistaken and we would have no trouble with the order. We’d been friends all of our lives, and yet, he felt like a stranger to me—one I couldn’t trust.
I’d placed a call to Matteo when Georgio first told me about the still-unnamed “issue,” but didn’t reach him. When he called back several days later, he was apologetic.
“Do you think I’m being paranoid, Matteo?” I asked after telling him how the conversation with Georgio went.
He didn’t answer right away, and I wondered if our call had disconnected. “It would be best if you didn’t let him go right now.”
“Why?”
He breathed out a heavy sigh. “Try to make things work for now.”
“Do you think he’ll intentionally do something to jeopardize our business?”
“I do not.”
He sounded emphatic, and I trusted my cousin. His explanation that he’d been away and unable to be reached seemed very unusual, though. Once again, I felt as though things in my world were off-kilter.
On top of everything else, I wasn’t feeling well. Sometimes I felt perfectly fine. Others, I couldn’t keep any food down. All I could think was that I was coming down with whatever ailed my mother and Nonna Carina.
I went upstairs to lie down, and the minute my head hit the pillow, I felt nauseous. I barely made it to the lavatory before I lost the contents of my stomach.
