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“You are.” She cut me off gently. “You are being greedy. You want everyone home. You want it done already. We knew this was going to be a long plan from the start. If shit goes wrong for Wyatt the moment he gets there, he’ll know it was you. Your parents will know it was you.”
“It doesn’t have to happen immediately. It could be—”
She shook her head. “It can’t happen at all. Let him go completely…well, seem like you let go completely. Be the big brother and watch from afar, clear the traps in his way and let Wyatt live the life he wants to live.”
“But he doesn’t want to live that life. I know my brother. He’s tired of living in the shadows. He wants purpose and he feels like he cannot have it by my side, but he can.”
“Exactly.” She nodded. “What happens to a person who walks down a road thinking there is gold but finds nothing? They have two choices. Kill themselves for being such a fool or turn back and go down the right road. You know Wyatt loves being a Callahan. You know he wants to be more like you. So let him deny himself. Let him lie to himself. Give him no excuse as to why he didn’t make it down the road and then he will have to self-reflect. He will make the choice to come back. You can give him a little nudge, but you can’t block him. Let him finish medical school, maybe even do part of his first residency. He will be bored out of his fucking mind.”
“That’s basically four years from now.”
She nodded. “It is.”
Once again, her dedication, her ability to put nothing ahead of the plan, my plan, was something that was beyond my understanding. How could she be so self-sacrificing? Being my wife meant that much to her. She could simply delay her gratification like that.
“Very well.” I nodded, her strength my only resolve. “Wyatt goes to Boston, and after you give birth, you can be his Triste Mietitore.”
“What?” A grin spread across her face. “Why am I his grim reaper?”
I stroked her cheek with the back of my hand. “Because you decide when his soul goes back to the underworld.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back over. I r
ested my hand on her stomach again. “Sounds like the beginning to a great myth; the brother of Hades, tired of living in his brother’s shadow, escapes the underworld and goes up to the land of mortals, Hades sends his true love, the Grim Reaper, to watch over him until it is time for his soul to return.”
“What of Cronus and Rhea, Hades’ parents, who seek and roam around the earth? What can be done of them? I need him to get hurt for them to come back.”
“No, you need one of their children to get hurt. You are their child, remember?” I stilled, my mind looking at all the pieces. They were so far apart from each other, but now I could see them aligning.
“Do you know who Savino Moretti is?”
“An old rich Italian family in Chicago, right? They worked under your mother.”
“And after my mother died…so did their steadfast loyalty.”
“They betrayed you?”
I shook my head. That was the problem. “No. Not yet. Moretti is trying to drive a wedge between me and the Italian families. So he can take over. Just like Miguel Munha. All of them are on the cusp, flirting with betrayal. They don’t know it themselves, but I can see it. Step by step, they are walking towards me just to stab me in the back.”
“Your lapdog, Tobias, too.”
“That one is complicated,” I muttered, already annoyed by the thought.
“Because he’s sleeping with your sister?”
I glanced down at her face. She had her eyes closed but still managed to have that know-it-all look on her face.
“Yes.”
“You love your sister. You don’t want her to hate you. Killing her lover would do that…and maybe set her off to betray you too.”
“Like I said, complicated.”
“Not if you have her kill him.” Her gears were turning. “Same with Wyatt. She loves her family, loves being a Callahan. You know want they want better than they do, so help them make their choices. If it came down to family or Tobias, and it was Donatella’s choice, who would she chose?”
“Family. Without hesitation.” Now it wasn’t complicated, there was just another step to the process. “I let her make the choice she wants to make.”
“Then she can only be upset with herself.”
