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The scars that Eden and Starla bear will be with them a long, long time. Maybe forever.
“I know a guy,” Mario says. "He can expedite everything so that you guys can get guardianship sooner."
I nod. Mario always knows a guy.
For now, Starla is living with us. She’s young enough she still needs some guidance, and she absolutely needs our provisions and protection for the time being, but Starla will be independent soon enough.
For now, I have the two of them situated in a hotel deep in the heart of Boston. Eden insisted that she and I not share a room, not yet anyway, because she wants to make her sister feel comfortable. I have my most trustworthy guards on them at all times. What she doesn't know is that I am one of those guards for 24 hours a day. I keep my distance, but not too far.
The door to the club opens.
I forget to breathe when Eden walks in. Just the sight of her—wholesome, pure, and stunning—clutches at my heart. The sound of the room fades when she turns the full wattage of her smile on me.
“Jesus,” Mario repeats. “She makes me want to go to Confession.”
I’ll be an old man hobbling around with a crutch and this woman will still make my heart beat faster.
Eden smirks a little at me from across the room, probably thinking that she surprised me with this visit. What she doesn't know in this particular instance won’t hurt her.
I get my shit together, wave, and beckon her over.
She smiles at me brightly, with the power to make me feel like the tallest, richest, most powerful man in the room. She smiles as if her heart hasn’t been to Hell and back. Nothing will keep this woman down.
When she reaches me, I tug her hand and casually draw her onto my lap. Mario can't stop the grin that spreads across his face.
He likes that I've actually fallen in love. He was the one that said it would happen. I couldn’t care less now who won that bet.
"Starla is with Marialena and Rosa," she says. "Quinn is going to join them later, too."
"And me!" Flo waves from the bar, where she has a drink in each hand, and probably didn't pay for either one of them.
It's a regular girls’ night out.
Mario gets a funny look on his face while he strokes his chin. "Guys. Hold the phone. I just had a literal brainstorm. I know where you can go!" I raise my eyebrows at him.
“Obviously a hotel isn’t where you want to stay. How about The Castle? Hardly anybody lives there anymore, and my mom and Nonna are the only full-time residents. We all visit, but you know that place is huge."
Eden’s eyes widen. “Oooh, I’ve heard about this castle."
"It's my family home," Mario says. "We grew up there. Sergio’s family visited all the time, but they didn't grow up there like we did."
Eden looks at me, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses. "Where is this real castle where people actually live – in Never Never Never Land?"
Mario grins. "Only the best place on earth. North Shore of New England. Cape Anne.”
"Well, how far is it from here, though?"
I shrug. “That doesn't matter. Could take an hour with traffic but I don’t care. I can do most everything I want to do remotely."
Mario snickers and I kick him under the table. He knows as well as I do that I cannot do everything I want to do remotely, but I'll find my way back here with her.
I turn to face Eden. "We’ll have to ask Tosca, since it's her family home. But there's a rich tradition of Montavios living in The Castle. What do you say? Would you be okay with that? We'd have our own place, and so would your sister."
She laughs out loud, her happiness bubbling up until her entire being is shaking with laughter.
"So you mean to tell me that you want to take me and my sister to a castle to live with Nonna, who cooks the best food I've ever eaten in my entire life, Tosca, who's like the mother I never had, where it's safe and secure, next to an ocean … is there a beach?”
Mario nods.
