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As soon as the doors close behind us, Teresa waits thirty seconds, listening to Marissa’s heels clicking, the sound getting farther and farther before she finally speaks.
She doesn’t start small.
“I’m on your side,” she says. “Your plan? I want in. I can help, Lilah.”
My gut churns, thoughts flying in my head.
This isn’t where I thought this shopping trip would go.
I thought I’d be the one working on growing her trust, on pulling her to my side, getting intel.
But instead, it seems she wants to prove herself to me.
“Why?” I ask. “No offense, Teresa, I don’t know much about you other than you’ve been loyal to the family who killed my father for quite some time.”
There’s a smile on her lips, a sad one, before she speaks. “God, your mother would be so fucking proud of you, Delilah Antonia.”
She stares at me and I hold her gaze, waiting for more. Then she sits in the chair in the corner and gone from her face is the mystery. Gone is the cloak and dagger.
Instead, there’s honesty there.
There’s heartbreak.
There’s a long life of secrets and betrayal.
“Your mom was the same age as I. We grew up in the same circles, so I knew her most of my life. We were best friends.” My eyes go wide with that news.
Teresa Carluccio was best friends with my mom?
I was actually there the night she met Arturo, watched her go to that rooftop and not come down. I knew it was the beginning of the end for them.” She looks to the side and shakes her head. “She lived with her head in the clouds. She wanted to find her soulmate. Wanted to fall in love and grow old with him, to have babies and watch them grow.” There’s a shimmer in her eyes as she continues. “Wanted grandbabies.” Teresa smiles. “When we were young, we said we’d have baby girls and we’d name them after each other. That they’d be best friends forever.”
Teresa shakes her head gently with a smile.
“Anyway. You know what happened with all that. No need to dig up the past. But when Arturo . . . When he was murdered, it broke your mom. A part of her died that day, Delilah.” I roll my lips in, fighting emotion.
I knew that, of course.
But hearing it, seeing in Teresa’s eyes how bad it was . . .
It breaks a part of me too.
My mind moves to Dante and how I don’t think I’d recover if something happened to him.
“We got together one night, after everything. I had just found out the plan had been to get rid of me, to take on Libby and you, to get that tie to the Russos.” She shakes her head. “God, I was so fucking mad. Your mom had moved from grief to anger too.” A sad laugh comes from her lips. “We started planning. Got so drunk I couldn’t look at wine for a month, cried a lot, and we started planning. Got whatever information we already had, figured out what else we needed . . .”
Silence hangs in the dressing room.
“What plan?” I ask, confused.
“You know, people think the men in this life hold all the power. But men get distracted by a nice pair of tits. A woman? She wants revenge? It’s all she can fucking breathe until it’s hers.” Her words resonate so deeply, turning my blood to fire.
Because that’s the life I’ve been living, isn’t it? Living to get revenge on the people who hurt my family. Who killed my father, used my mother, hurt my sister.
“Your mom helped me put Tony in prison for life.”
And then for the millionth time, my idea of the past falls apart before Teresa helps me reassemble it, leaving me with a clearer image of what happened all those years ago.
SIXTEEN
