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“I didn’t runtothem, I just had to see Guido for five minutes. Please try to understand. If Chiara would be in danger, you wouldn’t hesitate to help her.” He had to understand.
“That’s your problem, Grazia. Your brothers areyourproblem. I just care about Salvatore and you just put a knife in his heart.”
I lost my breath.
There was no point in responding. I was in the wrong, but it wasn’t Pietro’s forgiveness I needed.
He pulled the car in front of the main entrance of the house and put the car in park.
“You’re not coming inside?” I asked.
“No.DonFiori wants to be alone with you.” It sounded like a threat.
As soon as I stepped out of the car, the tires screeched and Pietro was on his way back. I looked at the door in front of me waiting to be opened and felt my guts trembling. My husband was behind that door – the love of my life, the man who loved me more than life – so why was I so hesitant to go in?
Pietro’s words got to me and now I wasn’t so sure of what to expect. Salvatore and I fought so many times before, we made a sport out of it, but back then, I wasn’t wearing his ring. Back then, I didn’t vow to respect and support him ‘till death do us part.
Clearing my throat to break the knot that formed there, I gathered my courage in my hands and opened the door, walking inside the house. It was so quiet, I could hear Salvatore’s breath all the way from the entrance. He was waiting for me in the living room.
The first thing I saw was his back. He was sitting on the couch, looking straight at a glass of amber spirits. I could tell he was tense. Still hesitant, but eager to make it better, I got closer to him and placed my hand between his shoulder blades.
“Would you let me talk before you yell at me, Sasa?”
Chapter 24
“Talk if that’s what you want.”
The hand she had on my back was burning me through the shirt.
“I overheard you talking earlier, about how they were going to bust Guido’s club tonight.” She exhaled, and her sweet, warm breath rolled down the back of my head. “When you said those people were already in Sicily… Salvatore I had to go and see him. I had to warn him. He is my brother. I know –Amore mio, I know – that he’s also my father’s son, but I couldn’t sit and watch him go to jail.”
Unable to stay still anymore, I got up and looked down on Grazia. She was so little compared to my body, so fragile, getting entirely swallowed by my shadow.
“And you decided to sneak out and go see him.” I said it with calm, but that calm was soon lost. My temper got the best out of me and I threw the whiskey glass across the room, turning it into glass rain. “You ran away fromme.”
“I didn’t.”
“Why? You do this over and over and over. It’s a fucking joke.”
“Salvatore.”
“Four years, Grazia. For four years I had to hold on to you with both hands so you won’t slip away from me. I fought you. I had to force you to love me because you kept running away.” My breath started to get loud and I could hear my own blood in my ears. “You finally came to your senses and married me and you’re still running. What the fuck do I have to do to keep you, Grazia? Tell me.”
“You have me.” She showed me her hand where the blue diamond ring was resting. “You have me and my heart. Don’t take things out of proportion, Sasa. I know I was reckless and I know you felt disrespected, and I’m sorry for that. I am, but can you blame me for not wanting Guido to sleep in a cell tonight?”
“Would you fucking stop? This is not about your brother. It’s about you, my wife, who disobeyed every rule we have today. How stupid could you be?”
Her body jerked and her eyes grew round.
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“I’ll talk to you however I please. You listened to my conversation? Are you insane? People get shot for that, Grazia. You hear too much, you become a problem, you end up in a ditch with a bullet in the back of your head. Do I need to tell you this?”
She was a mafia princess for fuck’s sake. Her father taught her, her mother taught her, I taught her the rules, and now she showed us all the middle finger just because she felt like it. She came to be my wife? To be a Fiori? Fine. Everyone in this damn family has to hold my word above the law, so I will teach her that.
“I’m sorry!” She shouted this time.
“Don’t raise your fucking voice. You’re angry? You?”
