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Grandma tuts and waves a hand. “Not too upset. I’m sure you were getting over-hot in that old costume.”
Isabella is undeterred by her grandmother’s attempt at dismissal. “You know, I heard the strangest thing last night as I was trying to find the bathroom.”
The hair at the nape of my neck stands on end. My entire body tenses as a bad feeling washes over me.
“I heard two people fighting in one of the bedrooms,” Isabella says as she inspects her manicured nails. “It sounded really intense. Something about acting? A fake relationship?”
Under the table, my hands clench into fists. Fuck.
“Cara,” Grandma Giovanni chides. “What are you talking about?”
Isabella looks up from her nails to me. When she meets my eyes, a smirk starts to form on her face. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about what I heard, would you, Matthew?”
All I can hear is the sound of my blood rushing through my ears. This snake of a woman heard my conversation with Lucia last night. She doesn’t care to mention the outcome of the talk, nor does she care to ask for clarification about any of it. As I watch her smirk widen, I realize that this is her trying to use what she heard to humiliate her cousin. Ofcourse.
I go to stand, but feel a hand stop me. I look down to see Grandma, looking up at me over the rim of her glasses. “No,caro, stay. I want to hear what you have to say.”
“I have nothing to say to her,” I say through gritted teeth, trying to be as polite as I can. “Seems odd for a grown woman to walk around, listening in on conversations that clearly weren’t her business.”
“I beg to differ,” Isabella quips at me smugly. “If someone’s trying to deceive my family, I have every right to know.”
“There’s no deception happening,” I say evenly.
“No? So it’s not true that you came here with our little Lucy in the hopes of fooling us all into believing that you and her are together? It’s not true that you’ve been lying to us all since you got here?” Isabella says loudly enough to silence the rest of the room.
Suddenly, every single pair of eyes here is on me, waiting for an answer. Before I can open my mouth to respond, someone else does.
“Did you even bother to listen to the rest of the conversation?”
Everyone’s gaze swings to the speaker. Lucia is standing in the entryway to the dining room, looking at her cousin coolly.
“I didn’t need to,” Isabella scoffs. “It’s clear that a mouse like you could never find someone to bring home for real. I knew something was up the moment I saw you two.”
“Really?” When Lucia speaks, it doesn’t sound like a question. It sounds like she expected her cousin to say exactly that. “So you missed the part where we said we love each other? When we said that what we have is real?”
“Even if that were true, you still lied to all of us.”
I watch as Lucia seems to grow taller and more confident with each word Isabella says. Her hazel eyes shine gold as her face hardens with determination. “That’s really rich coming from a woman divorcing her husband without telling any of us.”
It’s so quiet in the room that you could hear a pin drop. Isabella suddenly looks pale, stiff and frozen in place in her chair.
“We Giovannis are pretty unjudgmental about things like that,” Lucia continues. “We give each other a hard time about things because we care. We want each other to be happy, so if separating from Tony is what you need to do for your long-term happiness, that’s what you should do.”
No one says a word as Lucia steps into the room and gives everyone a sweeping look.
“I love Matt. We didn’t start out this visit like that. I’ll admit it. I’m sorry for lying. I promise I didn’t want to hurt anyone. But howdareyou accuse me of deceiving this family when you yourself brought your own soon-to-be ex-husband here and pretended like everything was fine.”
Isabella isn’t looking at her cousin any longer. Instead, her gaze is trained on her lap, head hanging with shame.
“It’s okay if it isn’t. We can’t all be fine all the time,” Lucia says. She takes a deep breath before sighing. “But don’t you dare try to embarrass me ever again. I’m an adult, and so are you. It’s time to start acting like one, Isabella.”
Silence rings in the room. Abruptly, Isabella rises from her seat and runs from the room. When someone tries to go after her, Grandma stops them, telling them to give her a little space for a moment.
After that, the room lapses into its usual chatter, and I slip from my seat to pull Lucia into the kitchen.
In an instant, I’ve pulled her into a heated kiss, pressing her into the counter as I grip her hips.
“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart,” I say between kisses, running a hand through her hair.
