Page 127 of Brutal Vows

“You’re so right.”

“And before Luca, I was with someone more than ten years older than me, so I get the allure.” I pray her story is purer. Maybe true love. Even if it was all lust and nothing else, it can only be better than the way I was used.

“More than ten years?” she says with a quirked brow.

“Yep. Fell for him like a ton of bricks.”

This makes her smile, and she nods, her lips trembling as she sniffs, fresh tears flowing in memory. “He was my bodyguard. I was so annoyed when Gigi told me I had to have one, and that he’d move in with me over the summer, trailing my every step. To be honest, I have no idea how they could have sent someone like him my way and then expected me to feel nothing. And behind their backs, they call me the naive idiot.”

I smirk. Now I want to see a photo of this guy. “Unfair expectations. I get it, completely.”

“I know, right? And now they think the worst of him. This is also why I stay in my room, because whenever I’m with Gigi or Papa, all I hear about is how I’m too young, how he abused his position of power over me, that the age gap is crazy, and he must have manipulated me—abused me—somehow,” she says, her voice mocking. “That he was unprofessional. But he wasn’t. They say they care about me, but nobody asks how we happened. Who he is. The type of man he is.” She blinks at fresh tears and shakes her head. “What they don’t know is that I am in love with Vito.”

Am in love, not was. She still hopes he’ll come back. It’s probably the only thing that keeps her going.

“This is why you refused to leave for London, isn’t it?” I ask softly. “You’re praying that any moment now, he’s going to walk back through that front door, returning to you.”

Carla blinks. She bites her lip. Tears fall as a sob rips from her chest. “Yes! And they don’t understand any of it.”

“I do. I totally get it.”

She slumps against my shoulder, and I let her cry. At least she isn’t bitter, unlike me and my memories of Dimitri. Everything she said summed up my life before I left for Russia to avoid the coup, and if anybody knew about me and Dimitri and made similar comments back then, I would have been offended too, because I thought Dimitri was a good man.

But this girl, she has hope. It keeps her going. And after everything Luca and I have gone through, I’ve learned hope is the one thing that we can count on. For all we know, Vito might just walk through that front door like she prays he will.

60

LUCA

Two hours later, Doctor Morandi has been over every inch of me. Whatever wasn’t healing properly got all the attention a doctor—clearly deep into Don Trapani’s pocket—could give to my battle wounds. I’m on the mend, and I’m going to be fine. I will even shed the limp with physical therapy, once the gunshot wound to my thigh has healed. It’s something to look forward to.

As I make my way slowly down the passage, Stephano comes up the stairs after seeing Doctor Morandi off.

“You’re good?” he asks.

“Better. He’ll come every day until everything is to his satisfaction.” Whatever that means. I’m not used to someone hovering around, but if it’s going to speed up the healing process, Doctor Morandi can hover all he wants.

“You can’t leave anyway. We’re witnessing a miracle.”

“What? Why?”

“Milana has hit it off with Carla. Don’t know how, don’t know why, but for the first time since I’ve met that girl, she’s opened up to someone. I’ve eavesdropped just long enough to realize Carla’s actually talking, telling her everything. Milana’s offered to stay and help her.”

“She’s seen Zoe?”

“Cat’s out of the bag now, bro, but your story will sell to outsiders. As for within the family? The way Milana is with Zoe is a dead giveaway.”

I huff. “I know. She can’t help it. Best we pivot and share the news. We’ll have to stay here a while, even if only to give Ivan Petrov time to cool off after learning about Zoe. Let the idea grow on him first.”

“You underestimate him. He’s a father too, and very protective. He’ll be with Zoe just like his is with his own daughters, irrespective of who fathered her.”

I haven’t had time to think any of this through, but it makes sense. As for the Scaleras…

“Matteo will want to make sure Zoe never suffers any of the wrongs Gabi did. Dominic would probably point-blank kill any fucker who even looks weird at our baby girl. Benedict will either be awkward as fuck with her, or become her favorite reclusive uncle, quietly looking out for her in his own way.”

“Yep. It takes a village.” Steph shoots me a glance as I stop at the top of the stairs.

“We have a village,” I say, bracing myself on the banister. “We are the village.”