Page 198 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

Daniele didn’t say a thing.

She didn’t have to.

Cara knew the answer.

No, it was not better.

Cara dug into a takeout container full of noodles, as the news program on the television repeated the highlights of the day. She checked her phone, seeing a new message from Gian, one in reply to her latest update on the baby’s gestation.

I like Marcus for a name, Gian had wrote. It’s my middle name, and my grandfather’s father’s name. A family name.

Cara thought to reply, but she decided she would do that after she finished eating. She had just taken a good mouthful of noodles when a shot of Gian came across the screen.

New Guzzi Crime Boss Released, the headline read across the bottom of the screen. That wasn’t exactly news to Cara, as she had known Gian’s date of release for a good month, and had counted down the days. She also knew, through Chris’s last update, Gian might need to lay low for a few days before she would see him, it really just depended on circumstances.

That, Cara had also understood.

What she didn’t understand—or like, for that matter—was seeing a shot of Gian fresh off release, walking into what looked like a restaurant with his wife on his arm.

Then, the shot changed.

Gian stepping out of a car, moving to the other side, and then helping his wife out. She kissed his cheek, her wide-brimmed red hat that matched the color of her heels and dress, hid half of her face, but not enough.

Cara had not been able to forget what Elena looked like since the moment she had seen those wedding pictures. It was burned into her fucking retinas.

“Gian Guzzi, heir apparent and new boss to the Guzzi Crime Dynasty is free today,” the anchor said. “We were unable to question the purported Don on his release, or the investigations the police say continue to be active, as he moved directly from the jail to a restaurant, where he seemed to meet with his father-in-law, while his wife was close by. Guzzi’s father-in-law, Gabriel Canali, is another well-known gangster from an Ottawa organization, a leader of a Camorra clan, who was also recently released from jail.”

The anchor continued talking, but Cara shut the television off, and tried to focus on eating her food. She no longer had an appetite.

Cara didn’t want to be that woman—jealous because she saw Gian with his wife, and not her. She didn’t want to become irrationally angry anytime a news program mentioned something about Elena.

She had no right to feel those things.

And yet she did.

Cara quelled her irritation and useless jealousy by rolling her hands over her unborn boy’s movements. Each little kick and jab, calmed her a bit more.

There wasn’t much else she could do.

It was the loud knock on her apartment door that broke Cara from her daze. She wasn’t expecting visitors.

Cara quickly got up off the couch and made her way to the door, when the knocking became slightly more persistent. “Just a second, I’m coming.”

She pulled open the door to find an unknown, older woman standing behind it. For a long moment, she only stared at the woman, taking in her ashy blonde hair, green eyes, and the way she smiled ever-so-slightly at the sight of Cara. The woman’s gaze dropped to Cara’s slightly rounded midsection, and then just as fast, flew back up to her face.

“My, you are quite a beautiful thing, aren’t you?” the woman asked. “He always did have an eye for the ones that could stand out in a crowd. I believe it’s because he never learned how to blend in, either. He always had to be front and center, a prince waiting to be a king.”

Cara held the door, unsure if she wanted to close it or not. “Do I know you?”

She looked familiar.

“Under different circumstances, I am sure we would have known each other very well,” the woman said softly. “It’s Cara, right? Cara Rossi?”

“I am dangerously close to shutting this door,” Cara warned.

The woman laughed, her crow’s feet becoming more apparent around her eyes. It was that laugh, and the way her features changed enough, that Cara thought she might know exactly who this woman was. It also could have been the French accent coloring up the woman’s words that did it for Cara, too.

But that woman wouldn’t come here, would she?