Page 278 of Alessio

It didn’t matter.

He still lingered.

She felt it.

Everywhere.

What in the hell was that?

Corrado cleared his throat, and wouldn’t meet her gaze. She wondered if he felt that, too? God knew he didn’t say much to her. For the most part, he’d spent the last week avoiding her as much as was possible when they were alone together in the penthouse.

“Would you like me to cook you breakfast?” he asked, a thickness roughening up his tone as he reached for the cupboard beside her.

Ginevra was back to feeling like she couldn’t speak, so instead, she whispered, “Sure.”

“And you can tell me about your sisters,” he was quick to add, shooting her a smile, “maybe then you won’t feel like you need to talk to them, if you’re talking about them.”

“You want to know about my little sisters?”

Corrado shrugged. “Why not?”

Well, okay.

Like he said, why not?

“So, there’s Greta,” Ginevra said, “and she’s seventeen. And then there’s Giulia, and she’s fifteen. They’re typical teenage girls. We’re all close … I guess because us girls are all we really had growing up since our dad just came and went. Usually when he came around, it was to give our mom money. So, we all leaned on each other.”

“What about your mom?”

Ginevra stiffened, and Corrado didn’t miss it. He turned to look at her, raising his brow in question at her sudden silence. Something painful came to wrap around her heart, and she swore those tears wouldn’t be very far behind.

Did he see that?

She didn’t know.

Not when she was too busy trying to hide it.

“Don’t do that again—those tears,” he said quickly when she peeked up at him. “I can’t do the tears, girl. You might as well stick a fucking knife in my chest, and finish the goddamn job while you’re at it. It kills me.”

Ginevra did her best to hold back the emotion.

Barely.

“They killed my mom,” she whispered, “Kev and Darren, I mean. My half-brothers. They made it look like a suicide, but I knew. They told me what they would do if she tried to help me, and that’s what they did. Because she tried to help me get away.”

Corrado let out a fast breath. “Hey, that’s not your fault.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. And I’m sorry. About your ma.”

Yeah.

She still hadn’t gotten the time to deal with that. It was like one minute, her mama was there, and then the next, she was gone. Except she had to move on to taking care of her sisters, and dealing with the upcoming wedding. Her brothers, the bastards. And everything else, too. The wedding day, Andino letting her escape, Corrado, and coming here.

One thing after another.

It didn’t stop.