Page 152 of Bene

It took a couple of days before the man was finally released. Apparently, a few missing papers could keep him behind bars longer than anyone thought. Then, he arrived home with his wife at his side, the first time she came home and stayed since her husband’s arrest, if Vanna was to believe what others told her.

Standing behind her husband, Bene’s mother kept her hands clasped to his shoulders during the entire conversation. A pillar of the family, it seemed.

Vanna wasn’t surprised.

Women tended to be the powerhouses.

They turned the world.

Men simply went along with it.

“You know,” Gian said, clearing his throat as his gaze flicked to Marcus who stood near the office windows, clearly unhappy, “there was a time when I thought I loved Elena.”

Vanna flinched.

She couldn’t help it.

“All of her making, of course,” Gian added quickly, waving a hand as if to dismiss the notion he could have truly loved her dead aunt, “because she orchestrated it all. From bumping into me at a restaurant, to the lies she told about who she was and what she wanted from me. Instead, she used those things I trusted her with to get away from a man she hated, and then she left me high and dry for years while I felt like I would never have the chance to be with someone I loved entirely. I couldn’t be with someone else when I was already married to her, after all. Until Cara came along, that is.”

Cara smiled briefly, bending down to kiss the man on the top of his head before straightening back up like she hadn’t moved at all.

“Nonetheless, with Elena, nothing was ever true, and even after the things she had done to me and to my family … I would have forgiven her for it all, if only she loved me back the way I thought I loved her. That’s the thing about love, when it’s real, then nothing else really matters. You figure out a way to make it work—it doesn’t give you another choice.”

Beside her, Bene reached over to unfurl her fingers around the arm of the chair. His palm pressed against hers, the warm heat soaking into her hand and straight up her arm almost instantly. Their fingers wove together, and just like that, she felt settled again.

Better.

He made her better.

“Nothing was ever real with Elena,” Gian said, still staring at Vanna as he spoke despite all the others in the room, “and so there was nothing to make work. I think that’s where the two of you differ, isn’t it?”

“How are we supposed to trust her when—”

“Hush, Marcus.”

The man at the windows quieted instantly.

“I’m sorry,” Vanna whispered.

Behind his large desk, Gian nodded. “I understand that even to the detriment of yourself, you did what you could to help fix your errors, and while I could be quick to punish you for the rest first … I’m inclined to learn from the past, and the mistakes I left behind there.”

He glanced up at his wife, asking, “What is it you say this family does, cara mia bella?”

Cara smiled. “We forgive—we love.”

“We do because that is how you teach it to others.” Gian looked Marcus’s way again, the other man stiff in his position in front of the windows. “Something you still have to learn, although your reasoning for wanting to do neither is justifiable. Still, we remain together, or we fight and tear each other apart on our way down, yes?”

It took Marcus a second.

And then, two.

Finally, with a hard exhale, he muttered, “Yes, Papa.”

Gian’s gaze turned on Bene as he said, “Also, I hear we have other news to share. Something … happier, even if you do know better. And Bene, you do know better.”

What?

Bene’s cheeks reddened.