Page 27 of Isle of Beauty

I fucked her like it was HER. I fucked her like I hated HER. Because I do. And when I find her, she’ll know just how much. She’ll pay for her deception and lies.

It’s a matter of when, not if anymore. I’m using all my funds to track her down.

Andrea, to no surprise, is of no fucking help. I call him as a last resort, dreading the moment he picks up his phone. He laughs at me in disdain. “I’ll help you find your little lover if you sell your company to me.”

Fire surges in my chest and lights up a dangerous path all the way to the marrow of my bones. “Are you out of your mind?”

I should have known he’d never give me anything for free. He started his own security business a couple of months after me, but unlike me, he’s on the other side of the law, helping anyone that can afford his services evade the sentences they deserve.

It pains me to admit that his methods might be the only one to get me what I want but I’m not there yet.

“Suit yourself,” he mocks then hangs up.

Months later, Luc puts me in contact with one of Misha’s guy to work on my private case. He’s just one of the many unsavoury people I start to recruit; people who aren’t on anyone’s radar, ghosts who can find shit others won’t.

I will find her. I’m just biding my time.

TWELVE

LANA

FUNERALS IN SUMMER ARE THE WORST

THE PRESENT

I’m staring blankly at the earrings in my hand, little daffodils made of gold and white enamel, when a knock sounds on my door.

“Are you ready, narcisu?” My mother’s voice fleets to me in an enchanting melody and I smile at the nickname, daffodil. She’s always called me with the name of the flower that represents new beginnings and new seasons, and that’s very poisonous when ingested in high quantities. Seems even more fitting now.

The organ in my chest squeezes at how much I missed her. She approaches and wraps me in a warm embrace. I close my eyes to savour the feel of her arms, the tickling of her brown hair and the sound of her exhale at my neck.

“Yes, mama.”

The softness of her smile balances the hardness of her green eyes, identical to mine. She’s like a lioness ready to protect her cub. She straightens up and presses her manicured hands to my shoulders. “You don’t need to be strong with us, figliola.”

I meet her eyes in the mirror of my room before confessing “I’m not sad he died. I’m mad he isolated me and I did nothing to stop him.”

She winces. “I know you don’t blame us but your father should have never used you for his own greed.”

“Our own greed. As the next leader of this family, it’s my role to ensure we prosper.” She opens her lips to interrupt me but I turn to her and take her hands in mine. “No one could have known Eduardo preferred young girls and cruelty. It took me too long to realise it and I lived with the bastard. I even thought I could make him love me. I was so fucking stupid.”

Her lips tremble before she hugs me tight to her chest. “You’re not stupid, baby.”

Her powdery perfume envelops me in the same safety I felt when she’d come to hug me as a child after a nightmare and slay my monsters. She takes my face in both her hands and presses our forehead together before laying a gentle kiss to my brow.

“Let’s go bury an empty coffin,” she smiles mischievously.

Mine grows in response. I’m surprised she knows my husband’s coffin is empty but I’ve never been able to escape her notice anyway. Anyone who thinks Colomba Moretti is anything but a cunning woman is a fool.

The July summer sun is high in the sky when they lower the casket into the ground of Sant Armellu Cemetery.

I’m sweating like a pig in my black dress.

Fuck, funerals in summer are the worst.

Giulia nor my sisters are faring better around me, fanning themselves to cool their heated skin.

Tears roll down my cheeks in a performance deserving of a fucking award. My twin sisters Lisa and Marie each clutch my hands as if I wouldn’t be able to stand on my own. To the passersby, it might look like I’m mourning the love of my life.

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