Page 28 of Isle of Beauty

It’s the death of who I was that I cry for.

“He won’t ever be able to hurt you,” Lisa whispers next to me, the same green eyes all the women of our family have shining with love.

My heart feels like someone’s twisting it like a wet rag. She shouldn’t know the pain I’m in.

“He never touched me.”

“Not all scars are visible on the body, surella. We know what he did.”

I turn my head to her then to Marie. She nods and real tears fall down my cheeks. I squeeze their hands in a silent thank-you, and hope my large sunglasses can hide my swollen red eyes.

“I told you to stop eavesdropping.”

“How would they know how to suck dick?” Giulia throws in from behind us.

We all snort and have to press our lips together tightly to avoid a fit of laughter. I can always count on her to make light of any situation.

The priest scowls at us before saying a quick prayer and closing down the short ceremony.

I turn my heels, hand in hand with my sisters, feeling lighter than a moment before. Ever since I came back, they haven’t left my side. Angèle, the eldest, has lunch with me every day even though we’re not close. Marie even sleeps in my bed each night, her curvacious body wrapped around mine in a hug that heals my soul night after night.

As we make our way to our car before heading to the house for the traditional dinner that’s supposed to honour the dead, I hear the whispers of some of Eduardo’s men.

“I heard she poisoned him. God knows what he looked like when he died. I bet that’s why the coffin was closed.”

On Kalliste, the family of the deceased decides if the coffin will be open to viewers prior to the religious burial ceremony. I refused, for obvious reasons.

“Shut your mouth, Carlo, or you’ll end up six feet under, too,” another man says.

I have to admit it satisfies a vain part of me that revels in the Machiavelic persona some portray me to be. I turn to the group of men, my smile downright wicked. “If I can poison my husband and get away with it, just imagine what else I can do.”

They lower their gaze then mumble excuses and condolences and I make my way to the car.

“Better her than him though. At least now, my sister’s safe.”

The comment reminds me that the first order of business when I get to my father’s office is to reassign the men, train them with ours and overall ensure a smooth transition until my cousin Dominic, Giulia’s brother, takes over as CEO.

As staff training manager, I was only supposed to teach Garcia’s employees the policies and company vision. Eduardo thought it was a useless position but I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

Under my care, the men and women who worked for him slowly became mine. I gave extra cash to his driver when his wife became pregnant with their fourth kid and his salary couldn’t sustain the family. I helped the girls in the clubs with extra security to keep the creeps away and better accommodations, all paid with Moretti’s funds. I learned their names, the names of their kids; I cared about them and for them.

They became my companions, my coworkers and almost my friends. I want to make sure they’re taken care of.

When I enter my father’s office with Igor on my heels, Julian and his father Alessio are already there, nonchalantly talking as if we didn’t just bury my husband. An air of celebration pours out of the men of my life.

I reek of death and I’m in desperate need of a shower and a fucking nap but Julian and I decided that our news needed to be shared as soon as possible with the patriarchs.

Igor settles in the corner of the room, his eyes fixed on the door. Being overcautious even in our own home is Igor’s way of atoning. He blames himself for the way Eduardo treated me even though there’s nothing he could have done. Like I said to my sisters, my late husband wasn’t a violent man. Narcissism is way more perverted.

My dad hands me a Gin Mare, my favourite Gin brand not so coincidentally from Mallorca, with a knowing smile.

“You know you shouldn’t be smiling when your son-in-law just got put six feet under, right?” I ask wryly.

He shrugs and the four of us clink our glasses. “No one’s going to believe it if I fake sadness.”

I look to Julian who gives me a small nod, leaving the floor to me, as always. His loyalty to me and the ones he loves knows no bounds.

He loves me, just not as a future husband should love his future wife. And that’s what we’ll become very soon. If he and Igor want to have their happily ever after, we need to make it happen, and quickly.

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