Page 52 of Italian’s Christmas Acquisition

Their outings together created their own fight against the narrative.

She stood by him.

She nearly had apoplexy, though, when a story came out about her mother.

The gold-digging mother-in-law who had been unfaithful to her husband before his death, and who wanted nothing more than to get a big payout. Had she in fact orchestrated this alliance between her daughter and Rocco?

The idea of her mother being that strategic was hilarious.

The revelations about the infidelity less so.

This just... It destroyed everything. Shattered her pretty childhood snow globe into thousands of pieces. Had she known anything about her own life?

She didn’t know if the allegations were true or not. But Christopher Farmer, a man who lived down the road from them had given an interview in the paper about it. That they had been lovers. He had clearly gotten a payout of some kind.

Noelle called her mother. “Mom,” she said. “Is this true?”

“Noelle, life is complicated,” her mom said. “I regret it. And your dad forgave me. It happened a long time ago.”

“You just never really loved us, did you?” Noelle asked.

“I do,” her mom said. “I did.”

“Well, you’re partying in Boca with my fiancé’s money, so I guess you love how useful I am to you.”

Noelle hung the phone up.

She tried to forget that happened when Rocco came home and she lost herself in his touch.

That was the one place where everything felt like it made sense.

In bed with him.

At least there she had some sanity. Or rather, a really perfect brand of insanity. There was also Melody.

And Daniela, her wedding planner, who was lovely, and quickly becoming a friend.

“Weddings are stressful for anybody,” she said. “But especially so when there’s this big of a circus around it.”

“The board is bound and determined to mess all of this up. I’m not going to let them,” she said.

Because she thought of that little boy, whose mother had controlled everything, and hadn’t taken care of him at all. And that helped. When nothing else did.

Of course, nothing helped the shambles she felt like her emotions were in, but it at least gave her the will to go on.

She found that she liked New York more than she would’ve imagined. Was happier there than she had thought possible. When she didn’t wear makeup, and she put on a hat, nobody recognized her. Because she was only famous as Rocco Moretti’s beautiful, made-up fiancée.

So when she was just Noelle, nobody looked at her. Nobody saw her. That was something that never happened at home. She couldn’t be anonymous if she wanted to, and given the amount of phone calls she had gotten since the news about her mother’s infidelity had been splashed all over the news, there would be no sanity to be had at home.

She understood that.

And she wanted nothing to do with that.

At Christmastime, the city was beautiful. And she found herself going to the tree at Rockefeller Center often, gazing up at it, thinking about home, and finding a way to feel nostalgic about it.

She was meeting Daniela for lunch, and to have a conversation about flowers. The Christmas event was looming, and she was feeling especially... Fraught.

It was just a lot. Everything.

---