Page 80 of Convenient Mafia Vows

“I know.” Moira reaches for my hand, and I don’t stop her. “And I bet you wanted to kill the bastard that did this to your friend.”

I nod, and laugh, and cry all at the same time. Ugly messy tears. Maybe I needed this, and maybe it took an outsider, someone like Moira, to make it happen. “I told Caleb about Sienna. He promised to help her open an art gallery. But he didn’t tell me about Kyle.”

Moira pats my hand and sits back. “Kyle doesn’t know this, but Caleb tried to find out who the young woman in the car was. He felt guilty for not being there when Kyle needed him. But he was looking for a death announcement. We didn’t know her name. He called in some favors, got the names of every person that had passed through every morgue in the city. If we’d known she survived … well … it would’ve been quite a different story.”

Caleb tried to find her.

On the way here, I’d made up my mind to get as far away as possible from Caleb once this was over. It made my heart ache,the thought of never seeing him again, of never tasting his kisses, or feeling him inside me, but I couldn’t envisage a world with both him and Sienna in it, and I owe it to Sienna to put her first.

But now that I know the truth, that we were wrong about the guy she was with that night, that glimmer of hope has been rekindled. We can find Sienna, tell her what happened, give her the money to open her art gallery. Maybe she and Kyle might even fall in love someday.

Me and Caleb, Kyle and Sienna. It’s the kind of story you read about in Romcoms, but it could happen. Couldn’t it?

“My advice,” Moira interrupts my rosy thoughts, “is to go ahead with the party. Wear the beautiful gown, Victoria, be Caleb’s wife, and let us handle Olivia Dragonetti.”

I suck in a deep breath. For a while there, I’d forgotten all about Dragon-face.

“I know you’re in love with my son.”

My breath seems to get stuck, and I blink slowly, thinking that I must’ve misheard.

“Anyone who can’t see it must be either blind or extremely naïve.” She pauses. “I know that he feels the same way about you too.”

“Y-you do?”

She smiles, and for the first time, I think I’m seeing Moira the mom rather than Moira the mafia queen. “He might not know it yet, but he’ll figure it out. You’re good for him, Victoria. I can’t remember the last time I saw him this happy, and that’s really all I’ve ever wanted for my children, their happiness.”

I don’t know what to say. Is that what Caleb was going to tell me when I asked him what he wanted?

My phone vibrates, and my pulse races as I check the Caller ID hoping to see Caleb’s name. Instead, it’s a message from an unknown number. It says:

I know where Sienna is.

22

CALEB

“Why didn’tyou tell me about Sienna?” Kyle barges into the Rinse’s boardroom and leans over the table, his chest heaving as he tries to fill his lungs, his face pink and blotchy.

“Kyle, breathe.” I stand up, pushing my seat backwards, but he raises a hand, palm outwards, warning me not to come any closer. “Where’s your inhaler?”

He fumbles inside his jacket pocket, and his hand comes back empty. His breaths are shallow, his chest caving as he tries to get enough oxygen to keep him upright.

I’m by his side before he can protest. I check his other pockets but draw a blank. It’s been years since he has had a full-on asthma attack, so maybe he’s given up carrying an inhaler around with him.

“Cash, pull some strings and get an inhaler here.”

The twins both leave the room.

Terry helps me get Kyle onto one of the sofas, plumps up the cushions behind him to keep him upright, and loosens his tiewhile I fill a tumbler with iced water. I hold it to Kyle’s face and tell him to breathe. I don’t know why, but it used to help Kyle when he was younger, just breathing in the air surrounding a glass of water. Or maybe it was just an illusion, something that I convinced myself was a mystery cure when I was just a kid trying to keep him safe from our father.

“I’m fine.” Kyle tries to stand up and then slumps back in the seat. “Don’t fuss.”

I sit down and nod at Terry to give us a few minutes alone.

I can hear Kyle’s breath wheezing through his restricted airways, but at least he’s calmer than when he first came in.

“I wanted to find Sienna before I said anything. I needed to be sure that it was the same person who was in the car with you that night. I didn’t want to get your hopes up only to crush them again.”

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