Page 29 of The Vatican
“What?”I practically screeched.
Dante shook his head. “Jesus, girl, you really are killing me here.”
He was wrong. There’s no way Francisco’s been in love with me all these years, and I’d been too blind to see it. Francisco’s always treated me with…polite indifference. Sure, we’d been close and were considers friends, but he never treated me any…more special than he did everyone else. Birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, all those things were always appropriate enough. The only time we’d ever crossed the line was that night at the funhouse, but…at the time, I really believed he’d only done it to help me from losing myself completely to the darkness.
I shook my head. “What are you talking about, Dante?”
“Ria, just…hear me out okay?” I nodded. “Growing up in this family is…unique. There’s the way the girls are raised, and there’s the way the boys are raised. The girls are raised to be independent, brave, intelligent, loyal, and fighters. But you’re also raised to makeyoursafety your number one priority. Guards are not an option for any of you,ever. You girls are raised as equals, except when it comes to your safety.”
“I know all this, Dante.”
“Just bear with me, Ria.” I nodded again. “We’re raised to be all the same things you girls are, except, we’re also raised to understand that your safety is more important than ours. As men, our primary duty is to protect the women of this family, and that’s non-negotiable. If we don’t come home with you girls unharmed, we better not come home at all. You can match us in intelligence, bravery, loyalty, but not in brute strength because it is our job to protect you, not the other way around. That being said, as part of your protective detail, it is our job to be observant. We have to always be aware of our surroundings and yours. And those keen observation skills are the same ones that have every man in this family knowing that Francisco Benetti’s been in love with you forever.”
“You’re crazy,” I rushed out.
Dante cocked his head. “Really?” His brows inched upward. “Did you know that Dad, Uncle Luca, and Uncle Ciro had to stay with Francisco all night the first time you ever went out on a date?”
“What?” I whispered in disbelief.
“Or that the only time he goes to The Sapphire it’s when you’re out on a date or seeing someone new?” My throat felt like it was closing up. “Do you remember when he was eighteen and that Saturday morning when he was so hungover, Aunt Remy had wanted to take him to the hospital because she had been afraid that he had alcohol poisoning?” I nodded. I had teased him relentlessly about it the next day. “He’d lost his virginity the night before, and he drank himself stupid because it hadn’t been withyou.The guilt and experience had left him trying to forget it had ever happened.”
Tears began to spill. “You’re lying,” I choked out.
Dante gave me a tender smile. “Did you know about three years ago, he kept petitioning the adults for your hand, buttheykept putting him off. They kept convincing him that it was what was best for you. And anything that was good for you was good enough for him, no matter how much he suffered for it.” Dante leaned closer to make sure he had my full attention. “Francisco Benetti loves you, Ria. He always has.”
My heart started racing, and foolishness started creeping up my spine. How could I not know any of this? How could I have been so blind to both what our parents had been planning and Francisco’s feelings for me?
“So, here’s the thing, Ria,” Dante continued. “I’m not saying you don’t have the right to be mad, but if you’re going to be mad, be mad justly. Don’t be mad at Francisco for something our parents did. Don’t be mad at our parents for something Francisco did. Don’t be mad at us for something we had no control over. And don’t play the innocent, because all the signs were there. You just didn’t bother to pay them any attention.”
I wiped at my tears. “So, just like that huh? It’s that easy?”
“Be mad at our parents for lying to you. Be mad at Francisco for keeping it for you. But we don’t deserve your wrath, and neither does the rest of the world,” he said. “And if you’re worried your marriage isn’t going to be full of love and happiness, it’ll only turn out that way becauseyou’llbe the one withholding the love and happiness, not Francisco.”
“If I cave, then that sends a message that what they did was okay, and it’s not okay.”
Dante let out a soft chuckle. “Saveria, after what you just told me happened at your wedding, trust me when I tell you, they are all very aware that what they did was not okay. Mom, Aunt Remy, and Aunt Robbie are probably in a puddle of tears right now, and Dad, Uncle Luca, and Uncle Ciro are probably doing everything they can not to burn the city to the ground.”
“I always just thought Uncle Luca took to me because Mom’s his best friend,” I remarked lamely.
Dante paused, then asked, “So, tell me, Ria. How do you really feel about Francisco?”
I couldn’t lie to him. I came to him because I needed facts to help sort out my emotions. He couldn’t help me understand any of this if I lied to him. His clarity was what I needed to help me…move past all this anger.
“I think I’ve probably been half in love with him for years,” I told him truthfully.
Dante’s face softened. “Don’t sentence yourself to a lifetime of misery if you don’t have to, Ria. Don’t punish yourself just to punish everyone around you. Sure, we’ll all be miserable, but so willyou. Do you really want to be unhappy for therest of your life?”
I shook my head. “No,” I whispered.
“You’re married to him now, Ria,” he said. “There’s no getting out of that alive. Exhaust all that anger, cry out your pain, and then do what you’ve been raised and trained to do. Be the Benetti you were supposed to have been all along.”
I threw myself at my brother.
He held me in his arms and let me cry out everything that’s happened and everything I’ve learned here tonight. He didn’t soothe me or baby me. He just held me and gave me time to get my head on straight and sort through what I was feeling.
And it wasn’t until he said, “And don’t forget, Ria, Cira is the next oldest in the Benetti lineup. For the love of God, sort out your shit with Francisco before you kill each other, or else we’re all doomed,” that I found my first laugh in days.
A couple of hours later, I received the text summoning me home, and I went upstairs, packed a bag, and had Mica drive me home.
