“I know him,” Babbo said. “Do you, really?”

I knew Felice could be cunning, but that was something I knew about him too. He never hid who he was. A dangerous carnivore. But the dark parts of his life had mostly been hidden from me, except when a big black sedan literally rammed my car in the side and could have killed me and Elsa.

“Be careful of your next steps, Roma,” he said. “You are naïve to this world. I only want to protect you from it.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek. He offered me his arm again. “Let’s get you back to lunch. You look pale.”

* * *

The next day, I took a ride with Talia into town. With the number of people and activities at thecastello, it was impossible to be alone. And when I’d try to sleep, thoughts of what Babbo had said kept me up. I always found it harder to think clearly at night. It was like the truth of the problem was hidden in the darkness. Maybe if I could walk by myself for a while, I could work out my feelings.

“You’ve been quiet,” Talia said, glancing at me from the driver’s seat. She refused to let me drive, stating she didn’t want to fly off a hill in a car without wings.

“I just have a lot on my mind.”

“A lot as in…Jack and John?”

“What do you know about John?”

“Babbo filled us in. He told us about their history.”

“Oh.” He’d told them so they wouldn’t side with us, or him. They would agree he was just using me to hurt Babbo.

“Lo wasn’t there,” she said. “It was just Isabella, Alina, and me.”

All of us knew Babbo loved us, and in individual ways, but it was no secret Lo wasn’t one of his favorites. Neither was Isabella, but where Lo did her own thing, Isa chased after his love.

“Let me guess. Isabella was the first to say,aha! I knew it.”

Talia grinned. “No, that was Alina. She thought she was getting the jump on Isabella. You know how Alina wants to be Isabella, so she tries to impress her. But no, Isa didn’t comment on what Babbo told us about John. She brought up how Jack treated you at the airport.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I told Babbo I was about to twist him into a pretzel.”

I laughed a little. “I don’t think Babbo cares. He just wants me with anyone but Felice.”

“Felice, huh?”

“Everyone else calls him John,” I said.

“Nice. You must have special privileges.” She smiled, then after a second or so, her lips pinched. “Do you think it’s true, though? What Babbo told us? You have to admit, it has a ring of truth to it. I’d want revenge on the man who could’ve saved my father but didn’t.”

Nowas on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. The theory did make sense, but then again, it was only a theory. Or maybe Felice wanted to hurt him and have me for honest reasons at the same time. I even thought about why Felice hadn’t killed Babbo to avenge Sal. But it was no secret Tommaso wouldn’t have allowed it. If what Babbo had said was the truth, Tommaso gave the order not to save Sal.

“Something to think about,” was all I could say.

“By the way, I asked Babbo if he’d ever been in the car with Jack during traffic. He told me he hadn’t. I told him he should. And if he ever decided to go public with a match-making business, he should start adding that to his checklist. You want to test a person’s true temperament, stick them in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an empty stomach. You’ll get the truth.”

“You tested this out on Joseph?”

“Yeah. He turns up the music and sings.” She went quiet for a minute. “For the record, I want you to be happy, Y. Whichever direction that takes you.”

I thanked my sister, then we talked about a bodybuilding competition she had coming up until we arrived in town. It was nice to chat with her, but what I was really after was some solitude. I didn’t want to make small talk or have a direction to go in. I just wanted to…be.

Talia wanted a new pair of heels, so she went in one direction, and I went in the other. We planned to meet for lunch, then head back to thecastelloafter. I loafed around, grabbingcaffe e cornetto(coffee and croissant), and listening to the locals talk while I checked out fresh produce. I could always tell the locals because their “c” sounds were soft.Cheesesounded more likeheese. Orcocawashoha.

All the while, though, I kept thinking about Felice and what Babbo had told me. If I confronted Felice about it, I had no clue if he was going to tell me the truth or not. And if he was honest and told me he wanted to hurt my father, but still had feelings for me?

That still made me a toy to be played with, didn’t it?