Page 107 of Sins of the Son

“Get used to it. From now on, what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine.”

“Yes, but that hardly seems fair to you since you have lots and lots of money and stuff, and I have, well, nothing,” I teased.

He pressed his forehead to mine. “Not true. As far as I’m concerned, money is nothing. You are the real treasure, so when you think about it, I'm getting the better deal out of this arrangement.”

I took my glass back. “Shameless charmer.”

He winked at me, and like Amara, I blushed.

We snuggled together as we watched Barone hook the pasta machine up to the kitchen island countertop while Amara and Rosa removed the dough from the bowl and started preparing it for the next step.

Barone cranked the pasta machine lever. It made a loud, cracking sound, and then jammed. It was Amara’s mother’s machine. The one her stepfather and stepbrother had broken. Barone had done his best to repair it, but it was still a little temperamental.

Just then, Alfonso walked in with Enzo.

Barone raised his arm. “Just in time, Alfonso, come help me with this thing.”

“Sure, boss.”

I turned to look at Gabriella and caught her fluffing her hair. Her cheeks had turned a pretty pink.

Alfonso and Barone fixed the machine, and soon there were sheets and sheets of thin dough ribboning out of it.

Barone opened a fresh bottle of the vineyard’s best vintage of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano d'Abruzzo dei Cavalieri and poured everyone a fresh glass as we gathered around the kitchen island. As Enzo and Rosa used glasses to cut circles into the dough, Cesare and I used spoons to drop the filling into their centers.

Barone and Amara folded each circle of dough in half and sealed the edges with forks.

Gabriella even tried to help. At one point, Alfonso stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and placed his hand over the top of her right hand. He said, “You're pressing too hard. The dough just needs gentle pressure and a little patience.”

Amara’s eyes widened as she looked at me, shifted her eyes to Gabriella and Alfonso, then back to me.

She mouthed, "Oh my God!"

I mouthed back, "I know!"

Rosa broke the spell by admonishing us all. “You are going too slow. Go faster or get out of my kitchen!”

Barone gave her a mock salute, and we all got back to work.

It was an amazing night.

The kind of simple, carefree family night that most people took for granted.

The kind of night I never dreamed was in my future.

And I couldn’t help having this awful feeling of dread, that this kind of blissful happiness wouldn’t last… that eventually the other shoe would drop.

And I was right.

CHAPTER 38

MILANA

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” objected Cesare.

I pulled on his hand as I led him down the corridor in the villa that would take us to the spiral staircase which led down into the ancient part of the winery carved out of the mountain below.

In the end, to appease an anxious Amara, we had agreed to stay in the villa while I recovered from my fall. Except for the itchy stitches from the cut on my neck, and the occasional headache and muscle soreness, there had been little to recover from physically. Not that anyone would know that from the way Cesare had been acting all week. You would think I had broken every bone in my body.

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