Page 17 of Of Beauty, Brains, & Bravery

“You sure?”

“I’m sure,” he said. “Anyway, you look like you need a drink, and I’m sure you want to get out of this house.”

“I do,” I said. “I’m done for the week, maybe for the month.”

“Okay, so let’s get out of here,” he said.

We headed toward the door, and I paused as I saw Luisa dusting a painting about three feet from the open doorway. I wondered if she’d been listening.

“Are you two leaving now, then?” Luisa said, looking at us, her blue eyes watching us keenly.

I nodded. “Yeah, we are.”

“This whole thing,” she said. “It’s going to come crumbling down one day. You know that, right?”

“What’s that, Luisa?”

“The empire.” She shrugged. “All empires come to an end at some point.”

“Not under my watch,” I said, sneering. “I’ll only make it stronger.”

“That’s what every ruler thinks,” she said. “But you forget, you’re not ruler yet.”

“I know, but I’ll be better than my father.”

“Will you, though?” she said. “With what you’re doing to that girl?”

“What about it?”

“It doesn’t make you more of a man to be cruel, Antonio.”

“Are you telling me that I’m cruel?” I laughed then. “You’ve got to be joking. You work for my father, the biggest boss this side of the Atlantic.”

“But I can’t stop myself from thinking that I’ve been complicit in things that…” She sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You’ve been complicit in what, Luisa?”

Her phone started ringing, and she held her hand up. “It’s Elisabetta. I have to take it. Hello?” she said, her voice softening slightly. “Wait, where are you? Why?” She sighed. “I’m in the manor.” She looked up at me. “Hold on,” she spoke into the phone. “Are you two going back to the city?” she asked me and Alessandro.

I nodded. “What is it?”

“It’s Elisabetta,” she said. “She’s at Grand Central Station. There’s been some issue with school.” She sighed. “But you’re going back to the city. Could you pick her up? Let her stay with you this evening? I’ll get her tomorrow.”

I frowned then. “I don’t know, Luisa. Alessandro and I have—”

“It’s fine,” he said with a laugh. “We’ll take care of her.” I stared over at him, and he shrugged. “What? She’s like our sister.”

“No, she’s not.” I shook my head. “We barely know her.”

“We grew up with her,” he said, staring at me.

“We barely know her,” I said again, annoyed. “Taking care of a teenage brat is not what I want to do this evening. She’s barely ever been in the house. She hasn’t been exposed to—”

“If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to,” Luisa said, holding up the phone. I’d forgotten that Elisabetta was still on the line, maybe hearing everything I said.

“Fine. Tell her we’ll be down there in a couple of hours. Tell her to text me where she is and we’ll pick her up.”

Luisa nodded. “Thank you, Antonio. I appreciate it.”

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