I looked at Massimo, thoughts of my going to stay with Lucy pushed aside for the very real decisions that would have to be made about Tatiana.
“That’s a good question,” I told her, and took her hand on the table.
“Where do you want to go?” Massimo asked her carefully.
She thought it over for a moment and then shrugged. “I want to stay here with you.”
“What about your mom?” I asked gently. Sergei had said she lived in Palermo. Was she looking for her daughter? Had Sergei simply taken her, or had something happened to her? We needed to check and see.
“I don’t have one,” Tatiana said with a certainty that broke my heart.
Massimo was watching me as my eyes stung. I blinked hard to clear the imminent tears. God, that hurt. The thought of little Tatiana alone in the world without a mom, hurt. It hurt for me, too, and for all the girls who’d lost their moms, and all the moms who’d lost their daughters. I thought of the baby that the unholy trinity had stolen from Mira... One day, they’d grow up to be a kid like Tatiana who’d never know their mother.
It broke my heart.
“Let’s talk about it later, then. Don’t worry, anyway,” Massimo said in a low rumble. “From now on... this is your home. One that no one can take away.”
Then he looked down at the table and grabbed a pancake, taking a bite of it plain.
“So, tell me, is this what we do next?”
“No!” Tatiana shrieked, distracted by the sacrilegious sight of someone eating crepes plain. “You have to put a topping on it!”
“I see,” Massimo said with complete seriousness. “Paolo, bring the mushrooms, we need toppings.”
“No!” Tatiana exclaimed, laughing merrily, and got up to chase Paolo away from the fridge.
Yes, it was chaos and yes, itwas perfect.
“You have a visitor,”Paolo said later. Tatiana had fallen asleep in the library while I read to her, and I’d left her to her dreams. She had to be even more exhausted than I was.
I stood up, raising an eyebrow at him, wondering who it could be, when the door opened and Lucy walked in.
She crossed the room to me and hugged me tightly. The sudden movement stole my breath for a second. I was going to have to get used to hugs again. They felt so alien. I tentatively hugged her back.
“I’m so glad you’re all right,” she murmured, and pulled back to look me over. “No injuries?”
I shook my head. “Nope. None. Well, none that you can see.” I smiled at her so she knew I was kidding. “Don’t tell me you came all the way back from Florence to see me?”
Lucy sat down. “I only got halfway there before Giada told me what had happened. And I was just thinking that you’d decided to stay with Massimo, until she told me... I’m so sorry, it’s awful.”
“Don’t be. I’m so tired of all of it. I just want to put it all behind me now,” I admitted, realizing it was true as I said it.
“So what are you going to do? Stay here, or come to Florence?”
I shrugged, but Lucy sighed knowingly and gave me a warm smile.
“I knew it. I knew you’d forgive him. Promise me one thing... you’ll at least come and visit.”
I nodded, hearing the sound of Tatiana’s voice in the hallway. She was awake.
“Have you told your husband that you’ve decided to forgive him and stay?” Lucy asked.
“There hasn’t been a good time yet,” I admitted. “And I’m not sure how.”
Lucy considered my words and then shrugged. “Oh well, let him sweat it a little. It won’t kill him,” she teased with a wicked smile.
Lucy left a little while later,off to travel to Florence. Tatiana and Paolo were watching a movie in the sitting room while I sat in the kitchen nursing a cup of tea and wondering where Massimo had gone.