In four days, this would be all over. When Siena learned what he’d done, she would leave him. He could forget thoughts of her staying voluntarily and becoming his partner in business as well as life. That was never going to happen. Not now. She might be too smart to trust him outside the bedroom, but the trust and intimacy they’d found in the bedroom meant she would still take the truth as a betrayal ofher.
It had to be like this, he told himself. This wasn’t just for him but for Bruno, Elvira and Renata. This was for his parents and all the aunts, uncles, cousins and associates who’d lost their lives. For his grandmother who’d worked so hard to support and care for her orphaned grandchildren.
This was the culmination of his whole damned life.
* * *
Siena pressed the intercom at her brother’s gate. In her mind’s eye, she imagined Gabriella looking at the security camera and her heart sinking. Imagined her wrestling whether to ignore the buzz of the intercom or not, and if not, whether she should let one of the staff deal with the unexpected visitor.
Eventually, Gabriella’s wary voice rang out. “Tommaso isn’t here.”
“I know.” Tommaso was, at that moment, out with Elio and Mattia. “I’m here to see you.”
There was a very long pause. “Why?”
“Because we need to talk.”
Another very long pause.
“Please, Gabba,” she said softly. “I’m not here to cause trouble, I swear. I just need to talk to you, and it would be better if it were in person.”
After another very long pause, a buzz rang out, and then the gates opened.
It was the first time Siena had stepped foot in Tommaso’s home since he’d married Gabriella instead of killing her for her betrayal. Siena had been the angriest at his actions. She’d been incandescent. A part of her still was, but ultimately, he was her brother, just as her mother was her mother. Family came first, even if, to Siena’s mind, Tommaso not putting a bullet in Gabriella’s head had meant him putting that bitch over his family.
At least, that’s how she’d viewed it then when she’d been a furious ball of hurt and betrayal. She saw it differently now. Tommaso loved Gabriella. For him to have killed her would have been for him to kill himself.
The truth was, Siena loved Gabriella too, and when her best friend since birth appeared in a doorway, her expression as wary as her voice had been, she knew that if Tommaso had gone through with it, it would have destroyed her even more deeply than Gabriella’s betrayal had.
Gabriella didn’t move away from the doorway. Siena understood her wariness. She’d been the most vocal and vehement in demanding that Tommaso kill her.
Siena raised her hands, palms facing her. “I mean it, Gabba. I’m not here to cause conflict. Can we sit down?”
With a short nod, Gabriella turned around. When Siena followed her through the doorway, the woman who’d always been a sister to her was at the bar.
Siena curled into a squishy armchair and watched her mix two glasses of rum and cola. Her heart twisted. That wastheirdrink. Every night out always started with a hefty rum and cola. And ended with one too.
Instead of handing Siena her drink, Gabriella placed her glass on the table closest to her. She picked it up with a murmured thank you and took a sip. Her eyes widened at the strength of it.
Gabriella, who’d taken an armchair close enough to hear but not close enough that she couldn’t run if Siena pounced, drank half of hers in one swallow. “Go on, then,” she said tightly. “Get it over with.”
“I’m sorry for what my father did to your father.”
Gabriella blinked but didn’t speak.
“I know he did it,” Siena said, knowing it had to be acknowledged. “He murdered your father and framed Marco Ranieri for it. I understand why you needed vengeance for that. I would have wanted it too. But you hurt me, Gabba. Not so much that you wanted to have me imprisoned, but with all the lies and pretence. I think of everything we’ve done and shared since your mother told you the truth, and it destroys me to think that you’ve only been pretending to love me.” Gabriella had learned the truth when they were sixteen.
“That was never pretence,” Gabriella said quietly.
“Wasn’t it?”
“No. I hated you all, but I loved you all too. You and Tommaso the most. It’s why I couldn’t go through with it. Even if you hadn’t learned I’d been working to bring you down, I don’t think I could ever have gone through with it.”
“You don’tthink?”
She shrugged ruefully. “Tommaso believes I wouldn’t have done, but I can’t be certain about any aspect of a future I didn’t live.”
Siena nodded, understanding what she meant. “You do love him, don’t you?”