A Dark Sicilian Secret

“I don’t remember. I’d have to ask my mother.”

“And where is she?”

“In a retirement community in Florida.”

“We should invite them out for our wedding.”

“They don’t…they don’t…like to fly.”

“Don’t you want your father to give you away?”

She squirmed. “Of course I would, but they don’t travel much and they wouldn’t be comfortable here.”

His lips curved. “Here in our home?”

“No.”

“You mean, here in Sicily?”

“No. That’s not what I mean.”

“So what do you mean, Jill?”

Completely flustered, she bit down into her lower lip, chewed the tender skin. “I’m not close with my parents,” she said at last. “I haven’t seen them in years.”

“They’ve never met Joseph then?”

She shook her head. “They don’t even know he exists.”

“I’m shocked.”

“We’re not all close-knit Sicilian families that dine together every night.”

“Those big noisy meals keep the generations tight.”

“I can’t even imagine.” Jillian had been raised without an extended family. Her mother’s family had cut her off after she married Jillian’s father against their wishes. Her father had been an only son and he’d left home at eighteen to make his fortune in the big city. He’d never bothered to introduce his wife and or children to his parents, even though they only lived six hours south of Detroit. “I don’t even know if I have cousins and I’ve never met my grandparents.”

“Are they still alive?”

“I don’t know.” She made a small sound, a hiccup of laughter tinged by frustration. “I believe both my grandmothers and one of my grandfathers might still be alive, but they were never part of our life.”

“Why not?”

She smiled up at Vitt’s kitchen staff for refilling her coffee. “I don’t know for sure but I think my father had a big ego and far too much pride. I think my mother, having lost her parents when she married my father against their wishes, was terrified of losing my father so she supported him on everything, which meant we didn’t see grandparents, we didn’t do big family holidays. It was always just us, the four of us, Mom, Dad, Katie and me.”

“Where does she live?”

“She’s…she’s—” Jillian broke off, looked away, unable to finish the thought. Gone. Katie’s gone. Everything in Jillian’s life seemed to be about the past. Past tense. Past self. Past life. What she needed was new. What she needed was a future. “Dead. She died. A couple years ago. Katie was only twenty-one.”

“I’m sorry.”

She looked at him, the pain in her eyes giving away far more than she knew. “I am, too.”

Vittorio watched Jill’s expression as she talked about her family. Emotions f

lickered over her face and yet the expression in her eyes never changed. Her eyes revealed grief. Total loss.

“I do think we need to make an effort to include your parents in our wedding. If we set the ceremony for a week from today—next Saturday—we should have plenty of time to invite them and arrange their travel,” he said. “Should we place a call to them before dinner? We can make it a conference call, get everyone on the line.”