A loud knock sounds on the door, followed by someone jiggling the handle. Thank God she had the sense to lock it when she followed me in because I?
??m not sure what Rex and Dante would think if they walked in right now. And I can’t promise I’d keep my mouth shut.
“Give me a second,” I holler, trying to pacify Rex because I know in another minute he’ll be knocking down the door just to make sure I’m okay.
“Shae, baby, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just need a minute.”
“Okay.” He pauses, probably trying to decide whether or not to barge in anyway. I breathe a sigh of relief when he says, “I’ll be right out here if you need me.”
“Rex, sweetheart, could you and Dante run and get Shae some Pepto?”
He huffs from the other side of the door, clearly not wanting to leave while I’m still in here. Finally, he concedes. “I’ll be right back.”
When I turn back to Isabella, she has tears running down her cheeks, but I try my hardest not to let them affect me.
“Until one day what?” I ask, needing her to finish the story.
She takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. “One day I ran into your father at the country club. We had lunch, which was incredibly risky. I was the wife of a boss, having lunch with another boss. But I knew he was upset—I could see it on his face—and no way was I walking away from him that day. Anyway, we had lunch, and he told me that Elena was asking for a divorce. He was devastated—”
“I don’t remember that,” I say, trying to remember a time when my parents didn’t live together.
“You wouldn’t. You weren’t alive yet.”
Oh.
“Your mother took Camilla and moved in with her parents. She filed for legal separation, something you don’t just do in this life—not without a damn good reason and a million repercussions.”
I don’t need her to explain what this life is. It’s the mafia. They live and breathe by their own set of rules, and if you act outside them, it could mean your life.
“After that, your father and I started talking in secret. We would meet up when we could, and I promise you, at first it was innocent. We were old friends who could confide in each other. He listened to me cry about Sal, and I listened to him talk about Elena. As time passed, we grew closer, and one night…”
She clears her throat. “I’ll spare you the details, but one night we were intimate, and that’s when I got pregnant with Dante. By that time, he and your mother had been separated for over a year, and there were rumors that your father’s family had put a hit out on Elena. There’s no way they were going to let her walk away from your father—from them. She knew too much, and they didn’t trust her.”
Her eyes go misty as she looks at me. “Your father was a good man, and he didn’t want that for your mother, so he did what he had to do. She and Camilla moved back in. He had to show his family they had reconciled and that all was good so they would lift the hit. And it worked. He loved your mother very much, Bianca.”
My breath hitches, and I have to look away. No one has called me Bianca since the day my father was murdered.
“But he loved you more,” I state, meeting her gaze.
She nods, wiping a tear from her face. “We wanted to be together. I was insistent that it be sooner rather than later, but your father was born and raised in this life. He knew it would be damn near impossible for us to make it work. But he promised he would find a way. But that day never came.”
“Is that why he’s dead? Did someone find out about you two?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She shakes her head and shrugs. “As far as I know, no one ever found out. We were extremely careful, and I didn’t tell a soul. And he was murdered years after our affair.”
I sit with my back pressed against the tub, absorbing everything she’s told me. My head is spinning with information, going over timelines, trying to fit together the missing pieces, and then it hits me.
“What about me?”
“What about you?” she says.
“I was born after your affair.”
Isabella leans back against the tub, mimicking my position. “I can’t speak for your father, but I know he loved Elena. He loved us both, and I can’t imagine how hard that was. I’ve always wondered if he really did try to make things work with her again. And not just as a show for his family, but for Camilla, or maybe for Elena.”
“You sent me the letter, didn’t you?”