Last Words (Morelli Family 7)

Francesca shakes her head, but she seems to be giving in. “It won’t this time. She didn’t just fuck you over, she crossed Mateo. You don’t cross my brother.”

Meg frowns. “Refresh my memory. Didn’t you cross your brother?”

Francesca smiles, but there’s nothing nice about it. “Yes. But unlike you, I’m not a useless little bitch.” Raking her gaze up and down Meg’s body, she lingers on her abdomen. “As soon as that baby’s out of you, you are. Mateo won’t forgive your betrayal—it doesn’t benefit him, and he doesn’t fucking like you. You went too far this time, you cocky bitch. I can’t wait until that baby is born so we never have to see you again.”

Francesca’s aggravated voice fades as she approaches the salads and Colette goes to retrieve a basket of bread for the dining room. I linger by Meg, torn on what to do. Meg stands tall, but the lightness is absent from her face. Normally she can make light of anything, but Francesca’s last line was a little too close to what she probably legitimately fears for even Meg to make a joke of it. Her fate rests in Mateo’s hands now. He’s not merciful in the best of circumstances—and these are not that.

“You need to show him he can trust you,” I tell her, since I can’t even lie and tell her I’m sure she’ll be okay. I’m not sure at all. The only thing I don’t understand is why he let her come to family dinner tonight. Everything else he’s doing, especially not allowing me to be her friend and cutting her mom time down to an hour a week, seems to indicate he’s phasing her out so he can kill her. I’m trying really hard not to believe that, but it’s difficult.

“How?” she asks, shaking her head. “I’ve already shown him he can’t.”

“I don’t know. Surprise him. That’s always worked for me. Mateo always expects the worst of people, so it’s not that hard to surprise him, you just have to…” I don’t finish, because I don’t know how. What you have to do to surprise Mateo is behave in a way he can’t see coming—but he and Meg are too much alike for that. I don’t know how Meg can surprise him, especially since he’s never around her anymore. “Prove him wrong,” I finally say.

“I don’t see myself getting a chance to prove him wrong, Mia,” she states. “I’ve seen him exactly once since he threw me in the dungeon, and only for about a minute.”

“I’m doing what I can,” I offer, somewhat apologetically.

Smiling without humor, Meg says, “I’m not sure even you can help me this time.”

I already hate this dinner and it hasn’t even begun yet. Weighed down with Meg’s problems, I grab two more bread baskets and head out to the dining room, placing them at Mateo’s end of the table and the middle. When I go back in to get Mateo’s salad, Colette comes up beside me. We don’t socialize much, so it’s unexpected.

“He doesn’t have security on the dungeon, does he?”

I frown faintly. “I don’t think so. I’m not really sure.”

Colette seems concerned. “So, what if she does go into labor? Even if he doesn’t care if she dies, what about the baby? When is she due?”

“Two weeks.” I roll my shoulders, growing tense. I’ve already asked Mateo all of this, but he’s good at stonewalling. If he doesn’t want to answer a question, he just doesn’t. I don’t support any of this myself, but as his wife, I share the weight of these sins. What he does outside of this house I can’t help, but inside, I feel partially responsible for not being able to stop him.

I can’t stop him though. I’ve never actually been able to stop him. Francesca told me years ago she never expected that of me, and I think I’ve managed to temper him more than even she thought I could. Vince is alive, after all. Meg is more complicated. Since she has kids (that she knows about), she’s not so easy to banish.

Colette doesn’t appear to be impressed, but if I can’t control what Mateo does, she damn sure can’t. Francesca, Elise, Colette and I grab salads for our men, so Meg grabs the remaining two in the men’s line. I completely forgot to tell her Rafe was here what with the dust-up in the kitchen, but I don’t have to because she follows us and sees for herself. She pauses just inside the dining room, doing a double take, then her gaze jumps straight to me.

I want to drift close and respond, but Mateo is watching me, so I can’t.

I’m a little dismayed to see Rafe is not sitting by Meg, he is sitting in Vince’s old seat—right by me. Meg is still across from me, though, so at least he’s close enough that they’ll be able to talk over dinner. I really hope Mateo didn’t tell him what Meg did to get herself tossed in the dungeon.