Page 109 of Vita Mia

“Oh no!” Mirabella gasped. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. She needs us, and he... needs me. Even if he can’t admit it.”

Mirabella looked down at her hands. She sighed. “I feel responsible.”

“You aren’t. Jamie and I saw this day coming before I moved to Italy. It’s why she came with me. She warned me constantly that the Battaglias weren’t invincible. That one day the chickens would come home to roost. That’s what she would say. We didn’t want the worst to happen, we just didn’t know how to prepare for it. I really thought if I left him he’d fight for me and the kids. I was an idiot to make him choose. If I had known it would hurt this much I would have just stayed and suffered in silence like many women in this life do. I would have,” Kyra wept.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“We’ve said it all,” Kyra said.

They sat in silence for a long time before Mirabella spoke again.

“How is Jamie?”

“Fabulous!” Kyra said, smiling beneath her tears. “She accepted a job from Karl Lagerfeld.”

“I know, I gave her the reference. She’s too talented to sit around and deal with the chaos of my fashion business,” Mirabella said.

It was Kyra’s turn to sigh. “I want to hire an attorney for Renaldo. A separate attorney. I don’t want him represented by the Battaglias.”

Mirabella glanced up.

“We want to help.”

“I love you Mira, but no you don’t. My husband is not a priority for you right now. He never has been. He took a bullet for Giovanni and was back working the moment he could stand. I couldn’t change him, or love him enough to make him want me over this, but now he needs me. He needs me to love him enough to save his life. If Giovanni walks out of this they have to pin it on someone. Who would that be? Lorenzo? Carlo? Both of them are dead. Nico? After what happened to Cecilia you wouldn’t be that cruel. So that just leaves my Renaldo as the sacrificial lamb.”

“I would never want to see him hurt. I swear it,” Mirabella said.

“I know part of you believes that. I know you do. But you aren’t Mirabella Ellison anymore. You’re Donna Nera. We both have learned what that means.”

Kyra set a wiggly Leeza down. Her baby girl immediately crawled over to her toys.

“They grow up so fast,” Kyra said.

“So do we, when we marry men like our husbands,” Mirabella said.

“I was so young when I married Renaldo. He was like this giant hero to me. He saved my life, after barely knowing me. I was his chaos, and he was my order and stability. We balanced the scale. I wonder if he had been a shoe salesman instead of an enforcer for the Camorra what kind of future we could have.”

“A beautiful one,” Mirabella said.

Kyra smiled. “I lied to myself and said this life was different. Like the Godfather on television. Just some intrigue and mystery. Funny the lies we tell ourselves to justify love.”

“Kyra—.”

“I want a separate attorney,” she said with finality. “And I want the money Renaldo is owed transferred to my accounts so I can pay for it.”

Mirabella nodded.

“Thank you. I’m staying in Sorrento with my mother in-law. I’m looking for a place near the prison. I’ve talked to some legal people. Do you know in Italy there is no double jeopardy? That if Renaldo by some miracle can walk away from this he can be retried just like that?” she snapped her finger.

Mirabella didn’t know that.

“No.”

“I suggest you research the laws here and don’t trust these attorneys to tell you all the facts. Don’t trust anyone.” Kyra said.

“What did you say?”

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