Page 131 of Vita Mia

“No argument from me Eve. I know your father is a better man than me.”

“Shut up! Papa would accept this if you’d given him a chance. But it’s fine Nico. I won’t beg you to love me anymore. After this stupid exhibition of my pain and my family’s past to the world I’m never coming back to Sicily. I’m not coming back to you.”

Nico looked upon her and could see that this time the threat she levied was real. She was walking away from him. She was giving up on them.

“You want to die alone near that beach, for Cecilia? You want to believe that’s what she would wish for you, be my guest. Just know it’s the lie you told yourself for twenty years. The truth is you will die on that beach alone because you’re afraid of loving anyone the way you loved her. Fear. The great enforcer to Giovanni Battaglia in the end became a coward. It’s your penance.”

“Where will you go?” he asked despite his strong defense to resist the question.

“Mia wants to live in America. She loves her life in Los Angeles. I’m moving her there permanently. I’m reopening Mirabella’s fashion house in Beverly Hills and closing the Battaglia men’s fashion business for good. I’m going to start over. I’m going to forget you.”

“I thought you and Gino were going to make this your home for your parents, to run the companies and...”

“Mama spends most of her time in Cuba and you know why. And Gino gets closer to his dream to be the King of the Campania. He’s going to win that Mayor race. One day he may even be Prime Minster. He’s going to return to Sorrento. Rebuild Melanzana.” Eve wiped her tears. “You should see him. He was four when it burned to the ground but he acts as if that place is magical or something. He has been staring at old pictures and Gianni told me that he’s been doing the designs for the rebuild himself. He wants it to look exactly how it did before. I think he wants to go back to be Papa. You know he would have been an architect if he wasn’t cursed with Battaglia blood. I could have been a ballerina and Gianni could have been... whatever it is Gianni wanted to be,” she joked. “There’s nothing in Sicily for us. Especially for me.” She turned and started to leave. Nico broke.

“Eve?”

She paused at the sound of weakness in his voice. The sound of vulnerability stopped her heart. Through her tears she looked back over her shoulder at him.

He didn’t say her name again. He stood there as if he wanted too but he didn’t. He couldn’t open his mouth to utter the words.

“Goodbye Nico,” she said and smiled. “I love you.”

“If you need me, for anything, you know—”

“I won’t,” she said and went back inside of the house. Nico let go a deep sigh of sadness. He dropped back on the car. For a moment, he had the thoughts he denied to everyone. The thoughts of going after her and taking her back home with him. Of telling her that despite everything in him he was in love with her, and he’d be damned for all his sins, but this sin he’d gladly burn in hell for. But it was wrong. And he couldn’t change who he was, and who she was. He wouldn’t turn that page.

He got in the car and drove off the Battaglia land and vowed never to return. Eve had now given him no reason to break that promise. He believed her when she said goodbye.

***

“EVE?”

Eve looked up to see her mother enter her room. She put the last of her things in the suitcase. She closed them.

“Are you leaving?”

“I called the pilot. I’m going to fly back to Paris tonight, I have a lot to do before I relocate to America,” Eve said and went to the closet.

“I was hoping you would stay to see this through with me. And then the family is reuniting in Cuba.”

“MiaBella seems to think the girls are coming to Sicily.”

“No, Domi changed the plans. He’s making everyone head to Cuba, that’s where we’re all going.”

“I can’t mum. Got some meetings, and we have a new line to debut for Mirabella’s in New York this year. Plus, Battaglias is closing. With all of this drama I need to get ahead of the media circus. You know how it will all play out. I’ll email you my sketches. You’re going to love them.”

“I can’t believe you’re refocusing on Mirabella’s. Isn’t Battaglia doing great for us.”

Eve smiled. “Mirabella’s is your soul, heart and soul. You should have never given it up for the family. I loved the stories about you and Fabiana. How you started the company in honor of Me-Ma. I can’t wait to bring back what was so magical for a little girl out of Apple Grove.”

Mirabella smiled.

“That’s beautiful.”

Eve nodded and smiled at her mother.

“I didn’t give it up for the family, I evolved because I love you and your father. I love all of you. And because it wasn’t just about me after I became a mother and wife. There is a lot of magic in Battaglia. Especially since you’ve been running it for over a decade.”

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