Page 13 of Unbound

I’d had a brief text discussion with Tia last night and first thing this morning to check in. I called Tino, who was overseeing security for the house, and told him what was up as well as to make sure he got someone to catch up with Luciana, pronto, to make sure she was okay. He called back to confirm all was still well.

I got a text from Lisa, saying Luc had the baby at the doctor’s for a check-up and Dex told me he was having security meet up with her. Tino said that at my house, Tia and her friends were eating breakfast. I told him to subtly get rid of them and hustleTia over to Pop’s house. I scrolled to my brother’s contact details and called him.

Dare answered. He and Angel were in Italy and they were at a restaurant for dinner. They’d spent the day at the hospice with Dare’s mother Annette, seeing Dare’s stepfather. Some girls would’ve complained about going to see her new husband’s dying step-father on their honeymoon, but not my brother’s girl.

Like me, he had lucked out in the wife department. Not that it was easy; seemed like real love never fucking was easy. And also not that either of us were worthy of everything we got from our women. I know I certainly wasn’t.

I cut my brother off from talking when he was clearly not picking up on my vibe and kept talking about whatever, like we were just shooting the breeze. I told Dare the gist of what was up, but we figured there was no point in him cutting his honeymoon short until we knew exactly what was what. I told him there was bullshit with Leo, told him about the chart, and said Tessa was off radar and that we were on it. I let him go, saying I’d keep him posted.

I got a text from Tino.

Your girl needs to cut the sass.

Shit.

I called Tia.

“Baby. End the party. You’re needed with the girls. Now.”

“Tino’s trying to drive the girls home already. We just got up and we’re only half way through –”

“Tia. You’re all going on lock down. Get off the fuckin’ phone and listen to Tino,” I snapped.

She usually respected Nino, knew he didn’t fuck around, so her attitude with Nino’s twin was surprising since Tino wasn’t nearly as friendly as Nino.

“Oh,” her voice went small. “What’s wrong?”

“Do it now, Athena. Gotta go.”

“Kay,” her voice went smaller. “Love you.”

She hung up to do what she was told before I could reply.

3

I was leaving the daycare, where I’d just dropped off Antonio and Lucas for the day.

I was heading to Venetia for prep before the lunch rush. I’d started helping out a few days a week; my brother-in-law was having some staffing problems, so he needed the help. He has high standards. His kitchen was like Hell’s Kitchen. He had fired three people last week for their laziness.

I’d gotten married and had the kids young, but I’d had babies while going to cooking school. I was a trained chef and I needed the distraction of something outside my father’s house and my pain. The restaurant was just the ticket.

Being at home all day long felt a bit smothering at times. Sarah meant well but she was always in my business and up in my space. And then things had gone weird with Lisa since the ‘big reveal’, so cooking in a busy kitchen allowed me to focus on something other than the thoughts twisting and turning in my brain and my broken heart.

I was still learning how to be a single mother, still healing from losing my father and my husband. Still helping my sons cope with life without their daddy. And now I was also reelingfrom the latest…the bombshell Lisa dropped on me and my sister.

My relationship with my best friend was a lie. My father was worse than we thought and believe me, we already thought he was going to have a heckuva time getting past the pearly gates.

We knew more than we were given credit for, but Lisa rocked our already precarious world in a bad way with the truth about her relationship with Tom Ferrano, Sr.

Normally, Luciana and I would put our heads together and pick things apart for hours or even days after a drama, big or little.

However, the day Lisa told us, tears in her eyes, who shereallywas and how she’dreallymet our father, why she was enrolled in culinary school with me? We then listened to our new sister-in-law, Angel, tell us how she met Dare and what her story was, how she and Lisa had come from the same awful place.

The way our new sister-in-law was when we first met her? Timid and jittery? Lisa wasn’t like that at all. But I guess it made sense how Angel’s sudden appearance meant some sort of delayed reaction with Lisa. We first thought Pop’s death was hitting her late. There was Tommy’s wedding and all that we’d been through. Getting home and then having nothing going on gave us all too much time to reflect.

We knew the miscarriage had devastated her, beyond measure. But now, in hindsight, I could see that Angel’s appearance was the start of Lisa unraveling.

Lisa gave us a bunch more facts and then said that her counselor had helped, that Dare and Tommy arranged for her to go to a retreat and that put her on the road to healing. She said she knew she had a long road ahead but invited us to ask questions if we had any. She also said she never thought poorly of our father, that he rescued her and had treated her like absolute gold.

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