Page 76 of That's Amore

“Because every time I made a plan, you ordered me to attend some party,” she spat out.

I looked at her, bewildered. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve?—”

“What? Would you have said it was okay? Hell no, Dante. You’d have made fun of my job and told me to play Mrs. Giordano.”

“You don’t know that,” I protested.

I wasn’t sure how I would’ve reacted but the truth was I never asked her if she had other plans, assuming she was there for me and to fulfill my needs, whether they be personal or societal.

She looked at me sadly. “I didn’t think you’d care, so I didn’t say anything.”

It hurt to see myself through her eyes. She saw a selfish man who didn’t think of anyone but himself. That wasn’t who I was, but that was who I’d been with her.

“Don Giordano told me you were the best man he knew,” she threw at me. “I…didn’t see that man, Dante.”

I closed my eyes, replaying her exact words—the ones that had shattered something deep inside me, leaving me hollow.

Nonno would’ve been disappointed, if he had known how I had treated my wife while he was alive. He would have looked at me with quiet disapproval, which always made me straighten my spine and reassess my choices. But Elysa never told him. Hell, she hadn’t even told me.

I wished she had. Maybe it would have jolted me awake—made me see what I was doing before it wastoo late. But I couldn’t lay that blame on her. I never invited her to share her feelings with me. This was on me. Only me!

The following day after a new sleepless night, I sat across from Tommaso Biancardi, the Giordano Hotel Group’s Chief Operating Officer, in the boardroom of our offices in a wing of the Palazzo.

Tommaso had been with the company for over two decades, working his way up from the bottom, and I trusted him more than anyone else in the business, as my grandfather also had. He was sharp, capable, and had a knack for managing people that I’d never quite mastered.

“Everything’s in place for the new resort launch.” Tommaso flipped through a PowerPoint presentation, showing me the project plan for the launch. “The marketing team has finalized the campaign, and the construction team says they’ll meet the deadline. We’re ahead of schedule.”

“Good,” I said, nodding. “That’s good.”

Tommaso paused, his sharp eyes narrowing slightly as he studied me. “You’ve been distracted lately. I know how much you cared for Don Giordano, so I understand.” He turned off the PowerPoint presentation. “Do you think maybe you should take some time off?”

“It’s not just losing Nonno.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Elysa wants a divorce.”

Tommaso’s expression softened. “I’m shocked to hear that.”

“Really? Why?” I asked, curious.

“Ah…your wife adores you. Everyone can see it.”

“I may not have seen it,” I tell him with a humorless laugh.

“Si, sometimes we men are blind,” Tommaso agreed. “Did I tell you about the time Chiara took the kids and left me?”

I was shocked.

Tommaso had married his childhood sweetheart, and they’d been together since they’d been fifteen years old. Now, twenty-five years later, they had three kids spanning the ages ten to fifteen—and a marriage that seemed stable and content.

“I didn’t know.”

“It was ten years ago. The kids were little. I was working all the time. Chiara was getting tired of me missing dinners, birthdays—all of it.” Tommaso swiveled slightly in his chair, a distant look in his eyes. “Then, one day, she’d had enough.”

“I know how that goes.”

He let out a dry chuckle. “I was a mess without her. Don Giordano took me out to dinner, sat me down, and asked me what the hell was going on. So, I told him.”

“And?”

“And he called me anidiota.” He shook his headfondly. “Then he told me to take a month off and fix my damn marriage.”

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