Page 5 of Scorned Obsession

Ivy pulled away. “Bah, we know why you stayed away.”

Nico embraced me next. “Welcome back, sis. So have you decided to stay?”

I hadn’t let everyone in on my plans yet. “I don’t know yet. It seems like everyone has left Manhattan now that I’ve returned.”

“You did surprise us,” Nico shot back. “Dad and Mom are on their way back from Italy. Matteo is bummed he couldn’t be here, but he and Sera are in Chicago to make sure Luca doesn’t have a meltdown.”

Sera was the wife of my eldest brother, Matteo. I had antagonistic feelings toward her uncle, Luca. But I felt sorry for his son. “It’s Elias’s first birthday, right?””

Nico gave a brief nod.

It was hard to put into words the tragedy that had befallen Luca. I didn’t want to think that it was all his sins catching up with him. It appeared he hadn’t accepted that he’d lost his wife and continued to search for Natalya. Hiring the best hackers and private investigators. Holing himself up at the mansion. In the early days of Natalya’s disappearance, the family understood him. But now—what was it, ten months later?—they werebeginning to fear for his sanity with his obsessive search for his wife.

He insisted Natalya was not dead.

A shiver went up my spine.

I was actually feeling a smidgen of sympathy for him. Just a smidgen.

“So, what are you guys up to tonight?” I asked.

“Date night,” Ivy said. “After I kicked Nico’s ass.”

“Hey.” Nico dragged her into a one-arm hug. “I let you win.”

“Riiiight,” I said dubiously. Ivy could totally kick Nico’s ass. She’d been a practitioner of the martial arts for years.

“Come with us,” Ivy said.

“And be the third wheel?” I rolled my eyes. “You guys can’t keep your hands off each other in public.” They were still in the honeymoon stage for sure, although Sera and Matteo had been married for over a year and behaved the same.

“Bianca can’t,” Renz called out and walked up to us. “She’s helping with deliveries today.”

Ivy laughed. “Now that’s not the way to get your baby sister to come home and live in New York.”

“I don’t mind,” I replied. “Gives me something to do. I worked in a vineyard restaurant for a few weeks.” Besides traveling up and down the coast of California, I picked up short-term jobs to keep myself busy. The objective, after all, was to quit moping over an infuriating man and find out what to do with my life after college. Was he watching from outside right now? Lurking in alleys and dark corners? Sandro never freaked me out, and I drew comfort that someone was watching over me, but I hated that he was doing this selflessly. Why didn’t he want more from me?

“You’re making the deliveries?” Nico hiked a brow at me.

“I’m tagging along just in case Renz has to double-park and needs someone to move the van. It’s where?”

“Brooklyn.” Renz checked his watch. “We should leave.”

I hugged Ivy and Nico again. “Let’s do breakfast tomorrow.”

Nico smirked. “Make that lunch. We’re going to have a late night.”

Ivy shook her head in amusement. I could have sworn her cheeks grew redder, and it wasn’t from the workout.

“Gross,” I muttered dutifully. But I was secretly tickled by how cute they were. That was the kind of love I wanted.

Thirty minutes later, we were in the thick of rush hour traffic. Renz kept checking the time while cursing at the vehicles in front of us.

Meanwhile, I was busy absorbing the essence of the city I grew up in. Okay, “essence” might be a stretch of what I was trying to reconnect with because I had no intention of inhaling the eau de smog of Manhattan. Did I like the hectic pace? The honking of horns? I spied a rolling cart selling hot dogs. A man in a suit hung around after receiving his order and chatted with the vendor as he served another customer. They appeared to be friends, shooting the shit with each other.

The crush of people in Armani suits, Adidas track pants, and well-worn jeans all blended under the shadows of New York’s skyscrapers. A socialite in the latest-model Audi idled beside us. On the other side sat a man in a T-shirt with a baseball cap in a beat-up truck, windows down, while country music blared. The logo of a farm was on the door, and he had probably finished making deliveries to a restaurant touting farm-to-table cuisine that started in California.

I didn’t need California. I had everything I loved right here in New York, including family.

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