Page 165 of Mine Again
Isa doesn’t reply. But something else flickers in her expression now. Worry.
“Talking about Teo and Mari… I need you to find them for me. I’m scared. Mari said they had plans to disappear, but Niccolo Romero is claiming they’re dead, that he blew up their boat. It could be for show, to help him claim power, but Mari hasn’t made contact. She warned me it might take weeks, even months, but still…”
I pull her closer and press a kiss to her temple. Her skin is soft against my lips, warm despite the wind.
“I’ll find her for you,” I murmur. “Or at least uncover what happened.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, looking up at me with a faint smile.
And damn if that smile doesn’t make my heart jump.
“But back to the plan you hatched,” she says, steadier now.
“When Ella O’Neil disappeared, Uberto kept hitting walls. That kind of silence usually means only one thing. Someone powerful was shielding her. So I did some digging of my own. I quietly fed Uberto what he needed to find a few crucial leads.”
I didn’t care about where Ella went or why. What mattered to me was what her disappearance represented, a window. Something I could use to get back to Isa.
“You were the anonymous tip-off.” She sits up straighter, not waiting for my reply. “At my birthday dinner, Mamma mentioned it. Father was going to Canada with Don De Marco to intercept Ella.”
“Yes, that was me.”
“Were you trying to get into Don De Marco’s good graces? So you could come back for me?”
“Not exactly. Even if I’d earned his trust, Gualtiero would still have been bound by his family’s rules. But I figured if I helped him get Ella back, and more importantly, helped him keep her, he’d vanish. Thatwould leave Mateo in charge.”
“And with Mateo falling for Mari…”
I nod. “He didn’t believe in the old structures. I figured he was my best bet to get around your father’s decree.”
She nods faintly. “But that didn’t happen.”
“No, things turned out differently.”
Better for us. But devastating for myfarfalla’sfamily.
We lie in silence, the grass cool beneath us, the sky above painted in midday gold. I can hear her breathing beside me, steady but thoughtful. A bird chirps somewhere in the distance. The wind moves through the tall grass behind the range like a slow tide.
She hasn’t said a word in minutes, but I can sense a shift in her.
The tension in her shoulders has softened, and her breathing has eased.
The truth doesn’t erase the pain of waiting or the hollow ache of having given up on me. But hearing that I never stopped trying, that I kept searching for a way back to her, seems to have settled something inside her.
I don’t say more, just lie beside her, letting the silence stretch.
It’s like the beginning of something new.
Something better than we had.
Chapter Sixty
Isabella
Ithrow on a nightshirt and towel off my hair after a shower, getting ready for bed.
The rest of the day passed without any more distressing revelations or emotional detonations.
Thank heavens for that!
