Page 41 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

“So you’ll just send her away? Honestly, brother, do you ever make any sense?”

He pulled his arm out of her grasp, fixed her with an icy, authoritative look. “You do not understand, Saverina. You’re a child. You know nothing of caring for others. Of sacrifice.”

She did not waver. She didn’t so much as flinch. But any warmth in her expression turned into icy disdain. “Let’s say all that is true, Lorenzo,” she said very coolly. “But all that means isyoudon’t know what it means to care for yourself. You don’t know how to do anythingbutsacrifice. And it would be inyourbest interest if you let me show you...what all else there is.”

These words were little barbs. Not quite new. Maybe she’d never expressed it quite so bluntly, but he understood this was what Saverina saw. Though he might still breathe, he was as tragic a figure as Rocca was to her.

But she didn’t understand. And he didn’t know how to explain it to her. Anyone.

“We appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made, Lorenzo. All of your siblings. Even me. But that doesn’t mean we want it. You want to call me a child, and fine. To you I am. But I’m also an adult when I go off and live on my own far away from you. We all are—every one of us—adults living our own lives. We don’t need your sacrifice anymore, and Gio doesn’t need it at all. He needs afather.”

Gio. He would sacrifice everything forGio, but he could admit, back at the party, he’d considered his son, of course. But not in terms ofhimself. He’d thought of saving Gio the pain of watching love destroy everything.

Not that he’d have to live without Gio in arm’s reach. When he’d already missed so much.

Now that he knew Gio existed, held the boy and earned his smiles, it seemed unconscionable to let Brianna return home. Saverina was right about that.

Only because he hadn’t had time to think. To plan. Saverina’s surprise arrival had turned upheaval even more on its head.

But this was not Saverina’s fight. He did not need to discuss it with her or have her tell him what to do. That washisjob. And he had a long night of figuring out how to deal with his large, loud family if they were all descending tomorrow.

“I am glad you are here,” he said, giving his sister a look that she should read as dismissal. “While I wish you all would have waited, I am eager for everyone to spend some time with Gio. To welcome him into the family. Brianna always wanted...” He trailed off, realizing Brianna telling him about wishing she was from a larger family,wantinga large family was something she’d told him backthen, not recently in regard to Gio.

Still, he could picture her face as she’d said that. She’d been trying to get him to talk about his family without directly asking him about it at a little café in Florence. She’d been wearing a red top, not unlike the red of her dress tonight. She’d say something about large families, then look at him through her lashes.

He’d known what she’d been doing, and he’d mostly kept all details to himself out of self-preservation, but every time she’d look at him, searching his face for answers, he had not been strong enough to stop some little detail from emerging.

“Brianna always wanted what?” Saverina asked, her eyes too astute for his own good.

“A larger family for Gio. It is only her and her parents. She’s eager for him to be part of a larger family unit.”

“Well, we’ve certainly got that.”

“Yes.”

“But I don’t understand how you can let him go back to America. How you can be in love with this woman—you, Lorenzo Parisi, billionaire, and I’m quite sure a man who’s never accepted anoin his life—and simply give up.”

“It isn’t giving up. It is being sensible. Gio is our focus. Anything between Brianna and me is secondary to that, and if distance is... Distance will be cleaner. More careful. It will be best. He won’t end up like...”

There was a heavy silence. She should not be able to read into him saying too much, but perhaps he gave her too little credit. Perhaps no matter what he’d done to cushion Saverina, she knew that Rocca had sacrificed herself. Because their parents’ warped love had broken her. Irreparably.

“Nothing you do now with Gio brings Rocca back,” Saverina said gently, when she was so very rarely gentle. Because he’d taught her to be strong and demanding. He’d taught her not to take no for an answer or be steamrolled by anyone. He had tried to give her every tool he’d failed to impart to Rocca.

Saverina bringing up Rocca while looking at him with soft, wet eyes was too much. He would have stepped into the hall and slammed the door behind him, but Saverina stopped him. Never one to leave well enough alone.

“I do not know what Rocca has to do with my son,” he said, looking down at her as he tried to rein his fury in.

Is it fury or hurt? Fury or love and grief?

“You can’t make it so he’s never hurt. People die, Lorenzo. You can’t protect him from...”

“From what?” he demanded because she did not know...she could not know...

“Well, the drugs that killed our mother, for starters. The mental illness that killed our sister. You can’t control people. You can only love them.”

Love is a lie.Only control could protect a person from it.And part of that control was Saverina not knowing... She wasn’t supposed to be that aware of what had actually happened. This was not the story he’d fed her. To save her from the truth. “I do not know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t think I know what happened? That our mother killed herself with drugs just as Rocca killed herself with—”

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