Page 50 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

“Because we’re your family and we care about you, Lorenzo.”

“You’re desperately in love with her,” Isa said, holding her dozing baby in one arm and the glass of wine she sipped from in the other hand. “It’s obvious to anyone with eyes.”

He had missed that baby stage with Gio. It hurt, even knowing he would never let Gio out of his life again. That year without the boy would always hurt.

Because that was what love did. Crawled into all your weak spots andhurt. It worked when it was your family, people in your care, because you could stop all that hurt with sacrifice. With careful planning and important walls for distance.

“I am never desperate, I assure you. Everyone speaks of love as if it is some great thing, but the only thing love does is destroy. That is allIhave ever seen. A good marriage is not based onlove, it is based on mutual understanding.”

“Are you insinuating my husband doesn’t love me?” his sister-in-law asked, with such an open, innocent expression on her face only experience told him she was needling him.

He spared her a quelling glance, but she was clearly unmoved. He moved his gaze to Stefano, but Stefano had put an arm around Isa and looked as disapproving as his wife did.

“This ismylife,” Lorenzo reminded his family.

“But you’re mucking it up,” Saverina insisted with a certainty Lorenzo could only chalk up to youth and a lack of experience. She continued on as ifsheknew all. “And every time we’ve just about mucked up our own lives, you’ve stepped in to correct course. So, guess what? We’re all stepping in to correctyourcourse.”

“It’s kind of comforting,” Valentine said, studying the wine in his glass. “That youcanneed correction. You aren’tsoperfect.”

Lorenzo scowled even deeper at his brother. “All right. If I am not perfect, and you are all so old and wise now, what should I do?”

“I know what you shouldn’t do,” Stefano offered. “Demand a loveless marriage. Declare plans like a general giving orders to a soldier.”

Isa and Saverina’s eyes widened as they stared at him. “Is that what he did?”

Stefano nodded as Lorenzo fumed. “How do you know anything of what I’ve done?”

Stefano shrugged, wholly unconcerned. “I eavesdropped.”

This time Lorenzo did stand, pulling his hand out from Accursia’s. “You have crossed a line, brother.” To think all that Brianna had said might have been listened to. That they might all know...

“Yes. I wonder where I might have learned to do that.”

Lorenzo shook his head. “I have raised all of you. Protected you. Afforded you every opportunity. And this is how you repay me? Come here without warning, criticize my every choice, eavesdrop and gang up on me? Very well. Clearly I have failed.”

“Oh, don’t be such a martyr,” Saverina said. Then, when he glared at her, she rolled her eyes and even faked a yawn.

He made a move for the exit, but Saverina stepped in front of it. Valentine blocked the other exit.

“No running away today because you didn’t get to control the situation,” Stefano said. As if he had any right. “Time to face up to some very important facts.”

“We’re all grown up,” Saverina said, working in tandem with Stefano from the opposite end of the room. “It doesn’t mean we might never need you, but not the way we once did. Now you’re free. Do you really want to spend that freedom like some kind of robot monk when you have a nice, smart woman with a backbone, far as I can see, who shares a son with you andlovesyou?”

“None of you remember what love does?” He looked at Stefano and Valentine, because though he’d tried to shelter them, they were the closest in age and likely knew as much as he did. Then there was Saverina, who’d known more than he wanted her to. Maybe they all did.

But Stefano and Valentine were standing there, both with partners. Stefano with children. A family. Love.

How could they bear it?

“I don’t blamelovefor what happened to Mother, Lorenzo,” Stefano said, all of his nonchalant defiance gone. In its place was a calm if sad reverence. “Real love does not demand sacrifice. Real love is not what we witnessed—the desperate need to please someone else.”

Lorenzo watched as Isa put her free hand on Stefano’s arm. A simple, silent comfort. “Some relationships are toxic, Lorenzo,” she said, with something warm in her eyes that felt too much like pity. “Some people make choices because they aren’t mature enough to handle their consequences, or because they were traumatized and haven’t dealt with it, or any number of other reasons. From everything Stefano told me—”

“You told her?”

“She is my wife. I’ve told her everything about our childhood. It is how I work through those traumas.”

“Have you told Brianna anything of Mother? Of Rocca?” Saverina asked gently.

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