Page 29 of The Lies We Tell

Interrupting what? It wasn’t as if Tessa had a wildly active social life to get back to. Watching things on her phone’s small screen gave her a headache after a while, and there were only so many books a person could read. In truth, she was starting to get a little bored.

She might not have a lot of friends to miss, but she had enough that there was always someone to call when she needed to get out of the house for lunch or to go shopping or see a movie. And as long as she kept to a certain distance from the compound, her father permitted her to leave.

Here was an entirely different story. She didn’t even know the name of the man who’d driven her around the other day, let alone how to contact him for a ride. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t a vacation, as her father had pointed out. Fun wasn’t required.

“You’re not interrupting,” Tessa assured her.

“Mind if I come in?”

“Of course not.”

Tessa shifted away from the window and toward the other chair when Sienna sank into it, rubbing her hands nervously on her thighs. Something dropped in the pit of her stomach. Had Matteo sent Sienna to deliver bad news?

“Is it about my mother?” she blurted, unable to handle the silence another second.

Sienna frowned. “Your mother?”

“Yeah. Did you find her?”

“I thought your mother went missing years ago.”

“She did.” Tessa sat forward, confused. Sienna was good with computers and searches. She’d heard them talking around it a few times. “I think she might be alive, and Matteo said he would help me look for her if I gave him information about my father.”

“I’m sorry,” Sienna said, giving her an apologetic look. “I don’t know anything about that.”

Tessa picked at a thread poking out from the cuff of her sweater. Like every other man she’d ever known, Matteo had lied to get his way.

“Just because I’m not looking doesn’t mean someone else isn’t.”

“Who then?”

“Probably Maeve. Matteo’s assistant. Her skill set is different from mine, but she’s not bad with stuff like that. If anyone’s looking, she is,” Sienna added, as if reading Tessa’s thoughts.

Tessa forced herself to smile. “I’m sure you’re right. So what can I do for you?”

Scrubbing her hands on her thighs again, Sienna took a deep breath. “I actually wanted to apologize.”

Tessa’s brows shot up. An apology was the last thing she expected from any of them, but definitely not from Luca’s woman. Luca loathed her. He’d made that opinion loud and clear. Tessa just assumed Sienna felt the same.

“Apologize for what?”

“For Luca. For myself.” She smiled softly. “He could have handled your arrival with a lot more grace and respect, and I could have done more to encourage him to not be such an asshole about it.”

“He hates me.” Tessa waved a hand in the air. “It’s fine. I’d probably hate me too if I were in his shoes.”

“He doesn’t hate you. He doesn’t,” Sienna insisted when Tessa raised a brow. “The relationship between the Bianchi siblings is…complicated. Matteo was gone for a long time, and now he’s back and…”

“Conquering Sicily?” Tessa offered.

“Yes,” Sienna replied with a soft chuckle. “I’m just saying there’s a lot of unresolved shit between them. So it’s not about you specifically. It wouldn’t matter who you were or where you came from. Luca would still be upset about the situation.”

“Because of the way Matteo treated you?”

“Luca is very protective of the people he loves. But so is Matteo. And they both have very different ways of showing it. Which causes them to butt heads a lot.”

Tessa snorted. “I noticed. They’re either silent or shouting, and dinner is a graveyard when Matteo isn’t trying to force conversation.”

“The most awkward,” Sienna agreed with a laugh. “We can change that. I’d like to change that. Get to know you better. Maybe we can grab lunch sometime.”

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