Chapter 600: I’ll Be Leaving Soon
Carol stopped just outside Massimo’s suite and pressed one hand against the wall, trying to steady her breathing. She needed a minute.
Preferably in another country.
She could not stay under the same roof as that man as there was a very real chance she would shoot him in his sleep.
Massimo Genovese had exhausted her.
Still, she had other problems to deal with. Right now, she needed to make sure Veronica understood what had to happen with her crazy sister.
That thought alone irritated her all over again.
Valentina had managed to drag half the family into disaster while believing she was saving them.
Carol went downstairs. She found Veronica in the kitchen making tea. Vee stood by the counter, one hand resting against the edge while the kettle steamed beside her. One hand moved over her stomach as she waited.
Vee looked up when Carol entered. She noticed the tears still stinging Carol’s eyes immediately.
Yeah.
She knew the feeling. "Want some tea?" Vee asked.
"No. I’ll be leaving soon."
Vee frowned. "You’re not staying?"
Carol chuckled quietly. "If I stay, I’ll kill Massimo in his sleep."
Vee’s mouth twitched despite herself. "This is a big house, Carol. Surely you can stay somewhere. Anywhere."
Carol folded her arms. "Can you assure me I will not run into him?"
Vee considered that for all of two seconds before shaking her head. "No."
"Exactly."
There were enough bedrooms in the mansion to house a small government, but Massimo had a gift for appearing exactly where a person least wanted him. Staying would only create opportunities, and Carol did not trust herself around opportunities involving sharp objects.
"So what does this mean for both of you?"
"Well," Carol said after a moment, "I guess this is it." She shrugged. "We never really always saw eye to eye on matters of the famiglia."
That was putting it mildly. Carol believed people mattered more than rules. Massimo believed rules were the reason people survived. They had spent years loving each other across that divide, occasionally meeting in the middle and occasionally trying to murder each other from opposite sides.
Perhaps they had simply reached the edge.
"So you have accepted what is to happen?"
Carol looked at her sharply. "Hell no. My next stop is to Marco. He has to realise he cannot stay here and be persecuted for something he knows nothing about. Massimo thinks Marco carries responsibility for his wife."
"Which is the rule."
"I know the damned rule."
Vee’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Marco came back willingly knowing what was to happen."
"Yes, because he is a stubborn fool with an honour problem." Carol dragged a hand through her hair. "I am not accepting this. I cannot. He is my son."
"So you want him to run?"
"Why does it sound like you are not on my side?" Carol asked.
"Honestly, with everything going on, I am on no one’s side. But the only person handling this situation without emotion is Massimo."
"Excuse me?"
"I didn’t say I agree with him." Vee sighed. "I said he is the only one not reacting emotionally. You are thinking like Marco’s mother. Luca is thinking like his brother. Massimo is thinking like Don. I have learned the hard way that rules exist for a reason. We cannot just break them whenever they hurt us. We may bend them within reason, yes, but if we stop upholding them completely, then it becomes open season."
"If everyone believes consequences only apply when convenient, what happens the next time someone betrays Luca? What happens when someone decides their wife, husband, brother, son or whoever should be exempt because they are loved? Then nobody respects the rules anymore."
"So you are saying you are on Massimo’s side?"
"No." Vee shook her head. "Not entirely, no."
Carol exhaled slowly. "I don’t blame you." Her gaze travelled over her face, studying the woman her son had married and perhaps seeing more clearly than Vee wanted just how much had changed. "I know what this life does to everyone in it. It hardens you. Your conscience gets buried so far down that wrong starts looking right and right starts looking wrong."
"You are Luca’s Donna. It was always inevitable."
The irony. Luca had once said she kept him human.
Carol stepped away. "I have to go. I have to go knock some sense into my bulldog of a son."
"He won’t run, Carol. This isn’t going to end the way you want it to. Not if Massimo has anything to do with it."
Carol looked back at her sadly. "I know. But I can still try. I came to talk to you thinking you would have some reservations about Valentina’s fate, but looks like you have it all handled."
"Ever since I met Luca, he has religiously shielded me." Vee turned back towards the counter and reached for the kettle. "He has taken my pain on himself, protected me, given himself for me over and over again." She started pouring the hot water into a cup, watching the steam rise between them.
There had been a time when she did not know what safety felt like. She had known survival. She had known how to fight, how to endure, how to make something out of nothing and keep moving because stopping had never been an option.
Then Luca had happened.
"I finally found my safe space," she continued. "My home. My life finally made sense." She put a tea bag into the cup. "I am finally happy. I have this peace inside me now. This certainty that if I fall, my husband will always, without fail, be there to catch me." She reached for the sugar. "That kind of love changes you."
A spoonful went into the tea.
"In doing that, his pain became my pain. His enemies became my problem. His fears became things I wanted to destroy before they ever reached him. I would catch a bullet for him if he would let me."