Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Ezio's lips tightened. "Don't think this lets her off the hook. She still lied—-"
"Oh, child, you have it all wrong."
And Potenziana couldn't help but feel she was to blame for all of this.
Everything was so, so terribly wrong, and all because they had kept secrets from each other.
"Your brother filled me in, Ezio. And how I wished you two had told me of your plans—-"
"She can still be a traitor—-"
"She's not, bambino."
"She lied about meeting Anghileri—-"
"Because I asked her to," Potenziana confessed in despair. "It was the last task I asked of her as my assistant. That's why she had to keep it a secret from you. From all of you."
She was hoping this would be enough to make him see reason. But when her grandson's expression remained stoic, it was then she realized how much damage his mother's arrest had made, and her heart broke all over again.
So many times Ezio had made excuses for his mother, and yet that woman couldn't grasp just how lucky she truly was, with the way she kept hurting her son for the most despicable of reasons.
"Will you listen to me, bambino? Per favore? Because I want to tell you about the night that Cat came to me. She told me she wanted to marry you—-"
"Enough, nonna. We already know the story—-"
"Because she was in love with you."
Ezio whitened.
"I know she made you think she hated you all those years ago, but what do you expect? You are the first boy she's fallen in love with. She didn't know what to do. Didn't know how to show it. By the time she wanted to try again, you had already flown back to New York. And so when it took you five long years to return, she made a decision not to wait any longer."
Ezio could only stare at his grandmother.
It couldn't be true.
Cattleya couldn't have been in love with him all these years.
Because if that were true...
"Now, I know how Cattleya has the tendency to overthink and hesitate. And so I pretended not to be convinced that she was right for you. I gave her two months to make you fall for her. I knew having this...this deadline looming over her head would force her to take action. But more than that, I also knew that if you were still not in love with her after two months, then you would never be in love with her. And if that were indeed the case, then I wanted to leave her no choice but to cut her losses...and leave you."
A THREE-HOUR LAYOVER, followed by one connecting flight, and then it was over, Cat thought tiredly as she sat down. She would be in her new home. She could start fresh. And in time, God would help her heal and forget him.
Cat pulled her baseball cap down until it had completely covered her face, and exhaustion had her asleep in moments.
Her alarm woke her up two hours later, and she straightened up in a flash.
Cat pushed her baseball cap back up, and the first thing she saw was him.
Another hallucination.
She rubbed her eyes.
Okay, still there.
She rubbed her eyes again.
"You're not dreaming. I'm real."
And the moment she heard it, Cat kept rubbing her eyes all the more, knowing that if she stopped—-
Fingers wrapped around her wrists.
Her hands were lowered to her lap.
And it was exactly as she feared.
The tears started to fall, and they were endless.
"I'm sorry," Ezio said hoarsely. "Will you let me explain?"
She shook her head, unable to say a word because crying had taken everything out of her.
"Last month, Giancarlo and I found out we had a traitor in our midst."
She wished she could tell him to stop.
But she was still crying.
Oh, why couldn't she stop crying?
"All we had going for us were a couple of clues. That the traitor was a woman. That she was a part of our inner circle. And that she had ties in New York."
She knew where this was going.
She even understood why everyone, herself included, had to be considered a potential suspect.
That was just how it was in their world.
But...
"I don't have ties—-"
Cat saw his lips tighten, and she realized right away what could have convinced him otherwise.
"You know about Lorenzo," she realized tremulously.
"Sì."
"And t-that's why you cheated on me."
"That's why I made you think I cheated on you."
She wished she could believe him. But could she, really?
"Do you remember when Giancarlo and I flew to Miami for business?"
"You...you lied about that, too?"
Ezio's chest tightened at the catch in her voice.
"Perdono," he apologized quietly. "At that time, Giancarlo and I were determined to handle things on our own. And so I couldn't tell you either that we were meeting with the FBI."
"Drake Morrison." He was the only person in the FBI that the famiglie trusted, since Drake's own wife was famiglia as well.