“I know who you are,” Nina said evenly, in a voice that wasn’t loud or sharp, but was somehow as ominous and heavy as the stone around us. “And I know what you did.”
“What I did…excuse me?” Sherry flailed. “Listen, I don’t know who you are, but you don’t know me—”
“I know you’re the kind of woman who cheats on the best possible man there is. I know you’re the kind of woman who lets her lover go to war and cheapens his sacrifice by opening your legs to any other man who comes your way.”
“Oh, listen, now,” Kate murmured behind us.
“Mattie—” Lea started.
“Hush,” Frankie’s voice came clear, quieting the rest so that Nina could continue.
“But,” Nina said as she drew her terrifyingly icy gaze up and down Sherry, who practically shivered in response. “I also know you’re the kind of woman who regrets it. So I’ll say this to you nicely the first time, but next, the gloves will really come off. You don’t deserve him. Now, in case you’ve forgotten, he also has an entire family of fierce women who don’t take kindly to people who hurt him. Nor do I. Like Matthew, I come from a family who will do absolutely anything to protect the people they love. And I do mean anything.”
She took another step forward, forcing Sherry to look up at her, which, given the difference of nearly a foot between them, meant that Nina pretty much towered over my ex-girlfriend.
“I suggest you don’t test me on that point,” she said, her voice low and menacing.
Sherry, though, was no slouch. Her fingers clenched and unclenched repeatedly, and her eyes squinted with fight. For a moment, I thought they might literally come to blows in the middle of the church.
But then she stepped back, flickering glances at me and the rest of my family, who remained perfectly silent.
“I see,” she said. “Well, I’ll be going. Mattie, I’ll um, see you around, I guess.”
I tipped my hat at her. “You have a nice day, Sherry.”
We all watched her leave, shoulders slumped in defeat. When Nina and I turned around, we found the rest of my family staring at her, expressions torn between irritation, shock, and respect.
“You’re engaged?” Lea’s loud voice finally interrupted the awkward silence.
Nina’s hand found mine again and I squeezed it tight. “This wasn’t really the way we were planning to tell you, but yeah, Lea. I asked Nina to marry me. And she said yes.”
“Signora Zola,” Nina said as she returned to my side. “I realize it’s a surprise, but I would very much appreciate the chance to…explain everything. Please.” She glanced at me, but even in that split second, her deep gray eyes were full of so much love, I thought my heart might burst in the middle of the church.
Right back at you, baby.
“Please, Nonna,” I said. “Just give her a chance to say her piece. Fair’s fair.”
Everyone waited for what seemed like the length of the entire Mass we had just sat through while my grandmother looked us both over.
“Yes,” Nonna said, breaking her silence at last. “I think so. We need to talk. With Matthew and you.”
Nina nodded, and to my surprise, none of my sisters argued. Instead, they filed out of the church, following Nonna obediently. Her word, apparently, settled the issue.
I turned to Nina with awe. “Where did that come from?”
“When you’re faced with lions, you can be eaten or learn to tame them. I choose the latter.” She shrugged.
I had to smile. She really had been listening throughout the whole sermon, which had, in fact, been on the famous parable of Daniel and the lion’s den.
“You’re not in the clear, though. You should have told me they would be angry.”
I turned with a hand on Nina’s back. “I’m mad at myself, doll. I should have predicted this, and I didn’t. You sure you want to go? We can still make our escape.”
But Nina just shook her head. “No, there’s no going back now. And I wouldn’t want to anyway.”
I took her hand and kissed her fingers, lingering over the ring that still gleamed in the sun. “Well, I hope you can channel that lion-taming for another few hours, baby. The pride is heading back to the house now.”
“Into the lion’s den we go?” she murmured playfully.
“Good God, I hope not. But if the claws are out, you can handle it. That’s for damn sure.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nina
I wasn’t sure I had ever been so nervous as when I followed Matthew, his five sisters, and his grandmother into the ramshackle house just a few blocks from the church. Not when I told Grandmother I was getting married. Or when I was pregnant with Olivia. Not even when I prepared to ask Calvin for a divorce.
In that moment, nothing was more terrifying than facing that formidable clan of women who loved Matthew more than anything. I could only cling to the fact that we had that in common. I was fairly certain it was the reason why I was being invited to their home in the first place.
I wasn’t sure what had happened in the church, exactly. One moment Matthew and I were being attacked by his sisters, and the next, I was ready to rip a stranger’s eyes out just for looking at Matthew wrong. I did know that my beloved walked with a renewed bounce in his step all the way to his grandmother’s house, and I was somehow buoyed by the exchange as well. For the first time, it felt as though we were really and truly a team of sorts. Or at least on the way to becoming one.
And I liked it very much.
I understood his family’s concerns. From their perspective, I was just another girl, like Sherry, who had already broken their beloved Matthew’s heart. But I wasn’t. More than anything, I wanted to protect and love him, just like they did. Maybe, if it were possible, even more.
I just had to prove it.
“Where are the children?” I wondered as Matthew took my coat and hung it on the rack near the door amidst the shuffle of his sisters shucking their own coats. The last time I had been here, the sounds of children’s feet running up and down the stairs had sounded like hail on a tin roof.
“Mike took them back to our house,” Lea said shortly. “So we wouldn’t be interrupted.”
She didn’t wait for my response, just followed her grandmother and the rest of her sisters into the dining room at the end of the narrow hall that ran the length of the house.
Matthew hung his hat and jacket alongside mine, then dropped a kiss on my cheek.
“It’ll be fine,” he told me. “Once they get over the shock, they’ll be pussycats, I promise.”
“If they get over it,” I grumbled.
But my beautiful man could only grin. “We’re here, aren’t we? Baby steps, beautiful. We’ll take them together.”
He took my hand and guided me to the back of the house. The lightness I had detected outside of the church only seemed to persist the closer we came to his grandmother’s home. Similar to when he had kissed me on the street in Florence, it was clear that Matthew was thrilled to be open with his family about his life. About me.
I took it as the compliment it was.
“Can I help with anything?” I asked Lea as I found her walking into the kitchen with a large empty platter.
The last time I was here, Lea had been enormously pregnant. Now she was as petite as her grandmother, but more solid somehow, with her sleeves rolled up and her hair pulled back in the no-nonsense bun of an infant’s mother.
Her mouth tightened. “No, that’s fine. We’re just putting some antipasti together. And then we can all…talk.”
Matthew tugged me over to the table, where we took our seats as his other sisters remained clustered near the back window, talking amongst themselves. Frankie turned and faced us.
“Thanks for ratting me out, by the way,” Matthew said, as if he were talking about spilled milk. “It’s not like I would have wanted to talk to them myself about losing my job, Frankie.”
“I don’t know, would you?” Frankie said. “You’re a
bout as proud as it gets, Mattie. It took you weeks to even tell me when you started taking shifts at Envy last fall.”
He scowled. “Still. How would you like it if I dropped the bomb that you ran into Xavier a few months back and didn’t tell anyone, huh?”
“Xavier?” Kate’s head popped out of the kitchen as she shuffled in carrying several wineglasses, followed by Lea with a tray of appetizers.
“Thanks a lot,” Frankie said.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Joni broke in. “Isn’t Sofia’s dad named Xavier?”
“Brilliant,” Marie said. “She really cracked it this time!”
“Shut up, Marie,” Joni snapped.
“It’s really none of your business,” Frankie informed all of them.
The other four immediately burst into argument.
“Jesus Christ,” Matthew muttered.
“Who is Xavier?” I asked him, taking advantage of the temporary commotion. “Other than Sofia’s father, I mean. I gathered that.”
“He charmed Frankie’s socks off before leaving her high and dry with a kid on the way and no one to contact,” Lea said from behind us. “He’s the kind of man who leaves people in the lurch. Sound familiar, Nina?”
I couldn’t help but flinch. Was that really what they thought of me? I wasn’t sure I could fault them.
“Hey,” Matthew snapped at her. “For real, should we just go? I told you in the church, Lea, I got no problem walking out of here.”
Lea just grumbled, then went back to the kitchen to help her grandmother.
“Xavier was at Jane and Eric’s Christmas party,” Matthew said as he turned back to me. “Tall guy. British. Black hair. Deep voice.” He shrugged, clearly unable to recall much more. “To be honest, doll, I was more focused on finding you that night.”
I, however, stared at him wide-eyed. “You don’t mean Xavier Parker, do you?”
On my other side, where she was being interrogated by her three younger sisters, Frankie stiffened.
Matthew frowned. “Why, do you know him?”
“Not well, but we’ve met a few times,” I replied. “He lives in London, but our social circles are fairly small. He went to school with Eric.”
Matthew glanced at his jabbering sisters. “What’s his story? Frankie’s always been a damn mute about the guy.”
I drummed my nails on the tabletop, trying to remember. “He caused a bit of a scandal, from what I recall. He’s the illegitimate son of an earl or maybe a marquess. At any rate, his father didn’t have other children, and then surprised everyone by naming Xavier as his heir instead of letting the estate pass to his cousin or nephew or whatever. Grandmother’s butler, Garrett, was English, and had a lot to say about the whole ordeal. It was this big to-do when a boy from East London was named presumptive heir to this title, apparently.”
“Then what happened?” Matthew wondered curiously.
I tapped my chin. “I honestly don’t know much. Just that Garrett thought he was an ungrateful, rebellious brat. Attending Dartmouth, for instance, instead of Oxford or Cambridge like everyone else in his class. That’s where he met Eric, who brought him home a few times when he was at school. Nice boy. Tall, like you said. After that, I heard he went to culinary school, of all things, and started several restaurants until his father died maybe three or four years ago…”
By the time I was finished talking, the room had gone silent. All five of Matthew’s sisters were silent and listening intently, the rest of their arguments apparently forgotten. Even his grandmother had stilled in the door, holding a platter of antipasti.
I blinked. “It isn’t the same Xavier, is it?” I asked as I looked around. “Sometimes he uses the name Sato. His mother is half-Japanese, I believe, and that’s her maiden name. Is that—it’s not the same person, is it?”
But by the look on Frankie’s face, he plainly was. And not only that, a fair amount of the story was news to her.
“Wait a second,” Joni said. “Are you saying that Sofia…our baby Sofia…could be royalty?”
“She didn’t say her dad’s Prince William, you idiot,” Marie said, earning a jab in the gut from Joni.
Frankie still hadn’t spoken, though her dark green eyes, so like her brother’s, were large and pleading.
“Did you know, Fran?” Matthew asked gently as he reached across me to clasp his sister’s hand. “About this title, or whatever it is?”
Matthew had been the self-appointed caretaker of his sister and her daughter for several years now. He had always told me that Sofia’s father didn’t want anything to do with them. His impression was that the man was some kind of derelict—a criminal, maybe, or just someone passing through New York on a lark.
Clearly, that wasn’t the case.
“I…” Frankie shook her head, and her eyes watered as she looked around. “I knew about his restaurants. And his mother. The rest, though…” She inhaled deeply as she buried her face in her hands. “I never knew,” she mumbled into her palms. When she looked up, her eyes were red and rimmed with tears. “I have to…can you all just give me a minute, please?”
There was an awkward silence around the table. The rest of Matthew’s sisters found their seats. Wine was poured, plates were filled, and finally, once the clink of silverware had started, Matthew’s grandmother finally took her seat at the head of the table.
“So,” said Mrs. Zola. “You want to get married.” Her sharp gaze flickered between me and Matthew, then down to my hand. “How did this happen?”
“I, ah, asked her in Florence,” Matthew said.
“Florence?” Frankie’s voice echoed. “Mattie, that was months ago.”
“We have had to stay discreet because of my...issues...with the press,” I admitted, rather uncomfortably.
His sisters did not look impressed.
“Three months ago. Three days ago. It doesn’t matter, Fran. The truth is that I knew the second I met Nina that she was the one.” He shrugged adorably as he looked at me. “What can I say? It was love at first sight. I couldn’t look away.”
“Well, we know that, fool,” Lea snarked. “You were making ga-ga eyes at each other the whole time she was here last time. But that’s not necessarily love. In your case, more like lust.”
“If it’s not love, then you don’t know a thing about your brother,” I snapped, unable to help myself.
Lea opened her mouth like she wanted to yell back at me, but was stopped when her grandmother put a hand on her wrist. Matthew took my hand in encouragement.
“I want you to be happy, Matthew,” said Mrs. Zola. “But…” She tapped a manicured nail on the glossy wood tabletop. Then, apparently deciding to take a different tack, she turned to me. “Nina. You’re a very nice girl. Strong. Smart. You been through a lot. And I don’t want to blame you for it, but there are problems, you see. Problems for my Matthew.”
I nodded. “No one here will argue that, Mrs. Zola.”
“The worst, you’re still married,” she started. “How are you gonna be engaged to my Matthew when you belong to another man?”
Matthew’s grip tightened.
“I do not belong to my ex-husband,” I said, perhaps more vehemently than necessary. Just the suggestion of it made my skin crawl.
“Nonna, they’ve been separated for months,” Matthew added. “It’s the issue of the money that’s holding up the divorce. That’s it. Well, that and he’s a damn criminal.”
“Yes, there is that,” Mrs. Zola replied. “And from what the papers say, so is she.” She jabbed a finger in my direction. “These crimes, they cost my boy his job, no? He worked for many years for this job. He loved being a lawyer, didn’t you, Matthew? And we were all so proud of him. People, they call their pasts baggage. We all got it. But yours, it’s a weapon. It hurt my Matthew. How much more will he have to take, eh?”
Matthew opened his mouth to argue, but I set a hand on his arm to stop him. All around the table, I saw his grandmother’s concern reflected in his sisters’
eyes. The anger that was there this morning had disappeared, but worry and fear were still present.
“It’s fine,” I said softly to Matthew. “After all, I can’t really be a part of this family if they don’t know everything, right? They’ve earned my secrets, Matthew. Just like you.”
And then I turned, and for the next hour, while everyone else snacked on olives and prosciutto and cantaloupe and all the other delicacies Mrs. Zola had provided, I proceeded to tell Matthew’s sisters and grandmother everything about myself I could think of. I started from the beginning. From my childhood on the Upper East Side and my father’s abandonment. The year I spent abroad and how I met Giuseppe. And then everything that mattered.
“That rat!” Joni squealed when I was finished. “First he tricks you into doing everything for his shitty business, then gets you to take the rap for it, and now he wants to steal your fortune too!” She covered her mouth with both hands. “I would die. I really would.”
I smiled. “I appreciate that, but it’s not really the point. I just want you to know that in part, I gave myself up for this crime to save Matthew. To put my husband away. It didn’t work, but it was my only chance to do what was right.”
“These girls,” Mrs. Zola said. “The daughters of your lover. In Firenze. What happened with them?”
I cringed. For the first time, the idea of Giuseppe as my lover made me physically ill. Maybe it was the fact that I knew his daughters and mother, had seen the pain I’d caused directly. But even more so, I suspected it was because the idea of giving myself in any way to a man other than Matthew seemed so completely wrong.
“We’re going back to see them this summer,” Matthew said. “To see the progress with the farm, the one Nina bought for them.”
I squeezed his hand. “Maybe, with any luck, to pick a wedding venue too?”
Matthew’s eyes shone before he turned back to his grandmother. “And we’re bringing Olivia. She deserves a family, Nonna. And I hope that one day, you’ll all let her be a part of this one.”
The Honest Affair (Rose Gold Book 3) Page 26
