So why fight with Enzo on this?
Holding his gaze, I decide there’s no point. I shake my head, walking past him to leave.
“You’re not as smart as I thought you were,” he callsover his shoulder. Immediately, my footsteps falter as I listen. “If you thought she cared about you.”
I turn slowly to face him. He hasn’t moved, but he now leans against the wood rail, settled in as though we’re going to be here a while.
When I don’t respond, he keeps going. “She’s engaged, Sly. August St. Jean is a powerful man, and every woman in Manhattan would move mountains to be with that son-of-a-bitch. For you to think Vinnie Paladino would be any different, makes you a fool.”
“You don’t know anything about her,” I growl, taking a step forward.
“I know enough, and pictures don’t lie. Every photo of them I’ve seen together, she looks over the damn moon.” Pulling a magazine from his back pocket, he walks toward me until he’s close enough to slam it against my chest.
Taking it, I unfold it and look down at the photo of August proposing. Vinnie’s mouth is covered by her hand, but the camera captured the unshed tears in her eyes as she looked down at him on one knee, Tiffany & Co. box wide open to display her ring.
“This proves nothing.” I shove the magazine back into his hands. “He set her up.We’rein love, Enzo. Not them.”
“Then where is she, Sly? Because you’re supposed to meet her here, aren’t you?”
“Why are you here, Enzo? How did you find me?”
“I followed you because you’ve been off lately. Ever since my mom’s birthday, you’ve been avoiding me. Itdidn’t take much for me to figure out what you’ve been hiding—you’ve had the same tells since you were a child. I just hoped I was wrong about it.”
“So you came here to, what, exactly?”
“To see for myself. You’re a fucking traitor to this family, Sly. A Paladino? You’ve been sleeping with the literal enemy. What happened to family loyalty?” His voice raises with every word, each syllable enunciating through his gritted teeth. “My dad would be disgusted with you.”
His words slice like a dull knife through my heart, sawing slowly with intense pressure just to make a cut.
I feel vulnerable in front of him, aching from the absence of her arrival, and conflicted from the things Lorenzo is saying.
My fear from before circles back, settling deep in my bones.
What if I was wrong? What if she and August played me for a fool?
“I love her,” I tell my cousin, because it’s true. I feel it as naturally as breathing. She’s a part of me, ingrained in my soul.
His eyes darken as he looks at me, as though he’s seeing me for the very first time, and doesn’t like what he sees. Still, I cannot find it in me to care. Not when my heart is breaking.
Seeking her out, hoping one last time that she’s going to show up and is just incredibly late, I look around the gardens.
When I’ve fully circled and my eyes return to Lorenzo’s, he shakes his head. “You might love her, but I’m telling you, she doesn’t love you. You’ve been played, Sly. Because that’s what Paladinos do. You shouldn’t have trusted her.”
Then he walks away, leaving me alone without a second glance.
His words weigh heavy as I watch him go until he’s completely out of sight. Once I’m truly alone is when the world finally feels like it’s breaking around me.
Looking at the bouquet that sits on the ground where Enzo tossed it, I fight back the anger that rises within me. This time, I’m not so sure I’ll hold back the monster when he shows his face again.
But one thing is abundantly certain, like a neon light flashing in a dimly lit room—I can’t be here.
I can’t stay in New York.
Not unless I want to succumb to the darkness inside, which is what will happen if I am forced to watch amore mio in the arms of another man. Even if Lorenzo is correct in saying she had planned this, I cannot turn off my feelings overnight.
Or perhaps at all.
I wasn’t lying when I vowed to always love her. My heart has only spoken the truth when it comes to Vincenza Paladino.
