Sweetest Sorrow (Forbidden Book 2) (38 page)

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice low. "Who's here?"

"Relax, it's okay," she said. "It's just—"

Before she could finish, Corrado stepped through the back door.

Gavin
froze
.

"Amaro," Corrado said. "Didn't your father teach you not to point a gun at someone unless you plan to pull the trigger?"

Gavin lowered the gun. "My father taught me a lot, like how you can never be
too
careful."

"I imagine he did," Corrado said. "He's a good man, Johnny Amaro. Too bad I can't say the same thing about the rest of your fathers."

Matty tugged Genna with him as he took a protective step back.

"It's okay," Genna told him. "He owns the house. He's not here to hurt us or anything."

"Matteo Barsanti, Corrado Moretti," Gavin said, introducing them. "I guess you've already met Genevieve."

"Moretti," Matty said. "The DeMarco family."

"Correct," Corrado said. "As I told Genevieve, I just stopped by to check on things. I'll be on my way now."

"You don't have to rush off," Genna said. Man, the atmosphere was
tense
. "Stick around, maybe have dinner or something. I mean, I can't cook and we don't have delivery, but Matty knows how to use a stove and we can just, like, send Gavin away, since he's really annoying."

Gavin rolled his eyes while Corrado, who hadn't cracked a single smile since showing up, actually
laughed
. "I appreciate the offer, and no offense, but I'm not fond of being in this house. But if you need anything, Amaro knows how to get ahold of me."

Corrado slipped by them, walking through the downstairs of the house. Genna pulled away from Matty's grasp to follow the man onto the front porch. Matty lurked behind her, in the foyer, watching and listening, always skeptical of everybody. Would it be that way for the rest of their lives?
Isolation doesn't solve problems.

"Thank you," Genna said. "For everything. For the house. The
key
. Not a lot of people would be so hospitable, given the circumstances."

"I know what it's like to suffer at the hands of your parents." Corrado stepped off the porch. "It's unfortunate, children paying the price. That's why I was happy to hear about your brother."

Genna blinked rapidly, those words a kick to the gut.

The door to the house flung open, Matty stepping out, grabbing her arm. "Let's go inside, Genna."

Genna shrugged him off, taking a step forward. "You were
happy
about my brother?"

"Of course," Corrado said, pausing to look at her. "We say a lot of goodbyes in this life with not too many chances to ever say hello again. Dante's one of the lucky few. You get another chance."

Corrado got in his car to leave, while Genna rooted in spot like a tree. Those words kept flowing through her mind, a continual loop.
Dante's one of the lucky few…

She shook her head.
No.
There was no way. It wasn't possible. Whatever he'd heard had been a mistake. It had been a
lie
. Her brother was gone and wouldn't be coming back. Dante had told her that himself. When a Barsanti got ahold of you, there would be nothing left to find. 

Genna watched the car disappear down the highway. Sickness stirred inside of her, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, like Corrado Moretti drove away and took all semblance of peace with him.

* * *

C
ertain moments
of Matty's life were forever burned in his memory, moments that cut him to the core, altering him as a person. Finding out his best friend was gone. Seeing his mother take her last breath. Watching his brother bleed out in the street. They were moments that stole a piece of his soul, pieces he could never get back.

And standing on the battered porch, as Genna turned to face him, seeing the turmoil in her blue eyes, he felt it. Her expression branded itself into his subconscious. There would be no coming back from it. She was stealing his soul, like they always warned him she would.

"Genna," he whispered, reaching for her, his fingertips grazing her arm when she pulled back just enough for his hand to fall from her skin.

"Did something happen with my brother?" she asked. "Did they find something? Did they find
him
?"

The door to the house opened, Gavin stepping out onto the porch. Matty's eyes flickered to him, hoping his cousin had some way to smother the igniting fire, but it was too late to stop the flames.

"No, don't do that," Genna said, panic in her voice as she grabbed his chin, forcing him to face her. "Don't look at him. Look at me.
Me
, Matty. Not Gavin!"

His eyes shifted to meet her gaze. "Genna…"

"I asked you a question!" Tears welled in her eyes. "Why aren't you answering it? Why won't you answer
me
?"

"Look, just calm down, okay? You're getting yourself worked up. It's not good for the baby."

"
Don't
! Don't dare try to guilt me. Don't
belittle
me."

"I'm not."

"You are!" she yelled, the sound of her raised voice pebbling Matty's skin. "You're treating me like I'm just some irrational, emotional woman. You're not answering my question. I deserve the truth! And I'm asking you… I'm begging you… tell me!"

Reaching up, Matty pressed his palms to her flushed cheeks, cradling her face in his hands, his thumbs stroking her skin. He knew he had to tell her.

God, he didn't want to...

Not now. Not
yet
.

She was nearing the end of her pregnancy, already in the third trimester, and things back in New York were dangerous. She didn't need that kind of stress. The timing couldn't be worse.

"I love you, Genevieve. You
know
I love you. I'd do anything for you. I'd do anything you ask of me."

"I'm asking you to
tell me
."

Matty sighed. "They found Dante right after we left New York."

"
Alive
?"

Matty hesitated before nodding.

She cracked, those tears breaking through, streaming down her cheeks. Her knees damn near buckled, but he grabbed ahold of her before she collapsed, helping her sit down on the porch as he knelt in front of her.

"He's alive," she whispered, her face contorting as she tried to hold back a sob. "You knew the whole time?"

"I found out a few months ago," he said. "The first time Gavin visited."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep this from me? Why did you let me keep thinking my brother was dead? We had a
funeral
!"

She shoved against him, almost pushing him over, but he grabbed her arms to steady himself and to keep her from lashing out. "Because it wasn't safe in the city. It
isn't
safe. And I knew when I told you that you'd want to go back, that you'd want to see him."

"Wouldn't you?" she cried. "If it was your brother, wouldn't you want to see him?"

"Not if it were dangerous."

"Bullshit! You risked your life to visit your mother!"

"That's different."

"How?"

"Because it was just
my
life I risked. Jesus Christ, Genna... you're pregnant! We're about to be parents! It's not just about us anymore. We have to think about the baby."

"I am thinking about the baby. I'm
always
thinking about the baby. Maybe it's dangerous in the city, but at least they're living. We're just hiding!"

Matty scrubbed his hands down his face. "I can't let you go back there, Genna."

"But you can't stop me, either."

"Please," he begged. "Just please listen to me."

"I am listening, Matty. I hear what you're saying. And maybe if you said it months ago, it would've been different. But I just... I don't even know what to say to you right now. I don't know what to
think
. You let me mourn for months when you knew he was alive, and why? For what? Because you didn't
trust
me?"

"I do trust you."

"You don't," she said. "You didn't trust me enough to let me decide for myself. You made this decision on your own. You chose for me. You thought me grieving was better than me knowing my brother was alive. And maybe you meant well. Maybe you had good intentions. But you've hurt me, Matty, because you did the
one
thing you promised you'd never do—you treated me like that fragile ice princess."

She shoved up from the step and headed for the house, stalling on the porch, face-to-face with Gavin. "Have you seen him? Dante?"

Gavin nodded.

"Is he okay?"

Gavin hesitated.

"Don't lie to me," she said. "Please don't."

"He has his moments."

"Does he know about me?" Her hands ghosted across her stomach. "About us?"

"He knows what everybody else does."

"Which is
what
?"

"That you vanished."

She stomped past him, bursting into the house and slamming the door behind her.

"That girl," Gavin said, pointing to the door, "is
just
like her brother."

Matty ran his hands down his face. "This isn't how any of this was supposed to happen."

"I don't know," Gavin said. "Isn't this kind of what it's like to be a Barsanti?"

"What? All fucked up?"

"Pretty much."

"Story of my life," Matty said, "but this was supposed to be different. This was supposed to be a fresh start, a chance to do things right. This wasn't supposed to be like everything else."

"Yeah, well, you took the girl away from the Galantes but you'll never take the Galante out of that girl. And you know, I don't think you really want to."

Gavin strolled off the porch, stepping past Matty.

"I'm going to leave you to your wife," he said, heading for his rental car. "Not sucking the poison out of
this
bite."

Matty glared at him, watching as the car drove off, before heading inside. The downstairs was empty, silent, so he headed up to the second floor, finding Genna sitting on the top step, lingering in the dim hallway. Her phone was in her hand, and she absently flipped it open and closed, staring into nothingness, her mind off somewhere else.

After a few flips, her gaze went to her phone. She pressed buttons, fingers working fast, as she dialed a phone number.

"What are you…?" He trailed off, not bothering to finish his question as she brought the phone to her ear, listening. From where he stood, he heard the voicemail pick up without ringing, a male voice telling her to leave a message.
Dante
.

"I've called that number a few times, just to hear his voice," she whispered, flipping the phone closed again. "Not once has he answered. It stopped ringing long ago."

"I don't know what to tell you."

She nodded, standing up, like she wasn't surprised by his lack of explanation. "I need some time alone to think. So can you give me that?"

"Whatever you need."

A sinking feeling settled in the pit of Matty's stomach as he watched her walk down the hall, disappearing into the little boy's bedroom and closing the door, shutting him out.

So many times he imagined their own little boy moving into that room. Maybe it was naïve, but Matty thought it could work. He believed they would've been happy. It wasn't perfect, but hell, it was something. It was
their
something. But he knew, watching that door close behind Genna, that any hope of that happening had disappeared.

Matty wandered the house in silence before heading to bed alone after dark. It took awhile for him to doze off, in and out of a restless sleep, jolting awake sometime after midnight, that feeling inside of him growing stronger, rooting deeper. Throwing the covers off, he climbed out of bed, pausing when he noticed the door across the hall wide open.

No Genna
.

He searched the house, seeking her out, sighing when he spotted her. Genna sat behind the wheel of the Lincoln out back, illuminated only by a sliver of moonlight. Matty walked outside, joining her, slipping into the passenger seat. A key stuck out of the ignition, the car turned off but her seatbelt clipped on, like she wanted to run but that first step was too terrifying. He wondered how long she'd be sitting there, how long she'd been contemplating leaving him. Tears coated her cheeks, her eyes bloodshot as she stared straight ahead. Besides her phone on the seat next to her, she had nothing with her… nothing except that old, worn out map she'd stolen from the truck when they first set out on their journey, those veins and arteries pumping life through a country that she'd scoured relentlessly, searching for the
heart
.

"I'm guessing you've finally decided where you want to go," he said. "Finally decided where you want to call
home
."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be," he said. "If anyone should be apologizing, it's me. I was afraid of losing you, afraid of losing
us
. Because I know he's your brother, Genna. I know he's your best friend. But he's also the guy who killed
my
brother. He's the guy who pointed a gun at my head. So I know there's a chance that when it comes down to it, it's going to be either me or him."