Once our plates were filled and in front of us, I gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. “You said there was more you wanted to know about me?”
“Yes,” she said. “How long do you plan on staying in this country? My boy can’t get involved with someone who’s just passing through. He’s looking for marriage.”
“He is?” I asked her before I glanced at him. “You are?”
“No,” he said at the same time that she nodded. Rolling his eyes, he shook his head at her. “Mother thinks it’s time Aldo and I settled down. It’s not something we agree with.”
“It’s a wholehearted disagreement from me,” Aldo agreed.
Their mother sent them both glares before I was treated to being the person on the other end of it again. “You didn’t answer my question. How long are you planning on staying?”
“For as long as Italy will have me,” I replied. I didn’t even have to think about it. “I’ve lived here for some years now, and I love it. It’s become my home.”
“What about your real home?” she snapped. “Surely, you must have plans to go back there. Unless you have absolutely no notion of family.”
“I love my family.” My voice came out a little more forceful than I had intended, which made her raise her brows at Marco.
“Do you hear how she’s speaking to me?”
“I do, and I’m surprised it’s taken this long.” He loaded another bite of pasta onto his fork and sent his mother an imploring look. “Stop now, Mama. Please?”
She inclined her head, but the fire didn’t disappear from her eyes. “Do you know that if Marco is to have a wife, she has to produce twins?”
“Produce?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Mrs. Ricci’s brows rose even higher. “Yes. Produce. If she doesn’t conceive twins, she’s not the woman for him.”
“Not this again,” Aldo groaned. “We’ve been over this, Mama. That’s not really how it works.”
“It is in our family,” she said firmly. “Do you have any twins in your family, Adaline?”
Truth be told, I didn’t know. All I knew was that Kyle and I weren’t twins. “I don’t think so, ma’am.”
“It’s a superstition,” Aldo explained, but his mother interrupted him by slamming her palm down on their table.
“It’s not a superstition. It’s the truth. She doesn’t even know for sure whether or not she has twins in her family. It’s not a difficult question. There shouldn’t be any ‘thinking’ involved. If a person doesn’t value their own family and its traditions, why would she value ours?”
Marco ground his teeth beside me. None of us were eating very much, but my appetite was gone, and it looked like he felt the same way. “No one is asking her to value our family traditions or to be part of our family, Mother. After tonight, I’m not sure she would want to join our family. I sure as hell don’t think I would have.”
“Same,” Aldo said between mouthfuls. He was the only one still trying to eat.
“You know what I think?” Mrs. Ricci asked no one in particular, but we all knew the question was aimed at me. “I think your Addy is a spoiled brat who was raised by parents in America with no sense of family. Letting her gallivant across the world for years at a time with no plans to return? What kind of parents do that?”
“The kind who are dead,” I said quietly. My entire body stung from that comment like she’d shoved me into a hornet’s nest. “I was raised without parents, ma’am. No uncles, aunts, or cousins either. That’s why I don’t know if there are twins in my extended family. I have no idea who or where they are.”
For the first time all night, Mrs. Ricci fell silent. Aldo’s eyes stretched wider than saucers. He swallowed the bite that had been in his mouth with an audible gulp, washing it down with the entire contents of his glass.
Marco pushed his chair back and dropped his napkin on his plate. “We will be leaving now.”
He held his hand out for me, and I took it. I felt numb. Shell-shocked maybe. Of all the things I’d expected, an attack on my parents’ characters and the kind of people they had been purely based on the fact that they were American hadn’t been on the list.
“Thank you for dinner,” I mumbled, even though I hadn’t eaten more than two bites.
Marco held my hand in a tight grip and led me to his car. I heard footsteps behind us, but I didn’t bother to look who it was.
As I climbed in, I saw Mrs. Ricci hovering at the driver’s side. I didn’t wave or say anything else to her. There was nothing left to say. She disapproved of me, and right this very minute, the feeling was very much mutual.
Chapter 27
Marco
“I didn’t know,” my mother whispered into my ear as she pulled me into a hug. “I didn’t know she had no parents. That’s heartbreaking. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know, either,” I replied, hugging her back even though I was pretty fucking pissed off at her. “I told you, Mama. It’s all still very new. This was exactly the kind of thing I was trying to avoid. If I had known, which I would have if we’d waited until knowing each other better before introducing you, I would have told you.”
“I’m sorry.” Her chest heaved against mine, and her voice was thick with emotion. “My heart is breaking for her. I didn’t know.”
“I know, Mama.” I sighed and pressed a kiss to her soft hair. “I need to go, okay? I’ll call you soon.”
After another squeeze, she released me and stepped away. Shame burned in her eyes before she ducked her head and hurried back into the house.
Aldo was going to have to make sure she was okay, though. The blow that comment
