She grabs my face when I don’t look her way, pulling it until I’m looking at her. I can tell she’s been crying, her eyes edged in red. I shouldn’t care what happened, why she’s sad, but I do. I want to hug her to me, cradle her against my chest and keep her there until the end of time. “Why are you here?”
She looks down at my question, dropping her hands from my face. I almost hate myself for losing her touch like that. “I don’t know.” She looks around the room, avoiding my face. “I didn’t know where else to go. Beverly has the babies. Ollie has the business and I can’t go to him with my relationship issues. I don’t have anyone else.”
I know she doesn’t. It’s one of the main reasons we bonded so well to begin with, neither one of us has someone who makes us the priority over all. I was her someone, but she was never mine despite how much I wanted her to be. “What happened?”
She falls back against the cushions, her arms going up to hide her face from me. “Donatello’s secretary is pregnant, and it’s his.” Her voice waivers as she says it and I know she’s trying to keep from crying. Trying to pretend it doesn’t hurt her as much as it does. She’s always pretending, but I’m the only one who ever sees through her false face.
Her broken secret doesn’t surprise me. I assumed Olivia Fontana was pregnant from the footage of her visiting the clinic so often, but when Malcom confirmed her doctor was located in the maternity wing, I knew I was right. I was just waiting for the shitshow to happen. Let Donatello ruin himself like I wanted. But now it’s happened after she’s already turned me away, and already chose him over me. What a great fucking choice.
Despite how much I want this to feel like a slap of karma, it doesn’t. It hurts to see her trying to hide her pain from me. Crying over a man who doesn’t deserve her tears. “What’re you going to do?”
Her arms drop to her sides, head turning to look at me. “I have no fucking idea.”
Tears silently track down her cheeks, and I watch as she wipes them away with the sleeve of her hoodie, trying to scrub them from her face and pretend they’re not there. My fingers itch to grab her, feel her wrap around me, but she already made it clear I wasn’t her choice. “You can stay here tonight. I can call something in for dinner.”
She nods at my words, knees coming up to her chest so she can hug herself. “Thank you.” Her chin is resting on her knees and she turns her face to look at me, a watery smile.
Even sad she’s beautiful. Her pouting lips and shining eyes should be painted and hung in a museum to be admired like the Mona Lisa. “Come here.”
I don’t even realize I’ve said it until she moves, immediately moving across the couch to straddle my waist and wrap herself around me. Her knee brushes my side and I hiss, making her go stiff in my arms. “I’m sorry, I’m not being careful.”
She moves like she’s going to shift off, but I don’t let her, tightening my arms on her back. “You’re fine, Laney Girl.”
“I missed you.”
It’s whispered from her lips, but it feels like a tornado in my chest. Delaney is perfectly cruel, saying the right words to wind me back around her and slash at my throat at the same time. “You wouldn’t have missed me if you hadn’t pushed me away.”
“I.. “ She drops her face to my neck, probably to avoid my gaze. “I had to. I don’t even think I should be here now.”
I take a deep breath, resisting the urge to comfort her like I want to. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
I feel her head shake against my skin, her fist clutching my shirt over my chest. “That’s not true.” She sits back so she can look at my face. “Where do you work Jessie? And don’t… “ She pauses, closing her eyes with a slow blink before continuing. “Just please tell me the truth.”
I swallow down the tightness in my chest, knowing this isn’t going to be the fairytale reuniting that I think I was secretly hoping it would be. “The Famiglia.”
She recoils at my answer like I hit her, jerking to get off of me. She hits my ribs in the process, but I grit my teeth and keep it to myself, knowing it was unintentional. “For how long?”
I can see she’s trying to piece together whatever information she already has, trying to figure out how long I haven’t been who she thinks I am. “Since I was fourteen.”
She starts to shake her head no, something she apparently does a lot when things aren’t going the way she wants them to. “No. You wouldn’t lie to me that long. YOU wouldn’t lie to me.”
I watch as she covers her face with her hands, brown eyes pooling once again.
“You are good.” She says it as tears fall off her chin, each drop taking a slice of my heart with it. “You’re sweet and kind and you don’t lie. You’re always honest with me. You’re the only person who ever has been.”
“Sometimes we have to hide things from people through no choice of our own, Laney. But that doesn’t mean I’m not who you think I am.”
She looks like she wants to break something, eyes searching the room for something to grab and unleash her frustrations on. “I’m so fucking tired of being lied to. I’m so fucking tired of secrets. Why do people insist on keeping me in the fucking dark about everything?”
I push off the couch, my intention to try and calm her but she jerks away from my touch.
“Donatello said
