I winced, because I’d thought about that. “Honestly, everything has happened in such a whirl, I’m trying to take it a day at a time right now and be grateful for what I have.”
She nodded, but her gaze was sly, considering. I watched as she took a sip of her martini because I could feel her gathering the words to speak. “Have you ever considered starting your own firm?”
My heart stopped. “Fleetingly. I never thought it would be a real possibility, at least not anything close to short term.”
“Well, now you are one of the most famous lawyers in the country. Most fourth-year associates don’t end up on the front page of The New York Times,” she pointed out.
I blushed slightly. The paper had featured a photo of Dante lifting me in his arms and kissing me savagely in the middle of the courtroom after Judge Hartford had declared the mistrial. The heading read ‘Mafia Lord & Lawyer Claim Victory And A Happily-Ever-After.’ It was stupid and cheesy, a gimmick to sell copies, but it worked.
Apparently, todays issue was one of the bestselling in the last two years.
I guessed everyone loved a good love story.
And I had to admit, ours was the best.
“I only ask because I want you to consider opening a firm with me,” Yara continued calmly, as if she wasn’t blowing my mind. “I want to focus on female lawyers and criminal law. We just defended a notorious mafioso so we have to go into this knowing we would attract a certain kind of clientele…” She studied me with her rich brown eyes. “But I have the feeling you don’t see life in such stark black and white as you used to.”
I laughed, because it was absurd to think of how much I’d changed the last four and a half months. It didn’t feel as if I was a completely new person, only that the secret things I’d kept hidden in the darkness of my soul had finally burst free like a black butterfly from its chrysalis.
I felt more like me than I ever had before.
“I hope you aren’t laughing at the idea,” Yara drawled with an arched brow.
Immediately, I sobered. “No, no, far from it. I’m sorry, I was just overwhelmed by how much life has changed in the last few months. Opening a firm together would be more than a dream come true. It was dream I never even thought to form it seemed so outlandish.”
She graced me with a small smile, stepping closer to squeeze my hand even though she wasn’t a tactical person. “Sometimes the darkness in someone else brings out the best in us. That’s what my Donni did to me and I can see its what Dante has done to you. I’m no rush, but let’s talk about it further sometime next week after you’re settled. I’d like to strike while the proverbial iron is hot and people are still talking about us.”
“I agree. Okay, thank you, Yara.” I hesitated then decided to go for, following my mandate to be more open with people. “It means a lot to have a woman I respect to highly believe in me.”
“I hope it will teach you to believe in yourself even more,” she countered. “I really believe there isn’t a limit to the success you can achieve in this field, Elena. You’re truly a talented lawyer.”
She moved away then, leaving me with an enigmatic smile as I tried to digest the beauty of that moment.
I’d thought that in loving Dante, I would have to give up my second love my career. It wasn’t a hard decision to make though I knew it would be a painful one to see out.
There was an Italian saying, non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca, which roughly translated to ‘you can’t have a full cask and a drunk wife’ or in English, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too.’
But it seemed after a lifetime of injustices and heartbreak, I had the opportunity to do exactly that.
I stood there beaming with joy for a few minutes before I thought to look for Mama to tell her the news. I spotted her in the kitchen, because even at a party that was her domain, but she was backed against the corner of the cabinets by none other than Salvatore, who had stayed with me at the apartment while the younger men went to take care of business. She looked angry as she spoke to him about something, but when he lifted his hand to tuck back a lock of loose barely greying black hair, her entire face softened.
“Uh,” my brother shuddered as he stepped beside me. “Are you watching our mother be seduced?”
It was surreal and a little uncomfortable to now that I was watching his father attempt to seduce his mother, but I didn’t say anything, because I understood it wasn’t my place to.
For now, I smacked him in the chest. “Now who’s the prude?”
He grinned at me, slinging an arm round my shoulders to pull me in close. “Not you anymore. You seem much more relaxed than ever before. I’ll have to buy Dante a bottle of whiskey to thank him for the attitude adjustment.”
“Hey!” I protested, but I did it laughing because he loved to tease and I was finally comfortable enough with myself to take it. “You’re disgusting.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
My phone buzzed where I’d tucked it into the pocket of my black Prada wrap dress.
“Excuse me a moment,” I murmured as I pulled it out to see Bambi’s name on the screen.
“Bambi?” I answered, moving away from Sebastian out onto the patio so I could hear her better. “I thought you and Aurora would be here already.”
“Lena, I’m scared,” came a frightened whisper. “I did what you said and met with your friend Tilda when you were gone. She helped me get a restraining order against the man I told you about, but he won’t leave me alone.”
Everything in me stilled. “It’s not Marco?” He was still in the hospital in the long-term care ward getting rehabilitation because one of the bullets had shattered his femur.
“No!” she cried. “Marco would never hurt me. But I’m beside myself. I don’t think there is any way we can stay here and be safe. I have to go.”
“Go where?” I demanded, cupping the phone to my cheek as I left the cold patio and returned inside, powering through the party to the foyer. I used the code to open the lockbox for the car keys and grab the set for the Ferrari. “Listen, Bambi, I’m going to come to you, okay? I’ll pick you and Rora up and bring you to our house. Pack enough for a long stay. We can figure this out as a family, va bene?”
She burst into noisy tears through the phone.
Cazzo.
“Bambi? Bambi, listen, I’m coming. Don’t freak out and do not leave. Where is Rora? Don’t startle her, okay? I’ll be there in ten minutes.” I hung up on her wails, hoping that she would try to come down for Rora’s sake at least.
I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the garage. As the doors closed, I saw Tore spot me from the kitchen, his face a stern mask.
I texted him while I descended, letting him know where I was going.
The streets were fairly empty for Manhattan, the sky dense with snow clouds that threatened to fall at any moment. I pulled up in front of the house that had been spilt into eight apartments in Queens where Bambi and Rora lived and sprinted up the stairs, shivering because I’d forgotten a coat.
I knocked on the door for a long minute because it creaked open and Rora appeared. Her face was tear stained, her hair a tangled mess around her pouting face. She was fully dressed even though it was long past her bedtime, even a pair of pink sneakers on her feet.