I Let My Sister Have the Man Who Broke My Heart novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: Wrong Sister

Cesare arrives with roses and gets no tears, Carla offers to swap husbands and gets a plain no, and a text from Miami shows Luca already knows what her sister will try.

Carla hung up and turned around, and I was already walking back toward the dining room.

I did not let her see me.

I had a whole life of practice at that.

By six o'clock Mother had written to Mrs. Amadori, sealed the letter and handed it to a driver to carry to the airport.

By seven, the doorbell rang.

I knew it would be Cesare.

In my first life, he had come that same evening, with roses, to ask why I had gone cold on him.

In my first life, I had been so pleased he asked.

He stood on the porch in a charcoal suit with a bouquet of white roses and the easy smile of a man who had never been told no.

"Gemma," he said. "I heard something strange from your mother's driver."

"Come in, Cesare."

I took the roses and put them on the hall table without looking at them.

Mother and Carla were in the front room with the door half open.

Cesare saw them, then looked back at me.

"I thought you'd chosen the Albano file," he said. "Your mother told my father you were leaning that way."

"I looked at both."

"And?"

"And I picked the other one."

He laughed, once, because he thought it was a joke.

I waited, and he stopped.

"Amadori's boy," he said. "The one who coughs."

"He's a gentleman, and our mothers have a promise."

"Gemma, he's a dead man with a bank account." Cesare stepped closer and lowered his voice. "I am offering you the Albano name. Brooklyn. A seat at my father's table."

"I know exactly what you're offering."

I had spent two years inside that offer.

It came with a locked study, a wife's signature on documents she was not allowed to read, and a sister who got every credit.

He waited for me to cry.

I could see him waiting.

In my first life, I would have apologized for hurting him.

"Thank you for the roses," I said. "You can see yourself out."

His smile slipped, and what showed under it was surprise, and then something harder.

"You'll regret this," he said.

"Maybe."

He looked past me at the front room, and I did not turn to see who he was looking at.

When the door closed behind him, I stood in the hall with my hand on the knob and found it was steady.

I had expected it to shake.

Carla came out of the front room in her yellow dress with her arms folded.

"That was rude," she said. "He brought you flowers."

"He can bring them to you."

She took a step back.

"What does that mean?"

"It means he brought them to the wrong sister."

For one second she did not breathe.

Then her face smoothed over, and she put on the bright, easy smile that had worked on every adult we knew.

"Gemma. I'm worried about you," she said. "You're making a huge decision because you were angry at me."

"I'm not angry at you."

"You are. You're doing the thing where you pick the opposite of me." She came closer and took my sleeve. "Let me take Luca. You marry Cesare, like you wanted this morning, and I'll go quietly to Nunzio. Nobody has to move to Florida."

"You were engaged to Nunzio before today."

"Engaged is not married."

"Carla, you can't have Luca."

She let go of my sleeve.

"Why not?"

"Because I want him."

It was the first time in my life I had ever said that sentence to her about anything.

I watched it land.

Carla had been hit with a lot of things in twenty-five years, but never a plain no from me.

She narrowed her eyes and studied my face, and for a moment I thought she might see something.

"You're different," she said.

"I'm tired."

"No. You're different."

"Go to bed, Carla."

I took the stairs two at a time, and Mother's voice followed me up from the front room.

"Gemma, we haven't discussed the dowry."

"Pay it to the Amadoris. I'll bring my own books."

I heard her gasp, and I shut my bedroom door.

My old room looked smaller than I remembered.

My dresses were in the closet in the colors I used to wear for the Albanos.

I sat on the edge of the bed, took out my phone and found it full of notifications I did not recognize.

Before I could open them, a new message came in from a Miami number.

It was one line.

Heard you picked me. Wear a coat when you land. It's colder than you think down here.

There was a second message under it.

I'll be at the gate myself. I want to see your face when you realize what you signed.

I read it three times.

He had a doctor, an oxygen tank and a short life, and he was not too sick to make a joke.

I had not known he could be funny.

I typed, then deleted, then typed again.

I'll bring the coat. Bring your lungs.

I sent it before I could stop myself.

His answer arrived in under a minute.

Ha. Get some sleep, Gemma. Tomorrow your sister's going to try to ruin you.

I stared at the screen.

Carla had not even left the house yet, and I had not told anyone in Miami a thing about my family.

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