Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Giulia’s words were like the little devil on my shoulder. I eyed the treats, temptation winning over restraint. “Well...” I selected one with pale pink frosting, similar to the one I’d tried earlier. One definitely wouldn’t hurt, right?
I took a bite, savoring the burst of sweet vanilla and tart raspberry. “Wow,” I mumbled around the mouthful, propriety momentarily forgotten. “Your baking really is amazing. Have you always loved to do it?”
“Since I was little,” she said. “My mother wasn’t very fond of the idea but Father allowed me. I think because it reminds him of Sofia.”
“Sofia?”
Giulia plopped down in one of the armchairs, making herself comfortable. I liked that about her, how she didn’t stand on ceremony or pretense when we were alone.
“Adrian’s mother.” She selected a cupcake with pale blue frosting. “She passed away a little over two decades ago. Adrian was only eight.”
Oh…
I knew that they were all half-siblings, but I didn’t know how young Adrian was when his mother died. Matteo was the oldest, and his mother, Anya, was Enzo’s first wife. They were married young. Anya was eighteen and Enzo was twenty-five. I knew Anya died when Matteo was just a toddler, around three years old so he barely knew his mother.
I was given all the details I needed to know about my fiancé.
But I didn’t know much about the rest of the Salvatore family. Especially Adrian.
He was a shadow and private.
But our few encounters told me everything I needed to know about him.
He was corrupted, reckless and cruel.
“How did she die?” I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop myself. I didn’t understand why I cared, why anything about Adrian or his life pulled at my curiosity when I wanted nothing to do with him.
Giulia sighed, looking sorrowful even though I knew she didn’t know or had never met Sofia. “She was sick. Cancer. She was withering away for months and months… and then one morning, she was just gone. Adrian was found sleeping next to her cold body. Father had to pry him away because he wouldn’t let go. I was told he didn’t cry or scream though. Just quietly clinging to his mother.”
My heart sank at her words as I imagined a young Adrian silently clinging to the cold body of his mother, not wanting to let go, scared of letting go, knowing that he would never feel her warmth again.
“Anyway, everyone knows Father was completely enamored by Sofia. I guess that’s why he lets me bake. I was told she used to love baking and spent all her time in the kitchen, making little treats and then giving it to everyone. Maybe that’s why Adrian doesn’t eat my cupcakes.”
“He doesn’t?” I asked, shocked that he didn’t.
She shook her head, smiling ruefully. “No, he never ever tried them. Not even a single bite.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like sweets.”
“Maybe.”
We both knew that was a lie.
Young Adrian endured a trauma that I couldn’t begin to fathom. Sleeping beside his deceased mother, clinging to her cold body, it was the kind of horror that left a permanent, unbearable scar.
No wonder he never ate Giulia’s cupcakes.
A part of me, somewhere deep inside my naive soul, felt pain for Adrian.
But another part, the more cynical one, reminded me that I couldn’t… shouldn’t sympathize with a man like Adrian Salvatore.
Scarred past or not…
He tried to ruin my life. Knowingly. Deliberately.
He was a vindictive, calculative man.
“So,” Giulia said, changing the topic while she selected a cupcake with pale blue frosting. “You finished your tour today. How are you liking the Salvatore Estate? And don’t give me the polite answer you gave at dinner.”
I hesitated, then sat across from her on the other chair, drawing my legs up beneath me. “It’s... different than I expected.” I chose my words carefully, unsure how much I could trust her, despite her friendly demeanor. “The house is beautiful, of course.”
“But it doesn’t feel like home,” she finished for me, her expression knowing. “It never does at first. Especially when you’re being watched like a rare specimen in a museum.”
I felt my shoulders relax slightly. “Exactly. It feels like I’m constantly… performing.”
“You are.” She took a bite of her cupcake, then pointed it at me. “We all are. It’s the world we’re a part of. Appearances, power plays, alliances. We have an image to uphold. To the rest of the normal world, we’re just wealthy elites. Entrepreneurs. Businessmen. Privileged. They don’t know what’s happening behind the closed doors.”
Ah yes, all the illegal, dirty, corrupted things we were a part of.
“I’m not sure your father would appreciate us talking so candidly about this,” I commented, raising an eyebrow.
“Probably not,” Giulia agreed cheerfully. “But he’s not here, and these divine cupcakes are.” She took another bite. “You know, I kinda always wanted another woman around here. There’s just too many men in this house. Too much testosterone.”