Everyone in my family wore blank expressions, unsure what to say in response to my tale.
My father took the lead. “You did the right thing, tesoro. Don’t feel guilty about it.”
“I don’t, and I never will.” My parents taught me to never show mercy. If I thought someone would ever grant me mercy, I would be disappointed.
“If you hadn’t made a run for it, it would have taken us a lot longer to find you,” Conway said. “And it could have gone down in a different way. We all made it out alive, with a few scratches and bruises.”
“Mom told me never to wait for a man to rescue me. She said I always have to rely on myself to be free…and I listened to her.” I held up my water glass, the only thing I was allowed to drink. “So this is for my mother. For being a badass.”
Her eyes were filled with affection as she stared at me.
My father smiled and raised his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
“Me too.” Sapphire clinked her water glass against mine.
Conway followed suit and did the same thing. “For being a badass.”
“Now you have to find a man that’s badass enough for you,” Sapphire said. “But I’m not sure if you’ll find a man as good as the Barsettis.”
“She probably won’t,” my father said. “But that’s okay.” He gave me a soft smile. “She’s the kind of woman who doesn’t need a man.”
19
Sapphire
Vanessa and I sat with our feet in the hot tub. Neither of us could drink wine, so we settled for lemonade instead. Fall was in full effect now, so the warm sun had disappeared. Now there was a distinct chill in the air, and we wore sweaters and sweatpants that were rolled up to our knees.
“How’s the arm?” I asked.
“Still stings but it’s getting better,” she said. “I have to sleep on my right side, and every time I turn over in the middle of the night, it hurts, so I have to roll back over…but it’s not forever.”
“Have you been sleeping well?”
“Minus the pain, great.”
“That’s good…any nightmares?”
“Nope.” Vanessa wasn’t putting up a façade for the world to see. She really was as strong as she projected, as powerful as she claimed to be. She was confident and centered, refusing to give in to fear or terror. “I’m just relieved he’s gone. I never expected him to show up at my apartment, but now that he’s dead, I never have to worry about him coming back.”
“I’m glad he’s dead too.”
“With assholes like that, they should be buried in the ground. A part of me is glad all this happened. If he was going to stalk you for the rest of your life, that wouldn’t have been right. Now you and Conway can raise your family without any concerns.”
“I guess…but I wish it’d been me instead of you.” I hated seeing the gauze wrapped around her arm. I hated knowing she couldn’t drink wine because her medication was too strong. She was in the hospital for a few days because of me. She could have died because of me. Knuckles came into our lives because of me, and I hated seeing a Barsetti suffer because of it.
“I don’t,” she said seriously. “You’re pregnant…that could have been bad.”
“I know…but still.”
“Girl, look at me.” She snapped her fingers and directed two fingers at her eyes. “You’re family now. And I would do anything to protect you and that little one inside. So don’t feel guilty, okay?”
I smiled. “Well, my last name isn’t Barsetti.”
“Doesn’t matter. And if it’s never Barsetti, that doesn’t matter either. You guys are a family. You’re the mother of my niece or nephew. You’re going to be part of our lives forever.”
“You’re so sweet. When I first met Conway, he wasn’t that compassionate. He didn’t have a gentle side to him at all. But the more I got to know him, the more I realized he’s just trying to hide it as much as he can.”
“You got that right. Conway pretends to be hard, but he’s soft all the way through.” She took another drink of her lemonade. “Ugh, I miss red wine. This is way too sweet. But water is too bland.”
“What do you do when you aren’t drinking wine?” I asked with a chuckle. “You must drink water then, right?”
She shrugged. “No…wine is essential to my diet.”
“Even in the morning?”
“If there’s a leftover bottle from the night before…why not?”
I looked into the darkness and saw the landscape disappear. Out here, there wasn’t another house within a few miles. The only thing that could be seen was the lights from Verona. But the rest of the world was just dark shapes and outlines. “Since you love wine so much, maybe you should think about joining your parents.”
“I love to drink wine. Doesn’t mean I love to make wine. And I want to explore other things before I settle on something easy. I know I would be happy making wine, but what if there’s something else out there? Some experience I’m not enjoying because I didn’t bother?”