Chapter 2
For a moment, he did not move away.
One finger brushed the edge of her cap.
Then he straightened.
“Tell her.”
Mateo sighed.
Genevieve looked at him.
“What happened to Nico?”
Mateo glanced at Alessandro.
“This is not my story.”
“No,” Alessandro said quietly.
“It’s mine.”
He returned to the chair beside Genevieve’s bed.
Outside, weak morning sunlight broke across the East River, catching on windows and wet rooftops.
“My brother was four years younger than me.”
Genevieve frowned.
“You told me that.”
“I told you he moved to Europe.”
“Yes.”
“That wasn’t exactly true.”
Her expression sharpened.
Alessandro leaned back.
“Nico and I were close when we were young. Closer than I was with anyone.”
Mateo nodded.
“They were impossible.”
Alessandro gave him a look.
Mateo shrugged.
“You were.”
A faint smile touched Alessandro’s mouth and disappeared.
“Our father died when I was twenty-four. I took over more of the family businesses than I was ready for.”
Genevieve listened quietly.
“Nico hated it.”
“The businesses?”
“The expectations.”
Alessandro looked toward the window.
“He liked architecture. Photography. Music. He wanted to leave New York.”
Genevieve blinked.
“You never told me any of that.”
“I didn’t like talking about him.”
“That much I noticed.”
Alessandro accepted the rebuke.
“He stayed because our mother asked him to. Then she got sick.”
Genevieve’s expression softened.
Alessandro’s mother had died several years before their marriage.
“She wanted the family together,” he continued. “Nico stayed until she died.”
“And afterward?”
“He asked me for money.”
Genevieve frowned.
“To leave?”
“To start over.”
Alessandro rubbed his hands together.
“He had been seeing someone.”
“Who?”
“A woman named Mara.”
Mateo looked down.
Genevieve noticed.
“You knew her?”
“A little,” Mateo said.
Alessandro continued.
“Mara worked for one of our accounting firms. Smart. Quiet. She wanted nothing to do with our world.”
Genevieve’s gaze sharpened at that phrase.
“Our world.”
Alessandro noticed.
“I know.”
He took a breath.
“Nico planned to leave with her. He told me after he had already arranged everything.”
May you like
“And you stopped him.”
Genevieve did not phrase it as a question.
