A Debt To Pay (Leone Legacy #1)

Chapter 43

Luci

1 Day Until The Wedding

I ’m guilt-ridden over lying to Alessandro. What’s worse is I’m hiding my worries from him. My period still hasn’t come and the pregnancy test El bought me is forefront in my thoughts. Would it be the best time to take it tonight when I’m alone? What if it’s positive? Will it affect how Alessandro acts around me?

Instead of freaking out, I decide to converse with Geno as he walks me upstairs. What do I say, though? Apparently, the first thing that pops up in my head.

“Do you ever intend on calling me Luci?” Seriously? I have to ask him that now?

A laugh escapes him as he turns to me. “Oh, Luciana. No. Luci is not your name and I will not be calling you that.”

“Everyone calls me Luci. Even my grandparents and Mamma, and they’re the ones who named me.”

“I don’t do that nickname stuff. Luciana is the name that was given to you and it will be the name I use.” After a brief pause, Geno genuinely asks. “How are you feeling?”

That’s something I wasn’t expecting, but I can only think to answer truthfully. “I’m nervous. In a different way than I thought I would.”

“If you weren’t aware, Alessandro and I can tell when someone is lying or withholding information from us.” He’s giving me the chance to expand on what I said. Instead, we walk in silence.

Thankfully, Geno and I reach the door before our silent walk becomes too awkward. Immediately Enzo unlocks it, waiting for me to walk in.

Geno turns his head, giving me a second to explain. When I’m silent, he decides to give up on this battle for the time being. “I will see you tomorrow, Luciana. Get some rest.”

I’m left alone in the bedroom, the bedroom that was a prison when I first got here. Now it’s just another room.

I scan around the bedroom, taking in my surroundings. The things El brought for tomorrow, minus my wedding dress, plus the pregnancy tests. My heart hammers in my chest and I swear everyone else can hear it as I grab the tests from their hiding spot and disappear into the bathroom. I take off my ring and set it on the counter to keep anything from happening to it as I sit on the toilet.

I read the directions while I take one and with shaky hands, place it upside down on the ground while freaking out for the next three minutes. When I assume the time has passed, I reach for the test like it’ll burn the second I touch it with shaky hands and a racing heart.

Positive. It’s faint and I try to convince myself I may be hallucinating, but it’s there.

“Fuck. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. No. Shit. Fuck.” Apparently, I can’t connect any sort of sentence as I panic at the results of the test.

In the middle of my freakout, a faint sound comes from outside the bathroom door and I question if I even hear it.

“Luci,” a small voice whispers, again quiet enough I think I’m imagining it.

“Luciana!” The voice is louder and I know I heard it this time.

I open the door, pregnancy test still in hand, and there he is. Someone I never expected to see is standing right in front of me.

“Nonno?” I must have said it a little too loud because immediately he shushes me.

“Tranquilla, Luci, you never know who’s listening.”

I’ve never seen him this way. So official, so paranoid, so unlike the man I grew up knowing.

I scan around the room, still mindblown that Nonno is standing right in front of me, and notice one of the windows is open. “Did you climb through the window? I don’t get it. How did you get past the gates and the guards?”

“I worked in this world many years ago. My papa, nonno, and zio too. I know more about Alessandro’s family than he does, and I’d bet my life on that. Now let’s go.”

“What do you mean, let’s go?”

Nonno looks at me like I’m the dumbest person he’s ever met. “You sent me that email. I told you I would get you out, but we need to leave now.”

Panic rushes through me. The email. I almost forgot I sent him that. “I can’t go.”

There’s that look again. “What do you mean, you can’t go? Don’t tell me you fell in love with him.”

“He’s not the man you think he is.”

“You don’t know him or his family. He’s exactly the man I think he is. Now let’s go!” He reaches for my hand, the hand holding the pregnancy test, and freezes.

“Luciana Stella Bonacci.” Tears well up in my eyes as he says my full name. He never calls me by my full name. “Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“I’m sorry, Nonno.” His face is stoic, and that’s infinitely worse than anger for him. Silence is worse than yelling.

“Now we really have to go. We will take care of you, but we have to leave now. No one in this house can know about this mess.”

He grabs my hand, sets a piece of paper on the bed, and leads me to the window. In the panic of his reaction to the pregnancy test, I blindly let him guide me. I barely process him leading me off the property, stopping occasionally because he sees someone coming. Nothing is said until we get in the car and I notice I’m no longer holding the pregnancy test and I’ve started crying. When did that happen? Did I drop it? Did Nonno take it? I’ve blacked out everything that’s happened between Nonno grabbing me and getting in the car. Did I put up any sort of fight? Now the most terrifying one, did I willingly leave with him?

Nonno speaks, breaking me out of my inner monologue of questions. “You’ll see one day that this is all for you. Everything I do is for your safety.”

The sound of the car’s engine echoes through the silent space until I’m the one who breaks it.

“Where are we going? Home?” Home. That’s such a foreign concept. Only a few weeks ago I would have given anything to be in that house again.

“We can never go home. Caterina and Stella are waiting just out of town in the other car and we’re leaving somewhere else. Somewhere safe.”

I’m almost scared to ask. Of what the answer might be. “Where’s that?”

He licks his lips before answering. “You’ll see.”