Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
"I know it's not my place to ask—-"
"But it bothers you all the same, sì?"
"I feel guilty—-"
"And that is quite remarkable of you," Potenziana said archly, "considering how your own flesh and blood has stolen my grandson from you five years ago."
Ysabel jerked in her seat. Stolen?
"It is unfortunate that I was only made aware of this recently. I would have rectified the situation immediately if I had known—-"
Ysabel shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand what you're saying, signora."
"Five years ago, Massimo met a girl on Halloween night. He believes that girl...is your sister."
Pain ripped through Ysabel at the older woman's words. There was a part of her that had always suspected this, but she had never allowed such doubts to take root.
"How?" Ysabel whispered.
"I'm afraid that's where I come in, signorina." It was Cattleya who spoke, and her calm voice was now tinged with regret. "I was at Mammina's a few months ago—-"
"During my shift?"
"Sì."
Her brows furrowed. "But I would've remembered..."
"I have this talent, sometimes a curse, of being really good at blending in." A slight smile touched the other girl's lips, and Ysabel couldn't help but blink as that one smile immediately transformed Cattleya's otherwise serious features into one of quiet charm.
"If you smiled like that more," Ysabel couldn't help saying, "I don't think there's any chance you'd be lost in a crowd."
Cattleya's cheeks turned pink at Ysabel's words, but the blush also gifted Potenziana's young assistant with a radiantly lovely appearance.
Grazie a Dio! Thank God!
Potenziana could now admit to herself that she still had faint stirrings of doubt about her choice, but all of those had immediately been vanquished by the simple exchange of words between Ysabel and Cattleya.
Ysabel's sister had also met Cattleya several times in the past, but Ynez had never taken the time to talk to the other girl, much less notice how Cattleya's quiet demeanor made her presence unobtrusive. In Ynez's eyes, Cattleya was paid help, and thus unworthy of her attention.
Ysabel, however...
This girl was different. This girl had a sense of warmth and empathy that women like Ynez and Massimo's mother patently lacked, and it was those qualities that made Ysabel the perfect match for her grandson.
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop in your conversation," Cattleya was saying apologetically, "but I just couldn't get it out of my mind when I heard you mention attending the Marchettis' Halloween event five years ago. It is not something Signor Massimo ever spoke of in public, but the whole family knows of how he had first met Ynez in that same event."
"When Cattleya told me about this—-" It was La Strega now who was speaking. "I decided to investigate the matter myself, and it quickly became evident that your sister has somehow found a way to deceive my grandson about that night. But what gives me absolutely no pleasure to tell you is that she has also made every effort to poison Massimo's mind against you."
The silence that followed was strained, and Potenziana could see how Ysabel was struggling to find a way to justify her sister's actions to herself.
Ysabel had a hard time thinking straight. Ynez's betrayal cut her deep, and while nothing would ever make her hate or stop loving her sister—-
Perché, Ynez?
Why was it so easy for the other girl to keep hurting her?
"You understand then, why I have chosen you?"
Ysabel bit her lip hard. What was the right thing to do here? Five years ago, she and Massimo could've had...something. But there was no knowing if what they had that time could've led to something more.
Ynez and Massimo, however...
The two already had a relationship that went on for years. Was it right for Ysabel to destroy that, just for the sake of 'something' she and Massimo might have had in the past?
"Do you love my grandson, Ysabel?"
Ysabel was flustered by the unexpected question. "Signora..."
"I need you to answer me truthfully, per favore. Are you or are you not in love with Massimo?"
Ysabel had never dared to ask herself these things, and she realized now why that was.
"Yes," she choked out.
Foolish or not, she had fallen in love with Massimo that night, and she had stayed in love with him all these years.
"Then take this chance I am giving you to steal his heart back."
La Strega's imperious tone almost had her smiling. She might've even responded with a cheeky salute to it under normal circumstances. She could've really, if only those same words didn't make her own heart ache.
The Marchetti matriarch was not one to use words lightly, and so with Massimo's own grandmother saying very clearly that Ysabel was to steal Massimo's heart back...
Did that mean it had been the same for him, five years ago?
Had he also fallen in love with her that one night?
"I hope you say yes, signorina—-"