After The Storm, Is It Still Us?

I was still holding the half-eaten almond cream roll, not sure what to do with my hands.

Luca had stepped in front of Lila, shielding her, his eyes cutting into me like a drawn knife.

"I've told you, Lila is like a sister to me. Why do you keep coming at her like this?"

"She can't even have a pastry without you taking it from her. What kind of person does something like that?"

Lila was crying behind him, big theatrical tears, but she still managed to put in a good word for me:

"It's all my fault. Sofia has loved Luca since they were children. Seeing him care for me must be hard, and anyone would feel the same."

"I just ask that once Sofia becomes the Galvani Donna next month, she'll be kind to everyone on the estate. If she's angry, she can take it out on me."

Luca shook his head with that familiar look of disappointment. "With a personality like that, how could she possibly run this family?"

My throat tightened. I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

I had bled for that position. I had begged for it on my knees, literally.

I had been in love with Luca since I was a child — more than a decade of it.

Back then I was still the legitimate daughter of the Caldwell family, and everyone on the island knew Sofia Caldwell.

When I was eight, my mother took a bullet meant for the Don of the Ferrara family and died not long after.

The Ferraras came to the estate soon afterward. They said they were bringing me to live with the Don's children.

There were many children at the estate; besides the Don’s heir Donato, there were heirs from other Mafia families allied with the Ferrara family.

I had no one at that estate. The days were hard. The Don's children bossed me around constantly, and I kept my head down so as not to cause trouble for my father.

The only one who ever stepped in for me was Luca, the heir to the Galvani family. He would slip me little things on the side: a slingshot, a pencil he'd sharpened himself, shells he'd picked up at the docks.

I fell for him gradually, without even noticing it.

Until I turned sixteen and my father got permission to bring me home. He wanted to arrange a match for me.

I cried every day. When Luca found out, he climbed through the window one night and said he wanted to run away with me, go deep into the Sicilian interior, somewhere no one would ever find us.

I still remember how he sounded — soft, certain of himself.

"I swear on the family blood: Luca Galvani will be good to Sofia Caldwell for the rest of his life. One woman. Until death."

I thought I'd found a love like something out of a story.

For two months in the Catania hills, we ran a little bakery together. The days were quiet and warm.

Then, a month before our wedding, Lila showed up.

"Sofia, after you disappeared, Father thought I helped you escape. He threw me out."

"Please don't send me away. I have nowhere to go. Think of me as a stray cat you're taking in."

She was on her knees in front of me, clutching my sleeve, her beautiful face streaked with tears.

We had never been close — she was illegitimate, a half-sister at best — but she was still a Caldwell by blood.

I looked at Luca, torn. "Maybe let Lila stay? She's always been easy. She won't cause trouble."

But I noticed he was already staring at her, a slight frown on his face.

Lila glanced back at him, cautious and uncertain. She gripped my sleeve tighter, tears in her eyes.

"If both of you turn me away, then there's nothing left for me. I'd rather be dead."

She made a move toward the heavy wooden beam in the front room.

Luca's hand shot out and caught her arm. Then, slowly, like he was reconsidering something, he let go.

"You can stay," he said, a rare edge of impatience in his voice.