Chapter Nineteen

After Matteo left, Caelian and Mauro joined her in the sitting room. She raised an eyebrow as she relaxed into the sofa cushions.

"Do you believe him?" Caelian asked.

"I don't know," she murmured, her mind replaying the entire conversation. "He doesn't know I'm Macy, so why would he lie to Gianna?"

"To save face? To make him not seem like a bad guy?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure."

"He sounded sincere," Mauro stated.

"Can a person be that good of an actor?" she mused to herself.

"Anything's possible," Caelian replied. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I don't think he was acting. I think he was sincere."

"I agree," Gianna said. Mauro brought her a mug of coffee and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she said, wrapping her hands around the heated ceramic.

"I have some news," Mauro told her.

"Good news, I hope."

He nodded. "There are only two elders left in the Romanelli Famiglia. Great Aunt Julia, so pretty sure it's not her. The other is Angelo, who is eighty-five years old and battling liver cancer. I'm going out on a limb here and say it's him."

"Cancer would've prevented him from traveling, as well as taking all his attention, so now we know how Pietro was able to get away with his deception." A thought occurred to her. "If Seth can find where the money is, we can present everything we have to Angelo."

"What if Seth finds out something damning about Matteo?" Caelian asked.

She took a deep breath. "Then I won't care what the real don does to him."

That's what she said, but if she were honest with herself, it would break her hopeful heart all over again if he turned out to be the monster she thought he was.

****

"Why are we stalking your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Matteo muttered. He and Rocco followed behind her, trying to stealthily blend into the other traffic.

"Okay, your fiancée. Is that better?"

"You're such a smart ass." He watched as she turned into a parking lot. "Where is she going?"

"More than likely, she's shopping," Rocco sighed insufferably.

"She's not shopping."

"What are you hoping to discover?"

He didn't answer right away as he tried to find the right words tumbling through his mind. "She told me a pun."

"I'm not sure what that means."

"A joke, Rocco. Macy always told me jokes."

His friend sucked in a breath. "Wait. What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say nothing right now, but I need to learn her secrets. All of them."

Gianna exited her car and headed inside to a doctor's office. He grabbed his phone and looked up the practice name, and discovered the doctor she went to was a pulmonologist. His heart skipped a beat. Too many things were stacking up.

"This is too much of a coincidence to be an actual coincidence," he said.

"What is?" Rocco asked.

"She's going to see a pulmonologist." When Rocco continued to stare at him in confusion, he let out a snort. "She told a joke. She said fear is about the unknown. And now, a pulmonologist. All of that, and Reynolds said his best friend was Macy."

"You're not making much sense. Are you implying Gianna is Macy?"

"I don't know what I'm implying," he answered truthfully. "She reminds me of Macy and I realize how crazy I'm sounding."

"Macy is dead."

"That's what we were told. What we were shown. But Fabricio said he didn't kill her, and Renyolds said we did. Nothing is aligning."

"So, what's the plan?" Rocco snapped his fingers. "I know! You need to see her medical records."

"Yes. Yes, that's what I need. If she has eosinophilic asthma, then I need to have a different talk with Gianna."

An hour later, she walked out, heading to her car. Once she drove away, he and Rocco hurried into the doctor's office. The receptionist behind the counter looked them over before she settled her gaze on Rocco. Interest flared into her eyes.

"Why is such a beautiful woman like you sitting here all alone?" Rocco asked in flawless Italian.

"Obviously waiting for you," she smiled coquettishly. "How can I help you?"

Since there was no one in the waiting room, he leaned in close. "My friend thought he saw his fiancée leave here. Her name is Gianna Novelly. We just wanted to see if she had a procedure today."

The woman's eyes flickered over to Matteo for a brief moment. "I'm sorry I can't—"

"Shh, pretty lady," Rocco murmured, placing a finger over her lips. "You're so beautiful you light up this entire room."

The woman blushed, completely under Rocco's thrall.

"If you tell this gentleman about Gianna, he'll leave and you and I can have some time together." He winked at her. "Perhaps you can take me on a tour of the backroom."

She giggled. "It was nothing, really. She was just getting her injection for her asthma. She gets one every eight weeks."

"Eosinophilic asthma?" Matteo asked.

She nodded.

"Thank you." He looked at Rocco and raised his eyebrows, turning to leave Rocco to his seduction. Knowing his best friend, he wouldn't see him until much later.

When he settled behind the wheel, he leaned his head back. That type of asthma was rare, so to encounter two women with the same disease, along with all the other parallels, was too hard to come to any other conclusion. All he wanted to do was find Gianna. Or Macy. Fuck, he was losing his damn mind!