The truth rose and exploded like a firecracker. I’d created the world I wanted to live in, but now things were changing. There was a man I was falling in love with, and he was waiting for me. My precious daughter had finally let me back in, and I couldn’t stand to see her behind that massive wall again. My mother had shared the secrets of her soul and deserved my focus during our final days in Italy.

I can’t do this anymore.

The mantra repeated. My heartbeat calmed. I stared at the phone and hit the button.

“Frannie? It’s Kate, we’re all here, and we have Anthony on hold, ready to conference him in. I’ve got the last ad pulled up, and I’m here with Layla, Adam, and Sarah. Are you ready?”

Yes. I was.

“Kate, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I won’t be able to do this conference call. Tell the team to be on standby if Anthony decides to let you take over, but if you don’t hear from me, you can stop working on the campaign.”

I could practically hear the stunned silence in the room. Kate’s voice was threaded with worry. “Um, Fran, I know you have some things going on, but we can do this in about three hours max. We really don’t want to lose this account.”

“I know. It’ll be a hard loss, but there’s nothing I can do this time. I’m tied up and don’t have three hours. If you can patch Anthony through, I’ll talk to him and see what we can do.”

“Sure. You can convince him to wait a day or two; you’re amazing at negotiations.”

She sent the call over.

I spoke with Anthony, who finally made good on his threat and pulled his entire account.

When I finally clicked off, I knew I’d let the team down. We’d worked on the account as a group, and my refusal to put in the extra hours to keep a client would affect my reputation.

Right now, I just didn’t care.

I sent out the text to Enzo and jumped in the car.

On my way.

Soon, the three dots appeared. Already? You fixed it?

No, I lost the account.

I’m sorry, cara. I know how important this is to you.

I read his words, paused my finger on the button, then went for it.

Yes, but so are you. And my family.

When the heart emoji danced on my screen, I laughed.

Then I drove to Lucca.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Allegra

The high medieval walls surrounding the city of Lucca were beautiful, but I couldn’t think of anything but Mom and her stupid broken promises.

I was so pissed.