Elijah put a glass of water in front of her and then pulled out the chair beside hers. He sat down, his thigh pressing against hers. Close. Staying close to her. For comfort. To make her feel safe. She realized it was the little things that mattered. He did those little things. He’d done them in the hospital. Braiding her hair. Noticing her lips were dry and smoothing on lip balm. Each time the pain got too bad, he’d already called the nurse. If anyone opened the door, his body had glided between the door and the hospital bed, shielding her from sight.

“You’re not eating, Siena,” he reminded softly.

She picked up half of the sandwich. “It’s very thoughtful of you, trying to convince me that my grandfather loved me, but he didn’t even want me home with him.”

“Baby, I was there. In your home, having dinner with you. Do you remember that? He sat at the head of the table. He was laughing then. The only times I ever saw him laughing was when you were around. He had a great booming laugh that could make everyone in a room want to laugh with him. He looked at you so proudly, and he talked about how well you did in school. Do you remember him telling everyone that you already knew everything there was to know about growing grapes for the wines? That you’d been following him around the vineyards since you were first able to walk just absorbing information like a sponge. He bragged about you, Siena, all the time. Your name came up in any conversation and he was smiling and bragging.”

She bit her lip hard. She did remember his laugh. The board games he would play with her after dinner when she was home on her short visits from school. She hadn’t wanted to remember because then it would hurt too much, and she had to acknowledge her part in his death. She’d driven Paolo over the edge.

Her eyes burned and tears spilled over. “If I’d just kept my mouth shut,” she whispered. “Elijah, I shouldn’t have tipped my hand like that. If only I’d not said a thing. But it was such a betrayal that he hadn’t fired Paolo on the spot. I wanted to hurt both of them. I knew it was his dream to have me marry Paolo, and I knew Paolo wanted the inheritance.”

His hand caught her chin and he turned her head toward him. “I need you to look at me, baby,” he said softly. “I need you to hear me. Can you do that for me?”