When I got home that evening, there was a strange car in the driveway. My mind immediately went to the worst possible scenario. They were here to take Luca; he was being arrested, just like that asshole cop had promised.
I grabbed my purse and rushed in through the garage, frantic to find out what was happening. Instead of finding cops swarming my house and my husband in handcuffs, I found Axel sitting at the kitchen island next to Angelo and Marco. Luca stood leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a distant scowl on his face, deep in thought. The tension in the room was suffocating.
"Charlotte." Axel smiled warmly, standing up to give me a hug. "I didn't think I was going to get to see you."
I glanced towards Luca, but he didn't meet my eyes. "Hi Axel. It's nice to see you." I said with a tight smile. If I was being honest, I wanted to strangle him right now. He was the one who had dragged Luca in to this mess and from where I was standing, he was doing next to nothing to fix it. Luca had done a favor for him, and Axel was letting him hang out to dry to protect his own ass. Why was he even here?
"Hey babe." Luca said, pressing his lips to mine. Something about his tone was off, but he was trying to hide it. "How was your day?"
Even in his own distress, he picked up on my tension from the interaction with the officers at the courthouse. "It was fine. Just a tough case I'm on. We can talk about it later." I gave him a convincing smile. Luca may be trusting Axel again, but I wasn't there. I'd tell him and Marco and Angelo about what had happened once Axel was gone. "How are you? Where are the kids?"
"Landon is upstairs working on homework, and Layla picked Lucy up to take her shopping." Luca said.
"And Leo?" I arched an eyebrow. He was usually the wildcard.
Marco chuckled. "Leo and Viv are on a date... He took her to the movies."
My eyes widened. "Seriously?" Of course, it had always been a running joke that once our children grew up, they'd marry each other, but I never really considered it to be a reality. It was absolutely adorable that Leo and Vivi were dating, and I was all for it.
He nodded, a big smile tugging on his lips. "He asked me for permission first."
Angelo let out a laugh. "More of a gentleman than his father... you raised him right, Char."
Luca rolled his eyes, chuckling. "First of all, you guys are assholes. I can be a gentleman. Tell em, babe."
"Of course you can, baby." I smiled, placating him. Luca certainly could be sweet and romantic when he wanted to be, most of the time, though he chose to be extravagant and domineering. I loved all of those parts of him equally as much, though. I didn't marry Luca because I thought he was gentle.
I set my stuff down and started to pull a few things out of the fridge. "Axel, will you be staying for dinner?"
"No, he won't." Luca answered quickly, tensing up again.
Axel gulped. "No, Char. Thank you though. I just came by to..." He glanced at Luca as if to see how much he wanted him to say.
"Go ahead." Luca threw his arm in the air. "Tell her what you've gotten us involved in."
Axel's eyes fell. "Look, I never meant for it to turn out this way."
"Of course you didn't," Angelo scoffed. "You never think. You do what's best for that ego of yours and the rest of us are left to clean up the pieces."
"Nothing is going to..."
"Nothing is going to what, Axel?" Luca glared. "You said that last week and now Angelo and I are smack in the middle of a murder investigation."
"Murder?" My eyes widened.
"The woman that they found was murdered in some kind of turf war. The officers thought it looked suspicious that Luca and Angelo were on the witness list with their ties to organized crime." He explained.
"What do you mean, Axel?" I hissed.
"What he's getting at is that Angelo and I are now 'persons of interest' in the murder." Luca said with a heavy sigh.
All the air left my lungs. Murder? Somehow, this was so much bigger than I thought it was. When Luca said they were looking into them, I thought he meant they were suspicious of his operations. Not that they thought he killed this woman. He would never in a million years. This was absolutely insane.
Axel bit his lip. "I'm going to go. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."
"You've done quite enough." Marco rolled his eyes, following Axel to show him out.
I had about a thousand questions rolling through my mind and no way to get them out in any way that would make sense. The only thing I could get out was, "How serious is this?"
Angelo shifted his weight. "We aren't sure. No one has connected either one of us so far, but they talked to Marco and they showed up at the gallery and..."
"And they hunted me down at the courthouse this morning." I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek. It made complete sense what they were trying to do. They probably didn't have quite enough for the takedown and were hoping to get me to spill something.
"What?" Luca shrieked. "Why didn't you tell me that?"
"I came straight home to tell you, but your moron cousin was sitting in my kitchen." I rolled my eyes as Marco came back into the room.
"Axel is gone." He announced. "Hopefully for good."
I held on to the counter, trying to steady myself. I hated that this was happening. That we were at this point in our lives, a few short years from moving on and enjoying Luca's retirement together, after all the bullshit we'd been through, and now he was staring down a murder charge.
"What did they say to you, Char?" Angelo asked.
"I... I don't know. It happened so fast. It was the same guy from the gallery. He said that when all of this went down, I would want to be on their side of it."
"Motherfuckers." Luca growled, running his fingers through his hair. "I ought to go down there right now and rip out..."
"No, you won't." I glared. "All of you will stay far away from the police. I'll talk to them."
"That's definitely not happening." Luca scoffed.
"You're in no position to make that kind of decision right now, Luca." I said harshly, folding my arms over my chest.
He rolled his eyes. "Look, Charlotte, I appreciate you want to help, I really do but..."
"Oh, are you seriously going to start this sexist bullshit again?" I snapped. "Haven't I saved your life enough to count for something?"
"That's not the point, Charlotte." Luca was flustered. "I know you're capable of handling this. I'm not being sexist. I just don't want..."
"She's right." Marco interjected. "Neither of you can walk into that police station. It's a fucking death trap if you do. And I can't go because I'm too close to the operation."
"Should any of us really be going in there?" Angelo asked. "That's exactly what they want. Maybe we should just not acknowledge it. Obviously, we don't want them harassing Charlotte, but things are delicate right now."
"True. But maybe Char can find out what they know, see what they've got and then we can at least not get caught blind." Marco countered.
"I'm not making any decisions on this right now. I need to think." Luca said, obviously overwhelmed and on the edge.
Angelo and Marco both nodded as if they understood. "I need to get going to pick up the kids, anyway. Let's talk later." He stood up and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "Bye Char."
"And I need to get to the theater so I can spy on our kids from the back row without them seeing." Marco joked, trying to lighten the mood. He got a small laugh from Luca.
"I'll call you later." Luca said as Marco and Angelo left.
Luca and I were alone standing int he kitchen, both searching for the right thing to say. Finally, he spoke first.
"Baby, you know that I think you're a badass and totally capable of being a part of all of this, right?" Luca slipped his arm around me, kissing the top of my head.
I did, but that's why I was so confused. "Then why won't you let me help?"
"Because I won't rope you into this. If it does go south and something happens, I won't put you in any kind of position to be involved, Charlotte. I can't. You understand that, right?"
"Luca, stop. Nothing is going to happen." I said, biting my lip gingerly. I hated hearing him alt his way.
"I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't. But if it does, then we have to be prepared. Our family is going to need you. Our children are going to need you." He explained, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.
"They're going to need you too, Luca. Why didn't you think about that when you got involved with this?" Tears pooled in my eyes. Hearing the slightest bit of doubt in his voice was terrifying to me. It made it so much more real.
"I'm so sorry, Charlotte." He said. "I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you then and I'm sorry that this is happening now, but I swear to you, I will fight it with everything I have."
"Let me help you, then." I begged. "Going to speak with them doesn't involve me any more than I already am."
"But sharing whatever information they tell you with us does." He said.
"I don't care. Don't you get that?" I threw my arms in the air. "I knew from the moment I married you something like this could happen. I was involved with this the second you kissed me for the first time all those years ago, because I can't live without you. Nothing changes now."
Luca rubbed his forehead. "I'll think about it, okay?"
"Okay." I was happy with this small concession. If he had half a brain, he'd realize that he needed me to do this.
Cole came down and the three of us had dinner. Afterwards, he and Luca went out into the backyard to fish and I skyped with my mom. Over the last few weeks, we spoke only briefly because I wasn't ready to get into all of this with her, but right now, I just needed her guidance and comfort.
"Hi mom." I tried to muster up a smile, but she could see right through it.
"Hi baby." She frowned. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
I let out a heavy sigh. "I'm fine. It's just been a stressful few weeks."
"With work or what?" She asked, her face full of concern.
"Well, actually..."
I launched into the full story, filling my mom in on everything that had gone on, from Layla dating the cop to Luca being involved in a murder investigation. She just listened as I vented, letting out all of my thoughts and feelings and frustrations.
"Oh sweetheart, I am so sorry. I can't imagine what you and Luca are going through." She said once I had explained everything.
"I'm just frustrated. Mostly that Luca kept it from me for all these years."
"But even if you knew, Char, there is no guarantee it would have changed what is happening now." She said, defending him.
"Yeah, I know that, but all I've ever asked was for him to be honest with me, mom. I didn't ask him to leave, I didn't push him to. I didn't give him any kind of ultimatum. He's the one who told me he was ready to be done and walk away, and then he kept working and he hid it from me."
Once Layla and I came back to New York, I knew I had to accept Luca as he was. I had to accept everything about him, and that included the potential danger of being with him. I had come to terms with it, and knew that I could never try to pressure him to leave or change the way he was. I had fallen in love with all of Luca. I couldn't pick and choose the pieces. That was what hurt the worst about this for me. That I had conceded so much, and was supportive of him in his business, but that hadn't been enough for him to tell me the truth.
"I know. And you have every right to be upset about that, but don't let it cloud the rest of your mind. Luca always tried to protect you, Charlotte. And sometimes his methods aren't the best, but he's always got your best interest in mind. I know he thought he was doing the right thing." She continued.
"I'm sure he did at the time. He always thinks he's doing the right thing." I swallowed the lump in my throat.
"Sweetheart, I know that his dishonesty hurts you, but you have to remember that was several years ago now. It's the past, and we both know if he could change it, he would. He's come a long way and all you can do now is support him through this. He needs you now more than ever."
"I know." I wiped a tear off of my cheek. "I know I need to move past that part. It's just hard." It was harder than I wanted to admit. I wanted to believe that Luca hadn't hidden other things from me over the years and that he was honest with me, but it cast a shadow on so much now. I hated that I was feeling the way, and I had tried so hard to push it back, but it still crept into my mind at the worst possible times.
"You guys will get through this, Char. You always do."
She was right, we usually did, but we'd never faced a mountain quite like this before. If Luca went to prison for murder, what would that mean for us?