The Twelve Vitali Ch 08

Authors note: Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying this series despite its differences to the original story. Thank you once again to Paul who continues to be my second set of eyes. ~ellie.

*****

Cat woke up alone again. Since their first date she had spent each evening with Matteo being seen, and reported on it, it seemed, at the local hot spots. The publicity didn't faze her. Any reporting was done strictly on Matteo as one of Australia's most eligible bachelors. She was rarely mentioned, despite being photographed with him. She had tried many times to move away from him and let him have his time in the spotlight, but he would draw her back and hold her close to his side like a shield against the young women who would happily have given him anything he asked for in return for his company. He certainly wasn't hiding his relationship with her or his desire for her when they came home.

In the light of a brand-new day, however, it was back to business as usual. He was always gone before she woke and she would get a phone call at nine to check how she was and let her know his plans. At five she would get another phone call from his assistant, Hilary, to let her know what time she should be ready and whether it was a casual night or black-tie event. She sighed and stretched before getting out of bed. Her limbs protested the movement, and she smiled thinking of how he had taken her to amazing heights the night before.

He hadn't lied when he had told her that he was very good at fucking. The problem for her was that emotions had begun to surface, and each morning she was left alone and went through the business of the day she wished he had been there just to kiss good morning and share a moment before starting the day. It was silly, she knew. He would never put his heart on the line again and needed that distance between them in the mornings and during the day, but she couldn't help wanting it. She'd known him almost two weeks, and, even though it was such a short amount of time, their speed dating and getting to know each other phase of their relationship had been so intense, she thought she was in falling in love with him.

It saddened her as each day she would counsel herself that she was silly, he could never love her in the same way, and he had been honest about that. She just had to accept their relationship for what it was, she was a friend with benefits.

She got up and padded to the bathroom before heading to the kitchen in search of coffee. Peri had been busy with her own family commitments and left her to her own devices, for the most part, allowing her to make contact with the family members she needed to see again for her initial sketches. Because she had a really clear concept in her mind, she continued on the background layout in her spare time and met with the various men as she could, getting to know them and becoming familiar with their love for their family. She felt privileged to be welcomed so warmly and treated so well by virtual strangers who seemed to trust her just on Peri's say so. The power of Peri's position in the family rapidly became apparent to her as each of the men trusted Cat implicitly because Peri trusted her.

She'd just finished spreading a thick layer of avocado on her toast when there was a loud banging on her door. Unless she had called someone for a meeting she didn't get visitors, but went to answer it thinking that it may be some sort of delivery from Peri or Lucia, who often sent her information or books to help her in her research. When she opened the door the young woman who stood there was not what she had expected.

"Oh, good, you're awake, he had me worried," the woman said. "Here, Mattie wants to talk to you," she said, passing Cat her phone and pushing past her into the apartment dragging a garment rack behind her.

"Mattie?" Cat asked, taking the phone in amused bewilderment.

"I'm sorry," Matteo immediately apologised. "Trista saw our photo in some ezine and she got on a plane first thing this morning without telling me she was coming."

"Okay, just to catch up, Trista is your sister, and she loves you, and she is in my apartment with a garment rack because she wants me to wear something, maybe something she or a friend of hers created to the book launch tonight?" Cat couldn't help but laugh at both Matteo's consternation and the faces Trista was pulling as Cat talked to him.

"Pretty much," he groaned.

"Why didn't you tell me she was a designer?" Cat asked, dreading that he hadn't told her because her designs weren't good.

"Because she isn't. She hasn't graduated yet, she's still a student," Matteo sighed.

"No worries, I love this sort of creative stuff, and you always get the right of veto," she smiled into the phone, trying to relieve his anxiety. "How are you feeling today? Do you have a full day planned, as usual?"

"Everything is fine. Can you call me when Trista leaves?" Matteo asked, realising that there was very little he could do about Trista's sudden arrival.

"You're always in meetings. How about I call and let Hilary know?" she suggested.

"Fine," he agreed, obviously frustrated about the lack of control he had over this situation.

"Would you like to talk to Trista again?" she asked, knowing he had probably been abrupt and cross with her for her unscheduled visit. "It's nice of your sister to come and try to help me like this," she smiled at the unusual young woman before her, trying to put a positive spin on her arrival.

"Yeah, I guess," Matteo agreed, and Cat pushed the phone out toward Trista before he could say anything further or she could say something that would make everyone uncomfortable.

She went back to the kitchen leaving Trista to talk to her brother. Her mind went over what she knew about Trista, which was next to nothing, as she took a bite of her breakfast and poured herself a cup of coffee. With the small amount of media attention they had gained, she was surprised anyone in his family in Melbourne were even aware that they had been seen and photographed at a few of the trendy new places here.

"Apparently I have to be nice to you and not just expect you to wear my designs just because you're dating my brother," Trista said, rolling her eyes. "As if I would want you to wear anything you didn't love! It just so happens that I think you will love my designs and want to wear them, regardless of what 'he' says," she stressed the word 'he' as she spoke about her brother.

"Hi, Trista, I'm Cat," she held out her hand to the other woman. "I seem to have come in halfway through a conversation between you and Matteo."

"Hello, Cat," Trista giggled. "I think I like you already. Not the same way as my brothers like you, but, hey, I expect you're glad about that."

"Coffee?" Cat offered while laughing. She doubted this young woman needed caffeine.

"No thanks, we have a lot to do for the book launch tonight, so if you wouldn't mind having a quick look at my designs I can start making alterations to the one you'd like to wear," Trista said confidently.

"Sure," Cat laughed, "Just let me eat this first, okay?" she held up her piece of toast before taking another bite.

"You can eat while you look," Trista said, going back to her rack and wheeling it toward where Cat stood in the kitchen area.

"Trista, I don't know how much you know about me, but I'm not very good with this fashion stuff. Would you mind if I called a friend to look with me?" Cat immediately thought of the expense and time Andie and Peri had put into the look she now had for going out to functions like tonight.

"I guess, but we don't have a lot of time if I am going to have to make alterations. Ricco is pretty good at guestimates, but you don't seem quite as curvy as I was expecting," Trista's brow creased in concentration as she surveyed Cat openly.

"Ricco tried to guess my measurements?" Cat blinked, astonished by the idea.

"Sure, it's no secret that you dumped him for Mattie," she grinned. "Which was a strange move, if you ask me, because Ricco's much nicer. But I guess I am not the one having sex with him." She said it so casually that Cat choked on her coffee.

"I didn't even meet Matteo for several months after Ricco and I had broken up!" Cat said in her own defence. "Is that what you all think? That I traded one brother for another?" She was horrified by the thought.

"Well, it does sort of look that way," Trista said, realising she had made a mistake by voicing her thoughts. Of her three oldest brothers, Ricco was her favourite, and she felt for him having to watch the woman he was still obviously hung up on date Matteo. Her mother had told her the whole story, and obviously didn't approve of Cat dating either of her stepsons. Trista had just assumed she was yet another social climber that had seduced her brothers; men were so weak that way.

"Good grief," Cat said sadly. "Give me a second, I will call my friend, Andie. I really have no clue what she had planned for tonight, and I don't want to upset Peri, she is my boss, after all."

After a brief phone call asking Andie to come over, Cat sat on a comfortable couch and let Trista show her the gowns and made generalised comments until Andie arrived. Trista's exuberance and obvious passion for her designs were endearing, but Cat couldn't shake the feeling that Trista obviously disapproved of her and the way she had treated Ricco when they had broken up. She hated the thought that Ricco would feel that way, or, worse still, that he had told his sister that Cat had dumped him for Matteo.

"Are you okay?" Andie asked as Cat let her into the studio apartment. "You sounded upset on the phone."

"Yes, I'm fine, but I am obviously way out of my depth here," Cat laughed. "What I like and what would be suitable are two different things."

"Let's have a look, shall we? You said Matteo's sister was the designer?" Andie asked, still scrutinising Cat. There was something wrong here; she could feel the sense of Cat pulling away from the situation like Peri used to do so often. She'd seem fine and go through the motions of what she had to do, but there was a mental distance, as if she was running away from something she didn't want to deal with.

Andie swept into the room embracing Trista and chatted enthusiastically about fashion design and her business and that she was always keen to get a new designer on her list that social elite hadn't discovered yet. "It's so hard to be truly unique in your choices when everyone uses the same people," she had lamented.

"I like these three," Andie said an hour later. "What do you think, Cat?"

"I love the teal one, but I think it's probably too much for a book launch. The beaded sheer one is pretty, and probably better suited to a more intimate thing, maybe?" Cat asked uncertainly. "The hand-painted silk is just lovely, but maybe it's too long?"

"I know this one with the wildflowers doesn't seem like much on the rack, but try it on for me, please, I know you will change your mind about it," Trista urged Cat.

*****

As usual, Maryanne arrived back in Brisbane for any family celebration, and the launching of Lucia's second book was a special occasion for her sister that she just couldn't miss. She missed the closeness she had shared with her siblings when she had gotten married and moved to Melbourne, she hated that the Vitali's seemed so splintered, and she wished she knew how to fix them, but she couldn't work out where the real problems lay.

She wanted to talk to Dante again, wanted him to come down and spend some time with her, but he rarely left home these days, and she understood that sort of love, she had it with Jacobi. She wished she had it with Ricco, but the most she had managed to feel for him was a sisterly affection, and he felt the same way, she assumed. She didn't know how to overcome that hurdle either. In her darkest moments, she questioned whether she was cut out to be a mother of a table and wished desperately that her own mother was still alive.

When Jacobi, Ricco and Matteo had gone to the country house to meet with Josh and Dante, she had gone with them to seek out Peri. She found her in the nursery with the twins and quietly took a seat, watching her with the babies, reminding herself how much the woman had been through and overcome to be the mother of the new generation of Donatis'. Lucia never had ambition, Izabella was overseas, and Maryanne had no one else to confide in, but had never truly made a connection with Peri before. But she sat as Peri fed her beautiful boys and told her all her worries, letting them spill out and feeling the weight lift from her as she shared her concerns.

Peri had listened thoughtfully, saying very little as Maryanne spoke around in circles detailing her life in terms of what her husband wanted, and what her mother-in-law expected from her and what she believed she had to do as being part of what would become the next table of the Vitali.

"I'm so sorry Antonia isn't here to help you through all of this," Peri said softly. "She was so good at dealing with everyone else's problems and seeing to the heart of the matter. I'm still reasonably new to the family and being a mother," she smiled down at her baby and stroked his cheek. "Do you feel better for telling someone exactly how you have been feeling?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess, but I'd like to know what you think," Maryanne said, genuinely wanting a different perspective.

"You mightn't like what I will say," Peri said cautiously. "I won't just tell you what you want to hear, and sometimes the truth can be confronting. You're a grownup to me, not the baby sister who needs protection from the harsh realities of life, so I won't treat you that way. As far as I am concerned, we're equals here."

"Go on," Maryanne said, tilting her head curiously.

"Jacobi is not the second son. Antonia ensured I met the second son, and the man who she believed would be the next chair of the Vitali's when I was at your wedding," Peri explained. "You did know there was an older brother who died when he was around ten, didn't you?"

"Yes, but he doesn't count." Maryanne said with a careless shrug, startling Peri.

"Let me ask you this, you were the twelfth child of Joseph Donati, which makes you pretty special. But now that Nik and Leo are gone, are you now the tenth child? Because, as you said, the dead don't count," Peri said, not holding back and feeling dreadful for the parents of the Vitali to have their eldest child dismissed so completely from his sibling's thoughts.

"That's completely different!" Maryanne looked horrified.

"How is it different? How is Jacobi's oldest brother any different to Emilio?" Peri asked. "Would you have let Emilio be dismissed so easily if he was the eldest instead of Angelo, and Carlo had wanted to claim that he was the second son?"

"That's ridiculous," Maryanne said, but the strength of conviction had left her voice.

"How do you think Stefano and Roberto feel about Jacobi ignoring his oldest brother's existence entirely? That must hurt them terribly. How do you think Matteo feels? He is the rightful second son, after all," Peri posed the questions to make Maryanne think. "His name was Alessandro, by the way, I know it, and I guarantee all of the other tables know it and recognise him as the eldest son of the Vitali table."

"But Jacobi is so adamant about it," Maryanne whispered. "I assumed that was the way they all felt."

"You know it doesn't matter who the second son is in reality, don't you? Look at Josh, and Dante, neither was the second son. Talk to Ben and you will realise he is happy with the way things are. If he had stepped up into the chair, who would have been his Oracle? Who would have loved Emily enough to forsake a love of their own?" She let the question hang between them as she saw Maryanne try to sort through the questions and obvious answers.

"Jacobi has asked Ricco to give up any chance he had for a real love of his own, and, from what I understand, he may have found it and turned it away because of pressure from his brother and you, who just admitted can only offer him affection, at the most. You both expect him to live a half-life because you think, not know, but think, Jacobi will be named chair. That doesn't seem fair somehow, does it?" Peri said.

"I didn't have anything to do with their agreement," Maryanne became defensive. "It was their agreement and their choice. It's always been Ricco's choice. I would never force him to love me!"

"The Vitali's are a younger table than your father's table; you have probably another decade before any decisions are made. Let Ricco live his life, and you live yours, enjoy your husband, who obviously adores you, enjoy your pregnancy," Peri smiled knowingly as Maryanne put a hand on her belly. "The table will work itself out when it's ready, and in the end it will have very little to do with what you or Jacobi wants. People end up in the roles they were born to be in, particularly the oracle, if that is Ricco's destiny. Nothing you do or say now will make one iota of difference to that outcome. Dante is the poster child of destiny taking a hand in a man's life." She smiled softly and was glad when Maryanne returned her smile.

"All of this worry and planning and it could amount to nothing," she agreed. "You've given me a lot to think about. Not that I agree with all you have said, but you are right, I think Josh and Dante are perfect together. If you had asked me before I got married I would have told you that you were crazy! It was lucky the way it worked out for them and you. I never imagined either of them sharing so much." She hedged around the loving relationship the three of them shared.

"It's a delicate balance, but we make time for each other, both together and apart. It's important to have those date nights, Joseph taught me that," Peri smiled warmly. Peri could predict the love triangle forming in the Vitali family, and she knew it didn't include Maryanne. Peri was impressed that Maryanne loved Jacobi so much that she bought into his dreams and needs and would compromise her love for him to include Ricco, but Peri was ninety-nine percent sure that Maryanne wouldn't need to in the end.

She watched as Blayze came into the room quietly seeking out his mother, but seeing her occupied he climbed up into Maryanne's lap to accept cuddles from his aunt and show her the bump on his knee with a teary pout. Maryanne kissed it better with a smile and held the little boy close.

"I can't wait to have my own babies," Maryanne said.

"It's an amazing feeling," Peri agreed, getting up to put her sleeping infant back in his bed and checking on his twin. "Let's go see if we can find some cookies and milk for morning tea."

*****

Matteo was tense, he was genuinely enjoying the meeting with his brothers and cousins, but he knew Trista was with Cat saying god knows what to her and forcing her into some clown suit for the book launch tonight. It was getting close to lunchtime, and he wondered why she hadn't called him back yet.

"Back in a sec," Dante said, getting up and moving away from the conversation. The idea of an HQ building to gather various factions of their family into one corporate entity was a good one. The idea had worked well for the Vitali because Matteo had built his developmental design and construction business up to incorporate many of those factions. He wasn't as sure it would work for his family in the same way, but had decided that Josh's ideas on the subject held some merit. It would have to be a completely different setup, but it could work with the House of Lorraine as the overarching company to tie them all together.

Josh watched Dante go. He knew Dante wasn't one hundred percent sold on this idea yet but could see his vision and was going along with the early planning stages. Josh needed an official office in the city instead of working out of their home or Dante's business. He wanted to be able to invite the men from the thirteen tables to come and stay in the luxury of a private five-star facility, as well as offer business premises to those in the family who required it. He felt the need to keep them all close and safe, even now, years after the day that had claimed so many lives and almost his own. He looked up as Dante came back in and threw his phone to Matteo.