Read Online The Vendetta by Kecia Adams - Free Book Online Page A

little time left for all that must be said and done. And I have missed you, my dear.
     
     
    Love,
    Your Grandmother
    La Principessa Giovanna Maria Severino di Giorgio
     
     
    “Little time left for all that must be said and done.” Lisa read the words aloud.
    The last part of the letter rang with the scrupulous honesty that had always characterized her Gran, while the first part was very like the irascible, managing principessa that Lisa knew well, to her personal cost. She had stayed away from her grandmother because she had been deeply hurt by the old woman’s mistrust. But it had been Lisa’s loyalty to her mother that had cemented the estrangement.
    She dropped the heavy paper back down on the table and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Gran had gone to extraordinary lengths to contact her. What should she do now?
    Lisa had gotten over her snit, as Gran called it. She snorted. Her grandmother would know about snits. She rubbed her forehead, thinking back to her year in Rome and her ultimate disagreement with the formidable principessa.
    Growing up as a military child, transient and rootless, she’d always been fascinated by the weight of tradition surrounding the noble Italian side of her family. By the time she entered college, she had worn down her immediate family’s opposition to a closer relationship. Gran and her parents had agreed to let Lisa go to Rome for a year to study art.
    It had probably been homesickness, rather than anything more serious, that had led her into a relationship with an American serviceman. Lisa had met Petty Officer Rob Petrakis on a weekend trip to Naples. Their connection had not lasted past his next deployment, but she had made the mistake of flouting Gran’s rules and had brought the young man back to the palazzo.
    Lisa’s gaffe had immediately torn open old wounds for Gran.
    Thirty years before Lisa had shown up with her boyfriend of the moment, Lisa’s mother—the principessa’s own daughter, Elisabetta—had married American Air Force pilot John Schumacher under a cloud of scandal and rebellion. The staunchly traditional principessa had never been able to forgive her daughter or accept Lisa’s father. And the proud old woman had rarely spoken with Lisa’s mother since the marriage. When Lisa had brought Rob into the palazzo, the principessa had railed at Lisa, they had argued horribly, and then Gran had packed her up and sent her home.
    She glanced down at Gran’s letter. Lisa regretted some of her actions too, because her time abroad had ended the day of their argument. She had been impulsive and had pushed Gran too hard to defend a relationship that had not been worth the price she’d paid. But she had also been young and naive. Gran could not claim such an excuse.
    The worst had come when Mamma had gotten sick. A fast growing brain tumor had taken her life in a heartbreakingly short amount of time. Lisa had found it impossible to forgive her grandmother’s continued silence when Elisabetta had been so ill. But Mamma had begged Lisa to soften her heart and forgive the old woman. Something Lisa had failed to do even now, almost four years after her mother’s death.
    A sob welled inside her. Tears threatened to spill at the thought of her mother, but Lisa brushed them back in order to consider her options.
    Could she now face everything that reconciliation with the principessa entailed? The art collection, the estate, the title. Lisa had been happy in her anonymity. Hadn’t she?
    What would Mamma have said to all this ?
    Lisa sighed. She could almost hear her mother’s voice.
    “Not go? But amore mio , of course you should go. In fact, I think you must go. If only to figure out what La Principessa is up to.”
    Mamma would be right, as usual. If Gran’s request concerned only la collezione or the palazzo, Lisa would have no obligation to the principessa. But Gran had asked her to come, to forgive, and also to help in planning a gallery showing. In short,