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Whoever he is

"A leopard doesn't change its spots"

Giuseppe Vitale isn't usually a man tohis son inherited from him, but his point is always there, front and center He knohat he knows and feels how he feels, and when it comes down to it, he won't hesitate to tell you how it is

A leopard doesn't change its spots

He's talking about Ignazio

"But he's different," I say,to the small wooden table between us, like maybe subconsciously I doubt my oords He has been different, that's true, but I know that doesn't ed

Can he change?

I don't know

Should I even want him to?

It has been over a year since a bullet tore through h my chest still aches like it happened yesterday The physical wound healed but my heart is another story

Part of it remains broken

It probably alill be that way

Six weeks ago, Naz asked me to marry him Really asked me, unlike before This ti to I knohat kind of s he wanted to do We said 'I do' that very night, in the chapel at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and I've spent every night since then convinced I'd ht decision

Because he's different

He is

But what exactly does different mean?

Giuseppe reaches over, placing his rough, calloused hand on top of htly to draw ot a smile on his lips, but it's not a smile of happiness It borders somewhere on pity

I can al

Poor little girl, you don't understand what you've gotten into

"You know, they say if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it'll ju in a pot of cool water and steadily raise the te is happening You get where I' with this?"

My brow furrows at the jump in conversation "No"

"You're the frog, girl, and Ignazio? He's boiling you alive without you even noticing"

I want to argue against that I want to tell hi But the only words I can come up with are 'he's different' and I'm not even entirely sure how to explain what that nazio, but Vitale hasn't shown his face not around me, anyway