Lorenzo the Magnificent

Letter

,,...I cannot keep it for myself any longer. I got you here to...become one of us. By marrying Lorenzo,'' Lucrezia said and the time stopped for a moment. 

My jaw dropped. All the jaws in the room dropped. Giuliano's eyes were now wide open. I looked at Lorenzo quite shocked and he looked at me the same way. Did he not know about it?? Or is he just pretending?? ,,Wha-'' I started but Lorenzo interrupted me immediately: ,,What are you talking about mother?? Are you joking?? You better be.'' ,,Oh-wow...what a reaction...'' Giuliano looked at him quite angry. ,,Excuse me?? I'm not entirely thrilled about this as well...but you don't have to react like that,'' I muttered. ,,I am sorry. I didn't mean to offend you,'' Lorenzo said back but just barely looked at me. What is his problem?? ,,Alright. This is it,'' I said surely and got down from the bench I was sitting on. I left the room without any other word. 

I walked out into the streets and looked around me. I need to find the Pazzi house again and get back to Francesco. I was sure. As I started walking away someone grabbed my arm. I don't know why, but for a moment, I hoped it was Lorenzo. I hoped Lorenzo would try to stop me from going away, most likely to Francesco. But as I turned around I assured myself that Lorenzo really doesn't care about me at all. Giuliano was the one standing there holding my hand not letting me walk away from them. ,,Don't take him too seriously Sorella. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He has no idea how lucky he is...'' he said kindly. ,,What do you mean by that??'' I didn't completely understand. ,,Our mother said you two are supposed to get married...so you'll most likely will eventualy get married,'' he tried to explain it a bit but I could hear he wasn't sure what words to chose. ,,I don't want to marry him Giuliano,'' I sighed which surprised him. ,,You don't want to marry Lorenzo?? How is that possible?? You've wanted to marry him probably since you understood what a marriage was,'' he laughed. ,,I was a child Giuliano. A stupid, foolish child. But now I'm not. And I know that he is not the one I want to marry. And it's clear he doesn't want to marry me as well. So why would Lucrezia try and force us into a marriage??'' ,,Because that's what my mother does.'' ,,She can't make me marry him if I say no,'' I said convinced. ,,Well I don't know about that. I don't want to take your hopes away, but if she announces something out loud like she did...she must have something in her sleeve,'' he said really surely. ,,Who is it you want to marry anyway?? Francesco??'' he asked curtly. ,,Look Giuliano. I know you really don't like the idea, but it is how it is. I realised Francesco was the one always standing by my side. The one that never stopped looking for me. The one who showed me that people can actually be nice after what I had gone through,'' I described my feeling with tears in my eyes. ,,Are you really talking about Francesco?? Francesco Pazzi??'' he asked in disbelief. 

I noticed everyone from the workshop was now standing in the street looking at us. ,,Sorella please, come to our house with us. We need to talk about all of it,'' Lucrezia said grabbing my hand and leading me to their house. We all walked in silence and when we arrived we went right to the dinning room and sat down around the huge table. 

,,Alright children. I know these past days were quite shocking for you. I want you to know that I've always only wanted the best for all of you. And I really hope you know that. I want you to know the truth about how did Sorella get in Florence but at first I want you all to read this letter. She handed me an old piece of paper. As soon as I laid my eyes on it i recognised the hand writing. It almost looked like my own so I was instantly sure it was my mother's hand writing. My eyes started filling with tears. I couldn't even see what was written there. ,,In case...death...leaving Sorella...orphan...be entrusted...Medici...adult...marriage...decision...son... Medici...heritage...'' I tried to continue reading the letter in my head but my vision was fully blured. I handed it to Bianca and she read it with Lorenzo, Giuliano and Sandro at the same time. 

I wiped the tears away and saw everyone staring at me. ,,You had the letter the whole time??'' Bianca asked Lucrezia. ,,Of course.'' ,,Then why didn't you use it sooner??'' ,,How could I sweetheart?? We needed to find Sorella first. We've been searching for you all the years. Never stopped having hope. Sorella, Lorenzo had been riding into new areas every month. But he wasn't lucky enough to find you. Thankfully another team was lucky enough to track down your uncle after so many years. After that it was just a question of time,'' Lucrezia smiled at me. ,,I still don't understand,'' I admited. ,,Alright. Let me explain it once more. Your uncle had dragged you away as soon as he possibly could. And he could, because he was your only relative. We had found the letter two das after you were gone and since that we had been looking for you. With no luck, unfortunatelly. Sendind more and more teams for tracking. For years we had found nothing. But then when we were left with just a little bit of hope...something. That was a month ago. We had been observing your uncle's house and everyone around you to figure out when would be the best chance to get you out from there-'' ,,But you didn't recognize me,'' I interrupted her. ,,Of course I didn't. How could I?? I had no idea how you would look. Plus I was told you escaped from the tower and someone told the guards they saw you running away from the city. So we were not expecting you to be in the town. But as we found out there's a young woman at the Pazzi's house...it felt suspicious. And you know the rest of the story,'' she smiled at all of us. 

,,But the letter doesn't say which son of the Medici,'' Sandro pointed out.