From the highest star

23

The next morning
Lorenzo returned to the house after Petrucci had won the election.
He knew nothing about Simonetta, no one did, only Giuliano.

"Lorenzo...have you seen Giuliano".
"No Beatrice, I wanted to ask you the same thing".
A cry was heard, a desperate cry coming from the chapel.
Beatrice looked at Lorenzo and then walked towards it.
Giuliano was slumped, lying on the ground, crying.
Lorenzo passed Beatrice and threw himself on his brother.
The girl brought a hand to her mouth and from her eyes, uncontrollable tears began to fall.
Beatrice collapsed to the ground, her hands in her hair, her tears and her screams explained how much she loved Simonetta despite her relationship with her husband.
She then got up and approached Giuliano, welcomed him into her arms, while Lorenzo left them alone, a letter had arrived from Milan.
Duke Sforza had been killed.
Giuliano's screams mixed with those of Bona di Savoia Lorenzo imagined, he could hear them in his head.
Soon those same cries would come from his lips.
The blood of the Medici was to be spilled.

1478
Beatrice went down to the dining room and stood listening; Lucrezia, Clarice and Lorenzo were there.
"Do you think the Pazzi are plotting against you?"
"Because otherwise Francesco would be in Rome meeting Salviati."
"They couldn't see each other for innocent reasons."
"Clarice whatever the Pazzi are doing is not innocent" Beatrice said as she came through the door.
"Beatrice how is Giuliano"
"He's broken and drunk it's been months but he's still suffering, maybe the arrival of a new son will cheer him up...anyway, what's going on?" Everyone looked at Beatrice, she was pregnant again, after Federico she had another child, Lorenzo, named after her uncle and then she had Simonetta.
"Congratulations Beatrice, I'm very happy tomorrow we will celebrate, however Pazzi is in Rome, in secret, for sure he is plotting against us."
Beatrice then understood the reason for all those guards.
"After Sforza's death we can expect anything."
"We have always expected anything from Jacopo...Sforza was strong and look how he ended up, we must not move for any reason, we stay in Florence" Beatrice continued
"He's right Lorenzo, you can't go to Rome."
"Clarice what do you say, you join their advice" she said ironizingly.

In Sandro's workshop
"They are very beautiful Sandro...very beautiful" Lorenzo told them while the master was sitting on a mattress.
And Giuliano entered just in that moment, took the jug with the wine and poured it in the goblet.
"Why are we here?" He asked still disheveled from the night before.
"I have been summoned for an interview by the Pope for Easter, it may be a trap or a sincere offer of peace."
"What does Carlo say?"
"I'm waiting to hear from him."
"I thought the two of you could go by approaching diplomatically serving the Holy Father the services of the greatest artist in the world, what do you think?" Asked Sandro.
"I will never paint again...my muse is dead."
Giuliano snorted and laughed.
"You find it funny the fault is yours"
"The fault is only of her husband" exclaimed Giuliano.
"She died of consumption."
"Because he wanted at all costs the wife of another" said Sandro.
"While you were making love to her with your beautiful brush".
"And you killed her, you and her idiot husband."
"Stop it...let's at least console ourselves with the thought that she will live on in Sandro's paintings."
Giuliano laughed.
"These gouges, these...insignificant little gouges, they don't even look like her, they don't look like her at all."
Giuliano walked over to a canvas, picked up a piece of chalk and began to mess with it.
"No more than this or this or this or this, anyone who wants to can throw some color on a blank canvas and pretend it means something, but it doesn't mean anything! It was just an object...to you...to me it was everything instead, it gave meaning to my life" he finished by throwing the chalk and walking out of the store.
"He's suffering and he's venting like this Sandro".
Lorenzo told them apologetically.
"You'll have to find another way to make peace with the Pope."