by Frankie Love
“Okay.” Cristiano nods, slowly smiling at Lorenzo. “I like it.”
Lorenzo’s face lights up in a way I’ve never seen before. He ruffles the child’s hair and gets up, looking triumphant. He gives me a long look and I glare at him. I don’t like him getting his way, but if Cristiano wants this as well, I guess I see no reason to keep the two brothers apart.
“I need to speak to Lorenzo quickly,” Matteo says. “You and Cristiano go inside. I’ll join you in a little bit.”
I give my man an uncertain look, but he looks set in his way. Carole rushes over, always ready to help, and helps me into the house. Cristiano follows close behind, his small hand in mine.
We settle in the living room and I notice my baby brother isn’t quite meeting my eyes. I wonder why. “Cristiano, everything alright?” I ask. My voice is soft and not probing at all. I just need to know if there’s anything going on that I can help him with.
“I…” He looks like a little lost boy in the big armchair he’s sitting in. “I don’t want to speak.”
“What do you mean?” I ask him. I’m trying to be patient, kind, caring. The way every mother figure should be. And in the same breath, I realize I’ve accepted and fallen into the role of Cristiano’s mother. I kiss him goodnight, tuck him in, teach him… Everything. My heart swells with emotion as I wait for his answer.
“I should not tell you,” Cristiano says. His small hands have formed fists in his lap and he looks genuinely worried. “I no want to make you angry.”
“I won’t be angry,” I try to reassure him. “I really won’t. Anything I can help you with, you just need to tell me, baby brother.”
“Okay.” He takes a deep breath and it pains me to see him like this. It’s obvious something’s bothering him and I can’t help but wonder what it is he’s not telling me. I hope he opens up to me soon.
“I… I feel something inside,” he says. His voice is heavy and it’s really difficult to listen to a child telling me about his problems. “You don’t know. Everything. Things that happened in Sicilia.” I look at him, urging him to continue, and the boy sighs, pulling at his hair.
“I feel dark inside me,” he says with a heavy voice. “Dark, eating me. It’s coming for me.”
I’m shocked. I don’t understand what he is saying. I don’t know what happened in Palermo. “Tell me more,” I beg him. He looks up at me with those big, dark eyes, rimmed with thick black lashes.
“I cannot,” he says. He sounds so damn sad.
I reach for his hand. “One day, Cristiano, you will be able to tell me everything. And I will never judge you for it. Alright?”
He nods and gives me a hopeful smile, which I gladly return. It’s all I need to make me feel better. I just need to know he’s going to be okay.
Cristiano gets up from his chair and comes to sit on the sofa with me. He hugs me and I hold him close. There is something eating this child up from the inside. I can only hope he can overcome it someday, and tell me what happened in Palermo…
22
Matteo
I wait until Bianca and Cristiano are safely back inside the house before turning to Lorenzo. “We need to speak,” I tell him simply. He nods, obviously sharing my sentiment. “I need to ask you something.”
“I can only assume what it is,” Lorenzo says with a wicked smile. I don’t know this man well, but I feel like we share some of the same values. Still… when the darkness threatened to consume me, I stopped it. Bianca keeps it at bay. It seems as if it devoured Lorenzo and spat him out, and he’ll always have that dark streak I’m so afraid of.
“I want to marry Bianca,” I tell him firmly. “I want to make her all mine.”
“I figured as much.” Lorenzo smiles, a trace of sadness in his expression. He has fully accepted the role of the heir of the Da Costa family now. The famiglia is his to run, and in my opinion, he is right for the role. He is reasonable but ruthless, dark but sometimes forgiving. But I know he may not be so lenient with me. I know he might give me hell.
“So you’re asking for my permission?” he asks me next.
I raise my head proudly. “No,” I say. “I am asking for you blessing. Your permission? I don’t fucking need that. I’ll marry her either way.”
Lorenzo shakes his head, laughing out loud. “You’re a fool, Matteo Abbate,” he tells me. An uncomfortable silence falls upon the garden. We stare at each other, the murderer and the man who lived. Sometimes I wished I had killed him for real.
“You will have my blessing,” Lorenzo says. “If you accept my punishment.”
“Punishment for what?” I spit out. I’m getting angry. I want to smash this man’s face in. But at the same time, I know I need to be respectful. Bianca deserves everything and more, and there’s nothing I’m not willing to go through to end up with her.
“For corrupting my sister,” Lorenzo tells me. “For kidnapping her. For making her give up her family. For leaving her at the hands of that cazzo, Antonio. For bringing her to him in the first place.”
“I was out looking for you!” I’m shouting now, pissed as fuck. “It wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t such a jackass and hiding.”
Lorenzo lunges for me, grabbing my throat. I stare at him defiantly as he chokes me. “You know nothing, Abbate,” he says roughly. “Not a single fucking thing.”
He lets go and I rub my sore throat. “I will do it,” I tell him. “I’ll do whatever you want. But once I’ve gone through with it, you will leave Bianca and me in peace. You will let us live our lives the way we want to.”
Lorenzo thinks it over for a moment. “I will,” he finally says. “But the boy is spending summers with me.”
“Why are you so intent on that?” I ask.
He mulls over his answer. “He is like me,” he finally says. “Dark. I need to stop that darkness before it threatens all of us. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
I can only stare at Lorenzo. So he sees it, too. The darkness deep within that boy, just fighting to break to the surface. I nod slowly. “You will keep me updated about his progress,” I tell Lorenzo, and he nods. We need to prevent the boy from becoming a monster together.
Lorenzo and I shake hands. We agree to carry out the punishment that night. He tries to tell me what it is, but I don’t want to know. All I need right now is Bianca.
I head back into the house once Lorenzo leaves and find her with Cristiano in the living room. Her face lights up when she sees me, and even the boy looks happy to find me in one piece. I smile slowly, lazily, as I approach them.
This is my famiglia now.
That night, I meet with Lorenzo, Romeo and Leo at the very warehouse where Bianca underwent her punishment. It feels horribly appropriate to do this in the same place, and I didn’t object when Lorenzo told me where to meet him.
I walk in there with my head held high. Romeo and Leo look away. I assume they still feel horrible about what happened with Bianca. As they should, stupid little pricks.
“I’m here,” I say. “Let’s get this over with.”
They sit me down at a table. It’s just the four of us, and it feels oddly intimate.
“We have decided what your punishment will be,” Lorenzo says simply. “Do you want to hear it?”
“Might as well.” I’m acting like I don’t give a fuck, but there’s no denying this is going to hurt one way or the other. I just need to make sure I live through it so I can go home to my princess.
“You will be stabbed once by each of us,” Lorenzo says with a cold voice. “Once for kidnapping Bianca. Once for betraying your own family. And once because you’re a goddamn idiot.”
I laugh bitterly. “Let’s get it over with.”
“One more thing,” Lorenzo says and I look up with interest. “You will cut off all contact with the Abbate family.”
I can only stare at him blankly. He can’t do this to me. Not now that I’ve finally gotten close with my father. “Why?” I demand to know. “Why is that a
rule? You have a truce now. Are you really trying to break it?”
Lorenzo shrugs. “Because I can do whatever the fuck I want, Abbate.”
I hate that son of a bitch, but I don’t object. I just stare at him, my eyes full of venom. If looks could kill…
“Get it over with,” I say, getting up. I kick the chair, channeling all my anger into that one piece of furniture. The three men stare at me with stone cold faces. Finally, Romeo gets up from his seat and approaches me slowly. His hands shake as he pulls out a knife.
I stand still. I could crush his skull in one swift move, but this isn’t about that. This is about me accepting the punishment.
“Dio salvami,” Romeo mutters before slashing the knife across my chest. I bite my fucking lip. I don’t scream as my shirt rips open and blood rushes down my chest.
Leo is next. Romeo hands his twin the knife stained with my blood. Leo comes over, refusing to look at me. He’s the more vicious of the two brothers as I’ve come to find out.
“Dio salvami.” He plunges the knife into my thigh and I nearly tumble over. I groan, but I don’t fucking scream. My eyes are trained on the man who’s doing this to me. The man who’s too much of a coward to look at me.
Finally, it’s Lorenzo’s turn. He approaches me slowly, takes the knife from his cousin and runs the blade across his fingers, drawing blood. Almost like a fucking blood vow. I know he will go the hardest on me. He’ll do his worst without killing me.
I am barely able to stand up now. I wait for him to come at me. He takes his goddamn time.
Finally, he walks right into my face and plunges the knife into my side with all his might. I gasp when the pain overtakes me. “Dio salvami,” Lorenzo mutters.
I fall to my knees. It’s too much. I’m bleeding from three fucking wounds.
The three men stare at me, Romeo and Leo leaving first. Lorenzo stays behind.
“Get help,” I struggle to get out. “Call an ambulance.
“No.” He grins at me. Fucking monster. “Your real challenge is making it home alone.”
With that, he walks out of the room, leaving me to bleed out on the floor.
23
Bianca
It’s getting late and Matteo still isn’t home. I’m getting more worried by the second. Finally, I’ve had enough of waiting. I pace my room impatiently, needing to be close to him. I just know he had some business to tend to, and he said he might be home late.
I finally crawl into bed, trying to sleep. But I can’t catch a minute’s rest.
I lie there for what seems like hours. At four am, I hear a small knock on my window. I’m still on the ground floor, in one of the guest bedrooms while my wounds heal up. Curiously, I climb out of the bed. I look through my window, which is left slightly open to let in some fresh evening air.
A shadowed figure lays under my window. I furrow my brows, trying to figure out what it is. And then he crawls closer. “Dio salvami,” he mutters.
My breath catches in my throat and I stare for a second. And then I rush out of my room, nearly tripping over my own feet as I run outside, muttering his name as I run to him.
Matteo, Matteo, Matteo. Be okay, my love. Be alright.
I drop to my knees in front of his body. He’s bleeding heavily.
“I’m sorry,” he mutters. “I needed… needed permission to be with you.”
“Who did this?” I say through tears, my fingers trailing across his body and coming away dark and wet. “Who did this to you, my love?”
“I needed permission,” he repeats. “I needed to be punished to be with you.”
I cry and scream at the same time, howling for help. I cradle him in my lap. I don’t know how he got here. Don’t know what happened. All I know is I need him to stay.
24
Matteo
2 months later
She’s all healed up. I am too, for the most part.
There are some wounds time will never heal.
Like the fact I’ll never see my father again.
The fact that Bianca will never forgive her brother.
That we have to let Cristiano spend his first summer, and all the next ones, with that monster.
But we will persevere. That’s what we do best.
I climb into bed with her two months later, when the doctor finally clears me from the hospital. I suffered some bad internal damage and my wounds got infected when I crawled home. I still don’t remember how I got home that night. I believe a stranger found me on the side of the road. I managed to crawl my way out of the warehouse, and a man drove me to Bianca’s house. I still don’t know who he was, but I owe him my life.
Bianca greets me sleepily when I get home from the hospital. On an instinct, her legs wrap around my waist. “Matteo,” she mutters, still half asleep. I need to be inside her. It’s been two fucking months, save for one visit when she climbed on top of me in the hospital bed and nearly got thrown out by my doctor.
“Need you, princess,” I whisper in her ear. “Need to be with you tonight.”
Her eyes flutter open and she looks at me through those thick dark lashes. “Matteo,” she says again. “Are you really home?”
I reach between her legs and pull her panties to the side. In one swift motion, I enter her, ramming my cock inside her already soaking pussy. “I am now,” I tell her, my mouth descending upon hers.
She moans as I fuck her. We’ve never done it like this before. Never with such passion, love and understanding of one another. I’m starting to recognize every curve of her body, every mole on her skin, every eyelash. I look deep into her eyes and try to convey my love for her with each thrust of my hips.
She’s rolling on a wave of pure pleasure, her body bending to suit my every whim. She arches her back for me, and my cock thrusts deeper with each moan that escapes her lips. She’s so far gone already. So close to cumming for me.
I pull out of her and she objects with a moan. I turn her around, make her get on her hands and feet. She’s breathing heavily, looking at me over her shoulder. I get up behind her and plunge inside that pink slit. She gasps my name, her fingernails digging into the bedding.
“Fuck,” she breathes. “Fuck, Matteo…”
I do just that, thrusting inside her in this new position, needing to be so much deeper. We’re getting married in a few weeks. She went off her birth control a month ago.
I want to put my child inside her tonight.
I reach around her quaking body as I pound, my fingers finding their way between her legs. She’s soaking wet. I find her clit, a swollen mess of nerves and throbs begging to be touched. I pinch her there, ever so lightly, and she begs for more.
“Matteo, please,” she begs. “I’m… I’m going to…”
“What, princess?” I breathe heavily in-between thrusts. I play with her, teasing that little clit until she moans so loud I’m fairly certain she’ll wake up the whole fucking house. “You’re going to what?”
“Don’t make me,” she begs, but her whimpers betray her.
“I love you, princess,” I mutter in her ear, pulling on her hair with my free hand. She comes undone, and I feel my hand getting soaked when she gushes.
“Fuck,” she whimpers. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I…”
“Shhh,” I calm her down. “Keep squirting, princess. Do it for me.”
She nearly collapses onto the bed, but my hand moves from her hair to her hips and I hold her up. I pound one last time, groaning as I cum deep inside her. My hand is soaking, her pussy, too.
I pump my seed inside her. She begs for more. I keep going until her body gives out, and even then, I keep my fingers on her clit, stroking lazily as she moans and begs.
“That’s a good girl,” I tell her. “My dirty princess.”
Epilogue – Bianca
9 months later
“Congratulations. It’s another boy.”
I smile through the tears and Matteo squeezes my hand. I just want to pass out. I’ve never felt
more exhausted in my whole life. Giving birth is the most rewarding and most exhausting thing I’ve done in my entire life.
Two babies are placed on my chest, and I coo when I see them. They’re the spitting image of us. Not just Matteo or not just me. The perfect combination of both of us. So beautiful. Only ours.
“Thank you.” Matteo kisses the top of my head, and he doesn’t seem to worry about it being sweaty. “Thank you for giving me this life.”
I smile at him and we look at each other with the kind of love people can only dream of. There’s a soft knock on the door, and I look up to find it ajar. A man stands in the doorframe. A man I haven’t seen in three years.
“Father,” Matteo says. I can hear his breath catch in his throat. He hasn’t seen his dad in years, either. He went along with the punishment my brother gave him, and he kept his word. But still, Angelo Abbate stands in the door. His eyes are filled with tears as he looks at his son, me and his grandsons.
“I cannot stay,” he says heavily. “I needed to see.”
We look at each other for a long time, the newborns settling in my arms, Matteo’s hand on my shoulder. Abbate doesn’t come closer. He stands in place in the hospital corridor. It might be the first and last time he sees his grandsons.
I look up at Matteo and see him looking at his father for a long time. He is smiling slightly, and my heart swells with love.
He gave it all up to be with me. His famiglia, his health, his status. Everything, just so he could spend eternity with me. He made me the happiest woman on the planet, and I know it’s the same for him.
A tear rolls down his cheek as his father looks on. I feel my own eyes filling up, and I blink the tears away. Once I look back at the door, Matteo’s father is gone. In the blink of an eye, he has disappeared.
I look up at my husband, my love, my everything. His eyes meet mine, and he smiles.