by Zavi James
Moving would be one way to avoid my issues, but the moment I’d gone back with Dante I knew I couldn’t run anymore. I’d need to face everything head on. We’d been skirting around each other. I’d been avoiding telling him the truth because of all the feelings that were attached, but that couldn’t be a hurdle any longer. Whether or not Luc wanted me and our baby, he needed to know the truth so he could decide what he wanted to do with his life.
“I should probably speak to him first,” I said, nodding my head to the door where both men had disappeared. “We still have some unfinished business.”
Emilio hummed. “Let them sort out whatever they need to. Until then, come enjoy the rest of the party.”
Chapter Twenty Three
Dante
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked when Luc walked up to the bar. The smile on my face dropped as I took in the red marks around his neck, barely hidden by his shirt.
“None of your business,” he spat, leaning against the bar and trying to catch the bartender’s eye.
“I think it is my business if someone’s trying to start shit with you,” I reminded him. What affected Luc affected me. If someone had taken issue with him then I’d need to be on alert.
He let out a frustrated sigh. “I told Carmen some home truths and Emilio got involved.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Charlie and Emilio had shared a close bond and the Diaz family were the ones we saw most after he passed. Carmen wouldn’t allow us to sit and stew in grief, calling multiple times a week and sending food to Luc’s house despite the fact we knew she hadn’t cooked it herself and that we had Lydia.
“She needed to be told, Dante,” Luc said, turning to face me. “I’m sick of people taking Mia’s side after what she did to me.”
“Honestly, you’re an idiot.” I grabbed his arm. Lydia was right; Luc was going to burn every bridge that he had if he kept going like this. “Move,” I hissed, pulling him away from the bar and shoving him out the door. “What did you plan to do? Drink yourself into oblivion and ruin the christening?”
“If it made me feel better, then why not?”
“Because you have an image to maintain, and not just for the family but for Mia.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t give a damn what she thinks.”
“Don’t you?” I asked. “You turned up at the hospital. Something’s going on up there.” I jabbed my index finger roughly into his temple. “The both of you need to sit down and talk things through properly and decide what you’re going to do. You’re going to have a kid in this world in a few months.”
“She was going to leave!”
“But she didn’t! She came back with me. She wanted to speak to you. She tried before you decided to go in like the asshole you are. Even after everything you said, she’s still here, Luc. Waiting for you to turn up at the hospital. Using me as a messenger because she’s wondering if you’re going to lose your shit again. You want answers, fucking get them. What are you scared of?” Since the hospital visit, I’d tried to corner Luc, but he’d become an expert in evasion.
“She destroyed me!” he yelled, spittle flying with the rage. “She left without a word after everything I’d done for her. Everything we’d been through! How am I meant to trust her again?”
“Because she had to! She didn’t have a choice!” My words hung in the air and I desperately wanted to pull them back in, but it was too late.
“What do you know?” Luc asked, taking a step toward me so that we were toe to toe.
This was not meant to be my job, but at the rate Luc was going I couldn’t overlook the fact that there was the distinct possibility that he would continue to make things worse. Plus, this was a Moretti-free weekend, allowing us a little more privacy than usual. “Xavier has it out for Mia.”
“I know. It’s because of—”
“No,” I cut in before he could continue. Everyone thought Xavier was pissed at Mia because she’d left. They had no idea how deep it ran. “He had it out for her before she left.”
Luc looked confused. “That doesn’t make any sense. They seemed to be alright.”
“She found out something.”
“What?”
All of a sudden, I wasn’t sure that I could do this. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be the person responsible for pulling my brother’s world from underneath him. This was meant to be done at home, at the office with the three of us together. Not as a slip of the tongue in the side street after a Christening.
“What, Dante? She found out what?” Luc pushed.
And if I felt like this after knowing him for so long, then how had Mia felt at the prospect of unleashing this secret into the world?
“Mia,” I started, quietly, “found out that Xavier had an affair.”
“Shit.”
That in itself was bad enough. Extra marital affairs weren’t uncommon, but no one flashed them in public. They were carried out behind tightly locked doors, and Xavier had always maintained that the sanctity of marriage was of importance. We found loopholes for every other rule in the book, but this was meant to be non-negotiable.
“With your Mom.” Even I was surprised at the lack of tact that was delivered with. If silence was a killer, we would have been dead at that moment.
“I’m sorry?” Luc said, drawing himself to full height.
“She overheard a conversation between Maria and Xavier.”
The realization dawned on his face. “God, please don’t tell me...”
I didn’t need to confirm it. Luc had connected the dots quicker than I had expected. This hadn’t just been an affair that was one and done. It had a messy complication that stood in the form of my boss and brother in front of me.
“He threatened her life,” I continued. “Told her he’d make her miserable.”
“Hector. Mia,” Luc breathed, letting the pieces fall into place. When he looked up at me, I felt a chill run through my body. Luc’s anger usually sat at the surface. He was rage personified: slammed doors, trigger happy, screaming in your face. It was red and vibrant and pulsing. This was a step beyond all of that. This time his anger had settled over him in a serene manner. For the first time in all my years of knowing Luc, I couldn’t anticipate his next move.
“Luc.”
“I’m going to kill him.” His voice didn’t hold a single waver. Luc started to walk, and it took me a moment to realize that he didn’t mean when we returned home after the festivities. He meant immediately.
Breaking into a run, I skidded to a stop in front of him. “You need to think about this,” I told him, panicking.
“There’s nothing to think about. He orchestrated this whole situation. I’ve been separated from Mia for months while she’s been pregnant with my child. He wants me to believe it’s Gabriel’s. He still wants me to kill her after she’s given birth.” The nausea rolled in my stomach, hearing how far Xavier was prepared to go in order keep his secret. “I’m not asking you to get involved,” Luc told me. “I understand if you have concerns because of your loyalties.”
Vittoria. This was her family we were discussing. We were casually talking about how Luc might just go and kill his biological father, who coincidentally was also hers. My head spun at the thought that Tori, Gabe and Luc were all related. Not just Godsiblings but related by blood.
“If she asks, I’ll say you had no part in it,” Luc concluded.
I loved Vittoria. I was pretty sure I’d loved her when we were teenagers and I messed it up the first time. She was a force of nature that kept me in line, and I knew one day I’d make it official, make her an Atwood. But Luc and I had a relationship that couldn’t be explained. I had vowed to put my life on the line for him; we were blood without any being shared between us and I would choose him over everyone.
“I’m not asking that of you,” I said, putting my hands on his shoulders to keep him in place. “I’ll stick by you whatever you decide to choose, but I mean it when I say we need to pl
ay this smart.”
Luc’s eyes locked with mine and then he said, “Keep talking.”
I dropped my hands from him, grateful that he was willing to listen to me. “Going there now and facing off against him won’t do you any favors. We need to think this through.” I was back in the position of being the voice of reason, just as I had been when I convinced Mia to come back with me. We couldn’t do things in the heat of the moment without suffering the consequences, which would most likely be fatal. “You need to fix things with Mia,” I said, and I watched his face soften. “Your family needs to come first from now on.”
It was inevitable that change was on the horizon. Luc and Mia were about to have a baby. A new generation was about to be born and our priorities and responsibilities would shift. We could no longer be trigger happy and act off emotion. Not when there was so much more on the line than just our lives. The chapter of wild and reckless days was about to be closed and succeeded by more calculated choices.
“If you get rid of Xavier,” I said, dropping my voice although no one was around to hear, “it’s going to open up a spot that needs to be filled. You can’t rip apart the family unless you know what you want afterward.” When we were younger, Luc and I had dreams that were drunk on ambition. We had sobered up after losing Charlie. Grief had dulled everything in our lives, but maybe it was time to revive the dreams we’d once had. And why not? The rumblings of unrest had started to murmur through the family and Gabe was trying to exploit every opportunity he came across. Why not us?
“You’ll back me?” Luc asked after a few moments of silence.
We were on the same page. After months of feeling like our brotherhood was slipping away with no chance of saving, we were once again thinking along the same lines. “Until I’m in the grave. We just need to convince everyone else too, but before that you need to get your family back together. This has gone on long enough.”
Chapter Twenty Four
Mia
I had caught glimpses of Luc throughout the evening, attached to Dante, nursing a drink. Whenever I looked at him, his gaze was intensely fixed on me. At the risk of causing another, more public scene, I stayed away, with a silent vow to ask Dante what room Luc was staying in to talk to him in the morning.
Emilio and Carmen had just been roped into the official family portraits that would be splashed across social media and glossy magazines. I’d excused myself from the party, Franco beside me in surly silence as we took the elevator up to our floor. “You should have stayed and enjoyed the party,” I told him.
He shot me a look. “The only reason I’m here is because you threw a fit about attending.”
“I did not throw a fit.”
“What would you have called it?”
“You know, I think I prefer you when you don’t talk.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
The elevator pinged and we made our way out onto the floor and toward the end of the hallway toward our respective rooms.
“I’ll be across the hall. If you need anything you come and find me. Understand?”
“Are you planning to sleep?” I asked him.
“Not when Gabe’s put me in charge of your problematic ass."
I sighed and swiped the card to give me access to my room. “Great. Well, have a good evening.” Walking into the room, I let the door swing shut, giving me some space from Franco and his attitude. Tomorrow’s meeting with Luc would need me to lose Franco if I wanted to be completely honest with him. The last thing I needed was Franco hearing anything and running back to Gabe. Dante should be able to keep him preoccupied.
My feet ached as I kicked off my shoes and sat on the edge of the bed. Every step I took made the pain spark up and I noticed that my feet were a little swollen. I’d never understand how Carmen had managed her pregnancy in heels. I fished my phone from my bag and sent a message to Dante asking for Luc’s room number to set the ball rolling. Exhausted didn’t even begin to cover what the last few weeks had made me feel. The lack of peace had taken its toll, and all I wanted was to close my eyes and wake up to find it was all a terrible nightmare. The reality was that this was my life, and every day something happened to make it more complicated.
I stripped out of the dress and into sweatpants and a t-shirt, glad to be comfortable again. As I laid down in bed, my baby wriggled, and I placed a hand over him. “Are you anxious as well?” I asked him. It wasn’t often that we spoke. I never knew what to say, blaming myself for him having a less than stable start in his life. “You don’t need to worry,” I lied. “Uncle Dante is going to make sure nothing happens to you.”
My eyelids felt heavy as I pulled the covers up over us both. I envied every mother to be who had waltzed through their pregnancy without a care, with their partner at every appointment to hold their hand. Not for the first time, I felt myself drifting to sleep wondering how I’d managed to land myself in this position.
When I woke, my ringtone blared from my phone and I opened one eye to see the screen illuminated as a call came through. I reached out and grabbed it off the nightstand to see Dante’s name and also the fact that it was one a.m. “Why are you calling me at this ridiculous—"
“Open your door.”
“D? I… what? Why am I—”
“Open your damn door!”
I blinked the sleep from my eyes at the urgency of his demand. “Okay, give me a minute.”
“Hurry up.”
I moved as quickly as I could, rolling out of bed and padding over to the door of my room. When I pulled it open, I didn’t even register that Luc was standing there until he had crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him, more gently than I would have expected.
“I’ll speak to you later, Mia,” Dante said down the phone line before he hung up.
“Luc,” I breathed, letting my arm drop to my side. I wasn’t entirely sure if this was some sort of twisted dream or hallucination. “What are you doing here? It’s one a.m.,” I floundered.
“It would have been sooner, but Franco really is keeping a close eye on you,” he explained.
“Where is he?” I asked, panicking that they’d disposed of him.
“My guess is a comfort break.”
My heart calmed down. I might not have gotten on with Franco, but I was a far cry from wanting him dead.
“I really think we need to talk,” he told me, and it took me a moment to process before I nodded.
“Talk. Yes.” I turned away from him to walk into the room and gestured to a chair. Tossing my phone onto the bed, I perched myself on the edge of it and rubbed my eyes, trying to get my brain to catch up to everything that was going on.
“Were you ever going to tell me you were pregnant?” Luc asked. He hadn’t taken the seat that I’d offered him. We weren’t skirting around this morning. This conversation had been a long time coming and it was finally just the two of us.
“You didn’t let me get a word in when I saw you,” I reminded him, ridding myself of the last dregs of sleep. “And before you ask, he is yours.” All the rumors echoed around my head and I had no doubt that they’d reached Luc.
“You were stuck to my hip; of course he’s mine,” Luc replied just as aggressively and then stopped, realizing what he’d said. “He? You know?”
My cheeks burned as if I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t. Under normal circumstances we would have both been there when I found out the gender, but instead I had been placed on the spot with Carmen sitting quietly at my side when I agreed to the reveal. “We’re having a son,” I whispered confirmation. “You don’t have to be involved, Luc. We don’t even have to be around,” I told him, my voice finding strength again as I rambled, brain still slightly slumber addled. “Actually, we might be moving. Emilio and Carmen said I’m more than welcome to move here and start fresh.”
“What?” Luc looked confused in the dim light of the room that came from the lamp on the nightstand that I’d forgotten to turn off.
�
��I’m going to keep the baby and you don’t need to be involved.”
“What the fuck are you on about?”
The swell of emotions hit me hard. I refused to cry in front of him. I refused to let him know that the words he said had hurt me as deeply as he wished them to. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence as I pushed back the tears. “I was the biggest mistake of your life, Lucas,” I said eventually, a slight tremble lacing the words. “And now you have a lasting reminder of that mistake, but I’ll be gone soon.”
The shame washed over his features. “I never meant that. I should never have said it, but I was so angry at you. You broke your promises to me. You left.”
“I broke my promises to you? You’re a fine one to talk.”
“Excuse you? I did everything I promised you. Everything you asked of me and more.”
“You promised you’d never hurt me and then you put a hit out on me,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice down so they didn’t carry across the door and alert Franco.
“You promised you’d marry me and then you ran. Do you really want to start keeping score, princess?”
Any come back I had, died in my throat. Neither of us had managed to hold out on the promises we made. With a sigh, I dropped my head into my hands. I needed to come clean and let Luc knew the truth about why I’d left him. If I didn’t then come back here was wasted.
I jumped when Luc took a hold of my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he told me firmly, kneeling on the floor in front of me.
My hands slid into his and I held on tight. I’d missed him more than words could express. Luc was my anchor during stormy times. Whatever I couldn’t shoulder, Luc had done for the both of us, and there were so many times I wished I could have turned to him in the last few months. This small gesture of physical contact, not ordered by someone trying to do their job, made something inside me waver dangerously, threatening to push me over the edge and fall apart.