Regrets & Revenge (Foster Family Book 2)

by Zavi James

“Horatio?” I asked, unable to place a face to the name.

  Carmen’s features softened. “Horatio was my father in law, God rest his soul. A few years ago, tensions between our families escalated. I credit you to be bright enough to imagine how it ended.”

  I nodded my head slowly. “I’m sorry.”

  She raised her fingers from the table to stop me from saying anything more. “It was a devastating loss, but you’ll learn that life is a currency in this world.”

  My stomach knotted uncomfortably at that thought. Life was a currency. I had never thought about how much truth was behind that sentiment. Here, in a world of organized crime where social hierarchy was adhered to strictly, the mercy shown or murder committed could buy you into positions higher up the ladder.

  “I’m still unsure of how I can help you with any of this.”

  The corner of her mouth pulled upwards in a vague smile. “People are fond of you, Mia. You have a certain softness many of us don’t possess.” Carmen squinted her eyes, surveying me while she debated on whether to continue. Eventually she said, “I would put money on the fact that you’ve already been propositioned, considering you aren’t officially back together with Luc.” My cheeks burned with the blush. “Let me guess. Gabriel Moretti?”

  “Don’t tell Luc.” I would let him know about Gabe’s plans soon.

  “Looks like he does have some of his father’s ambition after all,” Carmen mused. “I won’t breathe a word. Smart girl for not giving in to that offer. A weaker woman would have caved to stop being a social outcast.”

  Perhaps that was the beauty of having grown up with a normal childhood. I hadn’t faced the same expectations that most of these women faced. Sure, I’d been fodder for gossip before, but this was like high school on steroids. There was a lot more to play for than prom queen in this life.

  “Whatever is going on with Xavier, it was enough to drive you away and something tells me that Luc won’t be happy with that. It’s only a matter of time before things start to change. Luc was already a favorable option, but with you and your little one, he’s going to be a solid favorite.”

  “I don’t understand. If you have an issue with Xavier, then why wouldn’t you…” I let the sentence hang.

  “That family, let alone that man, is not worth starting a war over,” she explained. “We have plenty of people we care about under his thumb. It benefited everyone to play the long game. You’ll have our family’s backing when the time comes. Things will be a lot easier when it’s the both of us at the top. I look forward to working with someone I can actually trust.”

  “You don’t even know if anything is going to happen to him,” I said. Gabe had mentioned that there was uneasy tension and that things needed to change. Although it had made me nervous, I didn’t think anything would come of it, but with Carmen echoing his thoughts I began to wonder if there was trouble brewing. “Even if it does, there are plenty of others that will want that spot.”

  She drained the rest of her mimosa and set the glass back on the table. “True enough, but my money is still on both of you. And I haven’t made a bad bet yet.”

  I wasn’t sure I shared Carmen’s certainty on the entire situation. Given the way I had left, I felt as if my card was marked, and unfortunately that likely meant Luc’s chances at working his way up in the business had probably also been tarnished.

  “And if you need anything at all to help you along the way,” Carmen told me, “just say the word. We’d only be too happy to help.”

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Luc

  Mia had disappeared back home after brunch. Franco had most likely whisked her away from a situation he knew nothing about. And while I spent the rest of the day making amends, my mind couldn’t have been further from the conversations that were taking place. It spun, instead, with the truth and the lies that had been used to cover it. It ran with what needed to be done, what I needed to accomplish.

  Idling in the driveway of Gabe’s place the next morning, I watched as Mia stood outside the door talking to him, Franco standing there as a silent witness. She gestured wildly with her hands in the way she did when explaining something. Glancing over her shoulder, she clocked the car and cut their conversation short, making her escape toward me.

  “What was that about?” I asked as she shut the door and clicked her seatbelt into position.

  “Gabe wanted Franco to come with me.”

  “And how did you convince him to let you come alone?”

  “I said I needed some time alone with you to talk everything through. Clear the air.” There was something more to it. The way she had been gesturing told me that it wasn’t as simple a conversation as she wanted me to believe, but I left it for now.

  We needed to tread carefully with Gabriel. Both of the Moretti twins were close to us but Mia living with Gabe was a complication. She could only push back on so much before he would become suspicious. This would become easier if she agreed to give us another chance. I’d have her under my roof, and we’d be able to discuss plans without creeping around like a pair of teenagers or setting off any alarm bells. The last thing we needed was to raise suspicions. This secret was one that needed to be contained or I’d lose everything I’d earned over the years. All the work I’d put in would amount to nothing, and it would push me to the edges of the family. After months of being in the thick of it, I wasn’t willing to give up what I had worked so hard for.

  “You’re quiet.”

  “Hmm?” I asked, coming out of my thoughts.

  “You’re quiet,” Mia repeated.

  “I’m trying to stay calm.” The storm of emotions that had kicked up ever since Dante had spilled the secret and Mia had filled in the blanks had left me feeling unsettled. An integral part of my life, the person I modeled myself after was not the man I thought he was. My mind kept running over Xavier’s presence during my childhood. It was minimal, there at pivotal points due to his title as Godfather. When Charlie died, he’d tried to reach out but after a few unsuccessful attempts we fell back into old habits. Distant aside from business. Strangers unless called upon.

  Something inside me had dislodged and I wasn’t sure how to secure it back into place. I had no idea where to start in a bid to try and piece my identity together until driving home last night, when Dante had mentioned my mother. It hadn’t been part of my plans. The seething anger that I felt toward my mother was better contained than unleashed. At least, those had been my first thoughts, but the more I stewed on it, it ate away at me until I wanted to see her. I wanted to ask her why and how she could have lied to a man who adored her even when they were no longer bound by vows.

  We pulled into the parking lot of the residential home and Mia’s eyes grew. “What are we doing here?”

  “I wasn’t sure you’d agree to come with me if I told you,” I explained, looking straight ahead. Mia was under the assumption that we were meeting to further discuss everything. Mom had put her in an impossible situation and Mia probably had no desire to speak to her, but I couldn’t do this alone.

  “You should have just been honest,” she told me. Looking at her, I could see the tension in her shoulders. Perhaps an omission of the truth had not been the best way to go about this. “You need to do this,” she sighed eventually.

  With a curt nod, I got out of the car and walked around to help Mia out. I was ready to march up and get this over with when she caught my hand and stopped me. “Luc,” she said gently. I turned back around to face her. “You need to keep your cool.”

  “How am I meant to do that?” It came out sharper than I meant it to. I tugged at her hand and she moved toward me and I hugged her close. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Mia looked up at me and I couldn’t help myself. I needed her so badly, needed to feel stable and grounded for the first time in months. Without the sun, I wondered what happened to everything that had once been in its orbit. From personal experience, I knew that they lost control
, spiraling into the abyss. Leaning down, I pressed a kiss to her lips, fully expecting her to push me away, and I was surprised to feel her arms around my neck as she responded. How could one person complete you the way Mia did with me? How could one person rule your life with simple actions? How could you allow it? How could you have no control over it? When we pulled apart, there were a few moments of quiet as we processed what just happened.

  “Stay with me,” I said to her, remembering the task at hand.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” She slipped her hand into mine, lacing our fingers together. I was unclear on where we stood but content enough to have her by my side in that moment. Walking into the building, I signed the forms for visitation before we made our way to Mom’s room.

  What would I say or do once I saw her? Mom. My mother. This was the woman who had given birth to me and I had always respected her, but this piece of information had changed things. I felt like I didn’t know who she was. I certainly no longer knew who I was. That wasn’t quite true. I was the bastard Moretti child.

  “Do you want me to go in first?” Mia asked, and I realized we had stopped in front of the door to Mom’s room. My heart hammered in my chest as I gave her a nod. Mia raised her hand and knocked softly on the door before Mom called out. She entered the room and I trailed behind her, hands still clasped tight.

  “Mia?” Mom sounded shocked. She was sat in a chair by the window, puzzle book in her lap and pencil wavering in her grip.

  “Hello, Maria.”

  “Luc!” She sat up a straighter and beamed at us both. Then Mom registered Mia’s form and gasped. “Oh, my goodness! Mia, is that? Luc?”

  Mia nodded her head. “I’m around seven months now.”

  Seven months. Seven months of being absent and two to prove my worth and settle into the idea of becoming a parent. Mom’s eyes filled with tears and she put a hand to her chest. “Oh, darling girl! I’m going to have a grandbaby. Luc, your father would have been so proud.”

  The statement caused the miniscule control I had on my temper to snap. “Which one, Mom? Charlie or Xavier?”

  I watched as the color drained from her face and her attention shifted to Mia. The joyous mood in the room had been wiped away with one statement. “You told him. You stupid girl!”

  “Don’t you dare,” I hissed in return. “Mia didn’t say a word; Dante told me. But how dare you expect her to keep this from me? How dare you pull her into your dirty little secret?”

  “Dante? Lucas, listen to me.” She was clamoring for a way to clear her name now that she’d been caught out.

  “Even after she left! Even after you knew what happened to Hector, you said nothing! You of all people know what Xavier’s capable of!”

  “It’s because I knew what he was capable of that I kept it a secret. Listen to me.”

  “So you can feed me more lies?”

  “He never would have let me live if I told anyone you were his.” The puzzle book had slipped from her lap, landing on the floor with a dull thud and slapping shut. “It would have broken Charlie.”

  I narrowed my eyes, feeling a vein in my neck throb. “You don’t deserve to say his name.”

  “Luc.” Mia’s voice was soft but rang clear as a bell to me.

  I glanced at her before turning back to my mother. “Charlie loved you until the day he died, and you lied to him. You cheated on him with his best friend. He took a fucking bullet for Xavier, Mom. He’s the reason my Dad is dead! He’s the reason my Dad and Mia’s Dad won’t get to meet their grandson.”

  Mom’s eyes became glassy but I couldn’t find it in me to give her a shred of sympathy. “I made a terrible mistake, but I can’t regret what happened because it gave me you. I regret how I handled it. I should have been honest.”

  “But you weren’t,” I pointed out. “So, not only did Dad suffer, but Mia and Hector. All to protect your lies.”

  “I wanted to protect you!”

  “You think you protected me?”

  “You think you’d be alive if it was out?” Mom asked me, hardening again. My parents had divorced when I was young and memories of Mom surrounded her marriage with Andrew, raising Stefan and a few clipped exchanges with Dad. Watching her now, in the midst of her illness, justifying her decisions with the same amount of fire that I fought against her with, I understood how she’d survived her life with Dad. “You should be thanking me. I tried my best to pull you away from that life, but you wouldn’t leave Charlie’s side. You’ll see. You’ll both understand when you’re parents. You’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.”

  “Don’t you dare discuss our son. You have no right.”

  “I have every right when you both took mine away from me!”

  Mia looked as if she’d been slapped across the face. Stefan’s death had been a result of his misguided actions. Mom had granted us forgiveness, but forgiveness didn’t mean that you forgot.

  “You have no right to sit on your high horse and look down at me, Lucas. You know as well as I do just how this life works. You do whatever you can to survive. You might not like it. You might hate me, but I did what was best and look at you now, thriving and about to start your own family.” My vision clouded with dark spots and the blood thundered so viciously in my ears than I thought the drums might burst. Mom continued, “I suggest you do us all a favor and let this lie. There’s nothing we can do about this. There’s no need to cause any more upset bringing it up.”

  “Xavier’s not going to let this go,” Mia told her sharply, taking a step forward. “It’s not going to just go away, Maria. He’s threatened to kill me as soon as I’ve given birth because I know.”

  “What? When was this?” I demanded, blindsided by the revelation.

  Mia paled as she looked over her shoulder at me. “Gabe told him I was back, and he paid a visit. He’s made it pretty clear that I’m not welcome in this family.”

  “I’m going to kill him and I’m going to make sure he suffers.” Xavier had cemented his fate. The lengths that he’d gone to manipulate everyone to do his bidding and keep him on top was about to amount to nothing.

  “Luc,” Mom said. “Don’t do anything stupid. He won’t touch her if you’re both back together.”

  “Do you think I’m going to take that risk?” I asked her. “Do you think I’d listen to any advice you want to give?” My attention was back on Mia. “Mia, we’re leaving. I have nothing more to say to her.” There was no hesitation as I left the room, and, not for the first time in my life, I wish my mother could swap places with Charlie.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Mia

  “Give me the keys.”

  It had started to rain while we were in the residential home. The scent of wet soil was strong, and the rain held the warmth of the lingering summer months.

  “I’m fine to drive,” Luc said, not looking back.

  I stopped in my tracks. “Lucas. Give me the damn keys. Now.”

  He whipped around and, without another word, held the keys to his beloved Range Rover out to me. I didn’t trust Luc to drive in the mood he was in. Throughout our time together I thought I’d see the full brunt of his temper, but it felt like I’d barely scratched the surface. Between delivering him the news about Xavier and the display with his Mom just now, I could see just how precariously Luc was standing on the edge.

  We slipped into the car and I adjusted the seat to allow me to drive more comfortably, a fine balance that accommodated for both my height and my bump. “Should you even be driving?” Luc asked as I pulled away from the home, wipers sloshing the rain clear so that I could see the road ahead of me.

  “It’s probably safer for me to be driving than you at the moment,” I said, merging into traffic. “What did you hope to get from that meeting?” Luc hadn’t told me that we were going to visit Maria, so I had no idea what had run through his mind. It would have been too much to ask for us to calmly ask for an explanation behind her actions.

  “I don’t kno
w,” he said. “I didn’t think she’d try to justify it.”

  Neither had I. I’d expected her to be more apologetic. She’d seemed sorry, almost scared, when I’d confronted her at the hospital, but she’d also been in a much more vulnerable state. Healthier and more comfortable, Maria had fought back this time to both of our surprise. I didn’t admit to him that Maria might have had a valid point in making a decision that led to Luc being able to live.

  “And were you planning on telling me about Xavier?” Luc continued.

  I sighed. “I would have. Things haven’t exactly been smooth between us.”

  “A death threat should be top of the priority list when we started talking again.”

  “If you hadn’t noticed I’ve been juggling quite a few things, so excuse me for letting the ball drop on that one.”

  “Head toward Dante’s place,” he instructed me. Indicating, I turned left and steered us down the streets that would lead to Dante’s house. “I’ll be paying Gabriel a visit. He should have come to me.”

  “No,” I said, a little quicker than was comfortable.

  “Why not?”

  “I just don’t think that would be a good plan.”

  “Why not, Mia?” Luc asked. “Keeping secrets is what got us into this mess in the first place. Has something happened?”

  Keeping secrets was the reason for this mess and it fell squarely in my lap. Telling Luc the truth hadn’t been an option last time but I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. “Gabe has plans.”

  “For what?”

  “He wants to replace Xavier.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Luc straighten up in his seat. “And how does he plan to do that?”

  “I don’t know. All he said is that Xavier’s days are numbered, and he wants that spot,” I explained as I slowed down.

  “Keep going to the end of the street and turn left,” Luc told me. “Xavier’s not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. Not unless he’s forced. And Gabriel will have a job on his hand. There aren’t many that would want him in charge.”