by Kali Brixton
“I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me my entire life—everything. I transferred to UGA even though I had my full tuition covered at Georgia State because you wanted me to. I went into pre-law instead of doing criminal justice because it didn’t fit your plan.” I pace, trying to release some of this rage before I punch out this asshole.
As I look around, I see that every single picture of Lia that once was in my father’s office is completely gone. Erased. Like she never even existed to my father. “My sister—your daughter—hates me because she didn’t want to be married to an abusive dickhead anymore, and I didn’t take a stand and stop you from kicking her out of our lives. And this is the thanks I get?” Annoyance plays across his face, but still, no remorse. “Not only do I not get to go to the one law school I actually wanted to go to, but now, you’re shipping me across the ocean.” I run my fingers through my hair, nearly pulling out sections of it. “What the absolute fuck is wrong with you?”
He rises from his seat and comes to the front of his desk, perching against the edge. The expensive suit crinkles as he crosses his arms, then his ankles. The perfect picture of calm. He stares at me, unwavering. “Are you done now?”
Are you done now? Like I’m a three-year-old throwing a tantrum over a toy, not a grown man watching his future go down in flames. A sardonic laugh erupts from deep within. “I should’ve packed my shit and left when Nolie did.”
“And you could’ve lived on the streets, selling your body just like she did.”
I stare at him like he’s grown three heads. “I don’t believe you, first of all. Second, you threw her out like yesterday’s trash because that stronzo didn’t know how to treat his wife right and you were worried about what Antonio would say or do.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “You have no clue what you’re talking about. We’ve all had to make sacrifices. It’s part of being in this family.”
I straighten my spine and look him in the eye. This could be the last time I ever speak to my father, so I need him to see that I can’t be a part of this vicious cycle of impossible expectations anymore. “Well, if being a part of this family means I don’t even get a say in whether or not I get to stay in the country, I’m done.”
He crosses his office to stand toe to toe with me. He may be an intimidating man, but I have a good two or three inches on him now, something I don’t think he’s ever considered before. “You have obligations to this family, and you will fulfill them.” His voice is stern and devoid of any fatherly affection—like it always is. I’m not his son, I’m simply a puppet to control.
Ev’s words ripple throughout my mind. It’s time to tug on the strings. Holding his gaze, I give him my answer. “The life I live from this moment on will be the life I choose to live, no matter what.”
For the first time in my life, an emotion I’ve never seen in my father before flashes across his dark hazel eyes. Fear. His feet take over the pacing mine were doing just a few moments ago. “So, that’s the plan? You’re gonna stay here in Atlanta, go in debt, be excommunicated from our family, paint a target on your own back and on the Greene girl’s?” I open my mouth to rebut, but he beats me to the punch. “You think I didn’t see the way you two were acting when you were helping unload Rian’s truck?” I glance to his office windows, which have a perfect view of the truck—and the hedges we stepped behind to steal a few kisses. Shit. “If you two were trying not to get caught, you’ve got a lot to learn about flying under the radar, son.”
Now it’s my turn to panic. “Everleigh isn’t the problem here. You are.”
“You honestly think that Antonio’s going to let you marry some Irish girl when he’s already chosen a suitable Italian bride for you?”
My brows knit in confusion. “Who?”
“His daughter, Gianelle.”
He cannot be serious. “She’s like, ten.”
“She’s almost fourteen,” he replies like that makes any of what he just said okay.
“I would never do that to a child. I’m not that bastard Giacomo.” Nor am I calling anyone my wife except the girl I hope will eventually accept my proposal.
He straightens his suit jacket. “Antonio assures me she’ll be eighteen before he consents to give his little jewel away.”
“You’re the fucking worst kind of person, you know that?” I stand before a man who sold his own daughter for his selfish personal gains. “It’s no wonder you all get along so well. You’re cut from the same filthy cloth.” Turning on my heel, I stride toward the door, opening it up wide. The cool metal in my palm refreshes those few inches of my overheated body, reminding me that in all things, we can find some small solace. “You can go tell Antonio to keep his money and his daughter. I’m out.”
I turn my back to my father and take a step through the threshold before he calls out, “But what about your mother?”
Looking over my shoulder, I furrow my brow. “What about her?”
He walks back to his desk and picks up his cell, speed-dialing my mother. “Can you come into the office, please?”
How pathetic. “If you think Mom’s going to be able to convince me…”
“Yes?” My mother comes to the doorway I’d just vacated, surprise on her face. “Luca, what are you doing here?” Her arms wrap around my waist as I wrap mine around her. If any ounce of kindness was ever found within these walls, it’s only within her heart.
Dad motions for both of us to come and sit in the seats in front of the desk. “It’s time we tell him.”
Mom tugs on me as I let her lead me, unsure of what trick Dad has up his sleeve this time. She holds my hands, running her thumbs across the tops of them, something she always did with Magnolia and me as kids to comfort us. “I’m not in good health, figlio.”
I try to figure out what kind of game my father’s using my mother to play, but I can’t see why she’d lie to me about something like this. “What’s wrong?”
My father takes a knee beside my mother. She releases one of my hands to hold his, as he becomes her voice. “She has Huntington’s Disease.”
The news knocks the wind from my lungs. I have a good friend at UGA whose father passed away from it last spring. Two words come to mind that shred my heart apart. Incurable disease. Followed by the inevitable result of the first two. Death sentence. “Mama, how long have you known about this?”
“Three months before Magnolia married Giacomo.”
Four years ago. “Why didn’t you all say something to us?”
She shakes her head, tears brimming in her eyes. Her hand releases mine, moving to cup my cheek. “What good would it have done, Luca?”
“But what does that have to do with Antonio?”
She looks back to my father, who continues to caress her hand. “He gave us hope.”
“How?”
“There was an experimental treatment on the market back then that showed promise. But in order to enroll in the program, there was a price.” My father unravels how Antonio offered the money for my mother to take the treatments, but in exchange for that, he had to give something else in return—a bride for Antonio’s son, Giacomo. “When Antonio saw that Magnolia and Giacomo were having issues, he told me to get my house in order,” he pauses, looking at my mom, then me. “Or watch it all burn to the ground…with us in it.”
I believe full well that Antonio is the kind of man who is more than capable of all this and more, but agreements like this rarely come without an ace in the hole, otherwise known as leverage. “What does he have on you?”
His eyes widen in surprise, then fall to the ground. “I made some poor investments several years ago when you all were younger. Antonio came to me with a proposition. We could lose everything and be in poverty, or I could come work for him.”
Suddenly, the man I’ve despised for so long becomes a man I almost pity. Almost. “I need to know everything.” He shakes his head, which tells me my intuition is right and there’s a ton more to uncover here. “Father, I’m goi
ng to be a lawyer.” I nod towards the Greene home. “Rian’s a police officer and Kieran is going into the police academy after graduation. We could all help you get out of this mess.”
The vulnerability that was there for a brief moment is now gone, his tone sharpening. “You are not to look into this. If Antonio catches wind of you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong…”
“I’m not afraid of Antonio or Giacomo or any of the other assholes they’re tied to,” I interject.
“But you should be.” A shiver runs up my spine. What else are these people involved in? “Because if you cross them, it won’t be you they go for first. It will be the ones you can’t live without.” When he says those words, I know he isn’t just talking about the people in this room with me. “Next, they’ll come for the things you hold dear. And then if they’re merciful,” he exhales sharply as my mother’s face becomes streaked with tears, “They’ll put a bullet in your head instead of making you live with your choices.”
My eyes bounce around the room, trying to find something that can give me some answers. Answers that don’t involve giving up the things I want most in life. “So, what you’re saying is—"
“To save the ones you care about, you must distance yourself from them.” His words are an imposed sentence.
This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go. “So, I’m supposed to just forget about the woman I love and leave the country? Marry someone else? Pretend to live a life I don’t want and give up the life I do?”
“For her safety and yours,” his shoulders heave as he inhales deeply. “Yes, you are.”
The thought of anything awful happening to Everleigh makes me see red and blue at the same time. To be with her, I’ll eventually put her in harm’s way. To save her, I have to distance myself as much as possible. Bile rises in my throat as I realize there’s only one solution to this impossible problem. “And if I agree to what Antonio wants?”
“Then, with any luck and new developments, your mother’s health will be restored, and we’ll all remain untouchable—Magnolia included.” He gives me a pointed look. “And the others we care about will be safe.”
I mull over and chew on those gritty words, sandpaper to my soul.
“It’s not fair to ask this of you.” No, it sure as fuck isn’t. “Your family needs you, son.” Solemnity washes over him as gravity puts an invisible noose around my neck. “You’re the only one who can save us all.”
Real love is an act of surrender. And for the girl who owns my heart, surrendering means I’ll have to break my own to save the lives of several, including hers.
“When do I leave?”
8
Luca
After the talk with my parents, I needed a few moments to myself—to absorb, to digest that my future, my life fully and truly is no longer mine. I sit on the edge of my old bed and put my head in my hands, wondering how it all came down to this. That I would willingly give up everything for the life I just chose.
A career I don’t want and a wife I don’t love.
After sitting there for a couple of hours, my dad comes into the room with my phone, which I apparently left in his office after the nuclear bomb that was our conversation exploded.
One missed call from the Greene home phone and three texts.
Kieran: You still planning on staying the night? Mom got the old game room downstairs ready, just in case.
Mystery Girl: Hey, are you heading over for dinner? Dad’s getting ready to fire up the grill. *heart emoji*
Kieran: Also, STEEEAAAK! Get your ass over here before I eat yours.
The last one was three minutes ago, which means I need to get going.
My father tugs on his suit pants, then the edge of the bed dips beside me. “I suppose you won’t be staying tonight?”
My gaze never leaves the rug. “I already told the Greenes I’d camp out at their house.”
He clears his throat. “For what it’s worth, I’m truly sorry, Jr.,” he adds in a solemn tone.
I’d like to tell him it’s worth very little, but that won’t help anything. “We all have to do things we don’t want to do,” a bitter acceptance wraps itself around my words. “Isn’t that what you told me and Nolie growing up?”
He nods in acknowledgment. “Your mother and I are grateful for you, son.”
“I may be the latest, but I wasn’t the first thrown to the wolves.”
He exhales. “Magnolia embarrassed Giacomo and the family with some of her choices prior to their divorce. Everyone knows Giacomo’s an ass, but he’s still one of the bosses’ sons. Maybe once you and Gianelle are officially engaged, that will cool Antonio’s anger towards her.” He pauses for a moment. “She may be protected because of the family name, but she’s not invincible. None of us are. It’s best if she goes on with her life until it’s time to rectify the past—if there’s ever a time for that.”
I laugh sarcastically, but there’s no energy left in it. “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
He vacates his spot on the bed, laying a hand on my shoulder. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a father—but I cannot be seen as a weak head of the household. That’s a death sentence for the entire family.” My shoulder relaxes when his hand moves. A squeak follows each of his footsteps on the waxed wooden floor as he approaches the threshold of my old room, my eyes following his back. A back that before today seemed so large and menacing, made small by the failures of his own doing. He hesitates at the door before throwing over his shoulder, “I hope one day when you have children of your own, you’ll understand. Not agree, but understand.”
He walks through and descends the hallway.
I may have agreed to do his bidding, but I vow, right then and there, I will never use my children’s bodies to fill the graves I dig for myself.
The dinner was great, and the Greenes were amazing hosts as always, but I felt like a wet blanket over the entire meal. I had to ignore the worried glances Ev would throw my way now and then, that intuitive nature kicking in. After all, getting an acceptance letter to Emory should have been something to at least mention, which I didn’t. Even sitting there and watching a movie I loved after dinner, I still couldn’t get my mind off of what had happened at my parents’ home.
God, this sucks.
I had laid on the bed in Kieran’s old gaming room for a couple of hours, a guest room that Rian and Kyleigh had soundproofed a couple of years ago for late-night gaming, thinking of all the things I’d have to take care of before I left in three weeks.
Kieran will have to find another apartment or two roommates with both Dreidan and me leaving. Maybe he’ll want to move home and commute for a while since he’ll be in the academy soon. I’ll have to check and see what I’ll be able to bring with me on the plane to Italy, and what I’ll have to have shipped. I’m fairly well-versed in Italian, but I still had a lot to learn to consider myself conversational. Something I could’ve worked on had I known I’d be going there to live for at least three years.
And then, there’s the girl who’s sleeping soundly in the room above this one. How am I going to tell her I’m moving 5,000 miles away? And how am I ever going to be able to look at my destined fiancée the way I look at her?
The questions are so loud in my head that the door easing open never registers until I see movement and a dark-headed blur hurrying inside, turning the lock after said blur closes the door back.
I sit up on the bed, my forearms resting on my knees as Everleigh pads over to the bed, a pair of house shoes muffling her steps. Her hair is in a messy pile on top of her head and the tiny pink shorts and black tank top she’s wearing do nothing but highlight that incredible body of hers.
She climbs into the bed as I move over, making room for her.
“What are you doing up?” I ask as she crisscrosses her legs, facing me.
“Couldn’t sleep,” she whispers. “I thought I’d check on our houseguest.” Her smile beams brightly in the moonlight filtering through the curtains
.
My hands smooth over her bare legs, making their way from her shapely calves to her rounded hips. “You do this for all your brother’s male houseguests?”
“Just nine or ten of them.”
I pinch her side as she squeals, immediately cupping both her hands over her mouth.
A small chuckle escapes me. “Soundproof, remember?”
Relief washes over her face and floods into my heart. Forget how pissed Kieran would be if he caught us in bed together... Rian Greene would bury me in the backyard and plant petunias over it if he found out how intimately I knew his daughter’s body. The same body which is currently working its way under the covers with me in a bed under his roof. “Oh, yeah. I’d forgotten about that.”
Flattening the pillow to accommodate her stomach-sleeper habits, she adjusts it until she can rest her head on it as I ease back onto mine, twisting to my side. Our bodies nestle close as I bring my free hand to her back, rubbing in circles.
“So, what’s going on?” Her green gaze pierces through me.
I glance down at my hand, knowing it’s the last time I’ll get to do this with her. “What do you mean?”
“You should’ve been cartwheeling over here after getting that acceptance letter.” When I don’t answer, she reaches for my face, her fingertips coaxing my chin to raise, brushing her thumb against my scruffy cheek that missed its morning shave. “Did something happen with your parents?”
My chest releases a deep sigh of disappointment. “Dad wasn’t happy about Emory.”
She shakes her head in understanding. “I kind of figured that. I’m sorry.”
I shrug as we settle into silence; me caressing her back as she continues to soothe my soul through her touch.
A few silent minutes pass until she breaks the quiet barrier between us. “I got to thinking while I was lying in bed…and there’s something I need to tell you.”
