“Where do you think?” Romeo snorts out a laugh. “We should hook him up with an IV to the PlayStation and just be done with it.”
“You weren’t much different at his age,” Mom reminds him as Romeo reaches for me.
My brother bundles me into his arms, whispering in my ear. “He’s not worthy of you, and he doesn’t deserve your tears.”
Everyone instantly knows the cause of my heartache because I’m just that obvious. Gawd, it’s so humiliating.
“How come you’re back early?” I ask, shucking out of his embrace.
“I don’t have much going on tomorrow, and I wanted to come home early and check up on everyone.” We were all worried this week after the big battle, and Romeo is a total Mommy’s boy, so I’m not surprised he came home from college a day earlier too. My eldest brother is a nerdy genius, and he graduated high school early last year. Now, he’s a freshman at Yale studying accounting, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
“Dad’s ordering pizza,” Mom confirms as she grabs a bottle of chilled wine from the refrigerator.
Aria jumps up and down and claps her hands. A wide smile graces my lips as I watch my little sister whoop and holler. You’d swear she never got takeout, but I love she’s excited and she doesn’t take it for granted. Our parents are extremely wealthy, but they are careful not to spoil us too much. Dad came from humble beginnings, and he was even homeless for a short period while he was a teenager. It’s important to him that he instils the right values in us, and it only makes me love him more for it.
“Rowan is coming over in a bit. Better order an extra pizza,” Romeo says. There is only a year between the cousins, and theyare as close as brothers. Have been since they were little even though they are so different.
“Better make it two,” I quip, remembering how bulked up Rowan has gotten lately. Now he has initiated, he is embracing it fully, and he’s training and working out a lot in between study.
“Come on.” Mom jerks her head to the side, holding two wineglasses. “Let’s sit down and have a talk.”
I trail Mom out to the sunroom, shutting the sliding doors behind me to keep prying ears out. Settling on the comfy couch, I accept a glass of wine and kick off my ballet flats, tucking my legs up. Outside, the perfectly manicured gardens are lit up under the dark night sky by a multitude of pretty outdoor lights.
Mom is best friends with Natalia—Caleb and Joshua’s mom—and she got Mom hooked on gardening. We have a rose garden and a small vegetable patch though we mostly get our produce from the large garden Natalia planted over on the far side of the estate. There are copious apple trees, and we enjoy homegrown pears, peaches, strawberries, and blueberries too at different times of the year. Sometimes I go out to the orchard for a walk because the scent in the air is heavenly and I find it soothing.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Mom asks, quietly sipping her wine.
Although I haven’t mentioned Anais to Mom in years, I’m too hurt and too angry to hide it from her, so I tell her what happened when I dropped by Caleb’s place.
Mom shakes her head and sighs heavily. “That woman.” She takes a big gulp of her wine. “I know she’s your dad’s cousin, but I regularly wish I could throttle her.” She pats my thigh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a very different side to the story she told you. Anais can’t be trusted, and I sincerely doubt Caleb has let her move in.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“It matters if it upsets you.” Her eyes probe mine. “How long has she been treating you like that?”
I gulp back a giant mouthful of wine, feeling Mom’s eyes on me. I turn to face her. “Don’t ask me to lie to you.”
“She never stopped, did she? Not even after your dad asked her to be kind to you.”
“That only made things worse. You know she doesn’t listen to a word Dad says. I know why he keeps trying with her, but it’s painful to watch.”
“Your dad has the patience of a saint. I’d have lobbed her and her fake boobs off a cliff a long time ago.”
“Mom!” I snort out a giggle. “I swear she’s had them done again.” My face contorts. “Unfortunately, I got an up close and personal look at them. She was virtually naked at the front door.”
“She has no shame and no morals.” Mom turns on the couch, angling her back and kicking off her shoes. “When she was a child, I had sympathy for Anais. Growing up without a mom and having Saverio Salerno as a father could not have been easy. But any sympathy I felt ended when she tried to mess things up between Ben and Sierra. Anais has been playing the same game for years. A man is only truly attractive to her if being with him hurts another woman. I’m disgusted she has been treating you like this for years. All because you care for Caleb and he cares for you.”
“He doesn’t care for me. Not really. He wouldn’t have done what he did if that were true.”
“I won’t interfere or tell you what to do, love, but Caleb gets a lot of bad press that isn’t justified. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is, but he’s not completely heartless, and I refuse to believe he would deliberately hurt you. He has always been so protective of you and considerate of your feelings. You need to talk to him. I don’t see how you will move forward unless you get answers.”
“I know it happened, and it’s not like I can erase those images from my brain. At this point, I’m not sure answers will even help. Look what happened this evening? I thought it was the right thing to do but seeing her there has only made things worse. I don’t know how he can bear to be with her. She’s awful.”
“You’re preaching to the converted.” Mom clinks her glass against mine. “Nat despises her. She knows why Caleb started it but wishes he would just let it go now.”
“Revenge for Bettina.” Gia confirmed it a few months ago. “It explains how it started between them. But why is it still going on all these years later? He must like her.”
“It’s a complicated situation.”
