“You sure you want me to answer that?” he clasped his fingers together in front of him, his stance protective. I nodded. “The moment you told me you had no fucking clue what you were doing.” At my frown, he added, “The night you made him pizza because he wouldn’t eat the cold turkey.”
My laugh was mirthless. How transparent had my feelings for the boy been? I shook my head. “They say the eyes are the windows to our soul, Dario.” I hit rewind on the camera footage, silently wishing it had the ability to make images reappear in person. I paused Rayden’s face on the screen. Lips twisted in a scowl, his fuming green eyes stared back at me. “What happens then when you look through a glass so divine and so beautiful it makes you want to reach out and touch every single grain. Or when the view on the other side is so breathtaking it defies everything you believed in. When it reaches into your very existence and steals a small piece of you. So small you don’t notice at first, yet not so insignificant that you can’t forget it’s impact on you.”
“Make sure it becomes yours forever.”
I looked at my bodyguard, shaking my head. “My forever ceased to exist, the moment I forgot to explain Alessia’s presence in my life, to Rayden.” I sighed. “I think I just broke the heart I’d managed to mend.”
“Serendipity might be a fucked-up notion to some, boss but if he found you so many years later, then it’s only a matter of time before you find him again.”
“Serendipity?” I cocked a brow. “You believe in that shit?”
“And you should be the last one questioning it,” he sniggered. Grinning, I walked out the room, wondering if that was a possibility.
Chapter 46
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PRESENT DAY...
Rayden (27yrs)
I watched the taillights of my Uber disappear down the driveway then turned to study the large house in front of me. A mixture of nostalgia and anxiety washed over me, and I let myself enjoy the familiarity of being home. Not wanting my family to come running out the door at the sound of a chopper, I’d asked the pilot to land in a field a couple of miles from the estate then called us a ride.
Whether I liked it or not, the questions would come. This way I could measure my control and decide the next step after their reactions. The door opened as I was about to slot my key into the lock.
“Master Rayden, nice to have you back.” Raj, our butler offered me a warm smile before his gaze fell to Jardin. His shock disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. Our staff prided themselves on respect and I knew he’d never question me.
“Raj, this is Nina, Jardin’s nanny.” I half-turned so she could enter. “Can you please show her to the servant’s quarters.”
“Yes, sir.” He gestured for her to follow him.
Jardin stirred, lifted his head from my shoulder and gazed at me through sleepy eyes. “Hey, buddy, ready to meet our family?” He rewarded me with a yawn.
As I made my way down the hallway, loud voices filled with laughter drifted from the kitchen. My senses were immediately engulfed by the potent smell of Sianna’s Fettuccini Alfredo, a dish I’d grown to love when we were together. Strangely, I felt no hatred toward her, and I figured maybe Lorenzo had a lot more influence on me than I’d cared to give him credit for. I pushed him to the back of my mind.
Since Dad married Sianna, the family ate most of the meals at the large pine table. She did that to them, brought a cozy feel to the house with a simple thing like pizza in the kitchen as opposed to the formal dinner seating that was the norm.
