“Go on.” He waved his hand casually.
“Luca wanted to marry me?—”
“Bullshit!” He swiftly cut her off in disbelief.
“She’s telling the truth, honey.” A soft candid voice sounded off from behind La’Nova.
A voice that she was familiar with. Lucille.
Her stilettos clicked against the marble floor with purpose. Seductively, she strutted past La’Nova, her expensive floral perfume took over the room. Lennox stood with his jaw set tight; he leaned his hands against his desk as he watched Lucille approach him.
His eyes gazed at her matte, red stained lips, down to her the tight pencil skirt hugging her slim, thick frame.
“Bitch, you done played enough tricks.” Lennox gritted out.
Lucille made sure to stop at the edge of his desk. She knew how short tempered he was.
“I decided to let this particular trick play out, Lenny. I never seen my Luca Bear so smitten.” She tilted her head slightly to the side, licking her lips. “I think everybody deserves love, even you and I… It’s just sad that we couldn’t experience it until Dontrell was dead, which was against my wishes till this day.” Lucille’s eyes met La’Nova’s.
A glimpse of sadness shone in her eyes for a second. Lennox didn’t catch the look, but La’Nova did.
“The day he got out of jail, Luca was determined to find out who killed Donnie. He stepped in my office demanding answers, ready to cut me out of his life because I refused to provide him with answers. It crushed me, but then La’Nova barged in…” She pointed her finger in La’Nova’s direction sharply.
“She barged in, and the room shifted then bended to the both of them. I saw love at first sight in Luca’s eyes. Their shared painand grief pulled them together. I saw La’Nova fighting it until he touched her scar.” Lucille’s eyes glossed over. “The moment he touched her scar, I witnessed her soften. Before Luca left out of my office he claimed her. Said that she would be his wife. He even stole my breath away by whispering the words since she doesn’t understand sign language.”
Lucille smiled brightly through the tears that blurred her vision. Despite her disloyalty to Luca, he was still her pride and joy. Lucille got to play both sides selfishly and had no shame about it. She never meant to fall in love at all. Lucille never knew how to love from the beginning.
Love had never been part of the bargain. Survival was. She was used to smiling when she didn’t want to. Touching when she felt nothing. Letting men believe they owned pieces of her while she quietly buried herself deeper inside her own bones. Eventually, Lucille learned how to split herself in two. Her body worked and her soul watched from somewhere high and unreachable.
Until she met Lennox. He secretly came into her storm and offered shelter. When he pulled her out of filth for the first time, he acted as a jacket put on her shoulders in the cold. A young frail beauty that he molded into a selfish monster. Someone put in place to take back what his father deemed him unfit for.
Her first error was mistaking his possession for her as protection. He told her of all the things she deserved if she opened her legs up to his brother. He spoke the words with so much conviction that she actually believed it. Lennox became her oxygen that she’d do anything to keep breathing in. She ignored all the negatives, even how his grip on her tightened whenever he spoke about loyalty to him.
He placed her in the ghetto as a trap to reel Dontrell in. Lennox was positive that his brother would see what he saw in her at a young age. Lucille went on to believe that Lennox saved her when he simply repositioned her.
He moved her from one cage to another, just luxury bars and softer sheets.
And then there was Dontrell Bonetti. He didn’t storm in like Lennox. and he didn’t promise her shit. She noticed right away how her Donnie didn’t look at her like a project to conquer. He gave her a chance to be his equal, to have a voice and not shut her up when he felt like she was stepping out of a woman’s place.
Dontrell asked Lucille questions no one had ever asked. Not about what she could do or who she belonged to. But about what she liked, what scared her. Dontrell asked Lucille about her dreams, then took action to make sure they came true.
Her soul that she kept up high away from everyone, lowered for Dontrell. He captured her soul, and she willingly gave it to him. He touched her like she was sacred. He separated her from her circumstances before.
So to Lucille, the first brother loved the idea of rescuing her only to use her as a weapon of destruction of his brother’s demise. The second brother actually loved her, and that difference cut her open. She hated herself for loving them both. She carried the guilt like a second skin.
There was so much guilt that she tried her hardest to bury. Guilt for still wanting the man who manipulated her. Guilt for feeling safe and in love with the brother that she was sent to destroy. Guilt for the nights she cried because she didn’t know which version of herself was the real her.
The truth was brutal until the illusion collapsed. She accepted her disposition then forced herself cold and selfish. She still remembered the cold shift. When she embraced the power of what each brother gave her, Lucille accepted fate. Dontrell’s death hurt her, but at the same time…she had reassurance by Lennox still being alive. The Bonetti brothers made Lucille, without either one of them she felt she would be powerless.
She swayed at her deep thoughts, until Lennox slapped them out of her.
“Now is not the time to freeze up, bitch,” Lennox coldly voiced.
He slapped Lucille so hard, blood immediately trickled out of her nose.
“I let you get away with a lot, the first thing is giving my second born away to a family that didn’t deserve him!” He gritted out, pacing back and forth angrily.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you placed him in Luca’s life on purpose! Now he’s a fucking capo of the Bonetti Mafia, not knowing he could kill Luca and become the Don which would place me back in fucking Cali!”
