Page 83 of Contempt

Renzo nodded. “Or dad, I guess.”

“Never.”

He wished he could be surprised.

“Ever?” Lucia asked.

Her first time speaking, and this time, she inserted herself into the equation without someone else bringing her into it.

Rose turned her attention to Lucia, and smiled sadly. “Back when Renzo was first … uh, taken away, yeah, she came around. But that was only to try and take Diego away from me. She wanted the check that would come with him, basically. She put on a good show for the CPS workers, and everything, but she couldn’t stay clean. I had a good lawyer. Hansen and Hansen Law were great—they didn’t give her a fucking inch when it came to Diego.”

Lucia stilled, and her gaze drifted to Renzo. “Hansen and Hansen?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That’s a really expensive law firm,” Lucia said quietly. “I know because my cousin’s wife works for them—she’s a partner.”

Rose didn’t even blink when she replied, “I know, at first I thought it was pro bono, but it turned out someone else was footing the bill for the law firm. I found that out later when some paperwork accidentally got mailed to me instead of the firm.”

“I don’t understand—”

“Your father, Lucia,” Rose said. “He paid for my lawyers. He never asked for anything in return, and I never got the chance to thank him.”

Lucia looked to Renzo again.

A silent question in her eyes …

Did you know?

He nodded, although it was never something that had passed his mind over the past years. Lucian had told him during his visit to Renzo in prison.

Lucian had done a lot for them—he did it all without asking for thanks, or seeking recognition. Renzo had come to realize that despite all the things the man had done to them back then was not an actual reflection of the person he was inside. He’d made mistakes. They all had. No one was ever going to be a perfect human being.

But he made amends.

He made them silently.

He didn’t do it so that they would know.

He did it because it was right.

“Excuse me,” Lucia whispered, standing from the table. “I need a second.”

She was gone from the kitchen before Renzo knew what had happened. It was only the glare that his sister shot his way that made Renzo ask, “What?”

“Don’t sit there. Go after her.”

“I don’t think she wants—”

“You’re an idiot,” Rose groaned, “stop doing that.”

Well, fuck.

• • •

“Hey.”

Lucia glanced up from the sink, and her gaze drifted to Renzo in the bathroom doorway. Maybe his sister had been right that Lucia meant for him to follow her—or maybe she just didn’t care either way.