A soft smile graced my lips and I held Lev’s hand tight, running my thumb over his fingers. I spoke gently to Davi. “Yes. I suppose sometimes they do.”
Philippe sipped at his crystal glass of water. “I didn’t have a mother.” He smiled sadly. “Count yourself lucky to have had one, no less a mother who loved you so.”
They were right. My mother was wonderful. I suppose it just hurt knowing that perhaps I hadn’t known her as well as I thought. But all the important things…I knew those. Memories of her took me back to my youth.
I don’t know why, but I felt I needed to share. “My mother, Clara, was a sweet woman. She smiled all the time, and laughed almost as much. She was like a ray of sunshine, pretty as can be, and she always had time for me.” I smiled to myself. It was nice to talk about her. “She sang to me before bed. We always had dessert. She helped me with my homework.” I turned to Lev. “She was smart.”
He squeezed my hand, smiling softly at me, and I went on. “Whenever I was in a bad mood, she would take me down to the store and tell me to fill the shopping cart with anything I wanted. We’d eat ourselves into a food coma.” I chuckled. “She always had the corniest jokes just to make me smile. She was on the PTA. Made my Halloween costumes from scratch. Took me to the beach on the coldest days just to sit on the sand and take in the air. She was a great mom.” My heart panged with guilt. I turned to face Alessio. “And I’m sorry you missed out on that.”
Alessio’s expression remained hard, but when he turned to avert his eyes from mine, I could see he was affected.
Why didn’t Alessio live with us? Why was he left to a father that didn’t want him? I didn’t understand.
I faced Laredo. “Why were we separated?”
Laredo ran his tongue over his teeth. “Because it hurt Clara, and my brother liked to punish her.” He frowned, almost lost in thought. “My brother was married. He didn’t have children with his wife. Clara was nothing more than a plaything. I tried to make her see reason so many times, but,” he sighed, “she loved Enzo.”
Oh, Jesus.
My heart sank. She was the other woman? Who the hell was this person?
“Enzo was good to her for a while. Treated her well. She loved the attention, of course.” He raised his brow as he made his point. “He was the better looking brother.”
I see.
“Clara fell pregnant only a month after sleeping with Enzo. The entire club knew who the father was. Clara asked him to leave his wife. He refused. She told him she would leave him. Just disappear. Told him her baby needed a father.” Oh, God. She sounded a little like Irina. My stomach dropped. I was so embarrassed. “He told her that after she had the baby he would leave his wife. But I knew he way lying.” He shrugged. “It was no surprise to me that after she had Alessio that he stayed with his wife. Clara was heartbroken. She planned to leave town. Enzo caught her packing her things. He went ballistic.”
Laredo glanced at Alessio before turning back to me. “He beat the shit out of her. Said that if she tried to leave him again, he’d kill the boy. I had no doubt that he would. She wasn’t stupid enough to try again. At least she was allowed to see her son.”
“He beat her?” My voice shook. “She was the sweetest person in the whole world, and he beat her?”
Laredo leveled me with a stare. “Enzo used whatever means to keep her by his side. When Clara realized she’d picked the wrong guy, she turned her affections on me.” He smiled. “I was good to her. I loved her. I wanted to father her children. It wasn’t fair that Enzo had that. He didn’t deserve any piece of her. She found that out a little too late. But I took care of her as much as she let me.”
My view of my mother was dimming fast. “Yeah, she sounded like a real peach.”
“We grew careless,” Laredo ignored my snide comment and went on. “It didn’t take long for Enzo to grow suspicious. He walked in on us one night and I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar. I fought my brother tooth and nail. I fought so hard that I broke his bones as well as mine. But Clara…she’d had enough of us. She took off, leaving Alessio behind.”
Poor Alessio.
My throat thickened at the harsh fact.
How could she?
“My brother tried to take Alessio’s life a week later. He attempted to drown him in the bathtub. But he couldn’t see it through.” He turned to look at Alessio. “He didn’t want to love the boy, but he did. A month later, Enzo was found in his home office stone-cold dead. He’d died of an accidental drug overdose that I presume was not so accidental. Enzo’s wife didn’t want Alessio. She knew he was the product of an affair, so I adopted him. He should have been my son in the first place. I love him very much. I tried to find Clara, but she hid well, funnily enough, right under our noses. I didn’t even know she passed away until two years ago.” He eyed me. “I didn’t know she had a daughter.”
Hope beamed from somewhere deep inside of me. “How can you be so sure you’re not my father? You said you were intimate…”
But he was already shaking his head. “No. I’m sorry, Mina. I’m not your father. We never took our affair that far. It’s just not possible that you’re mine.” He huffed out a breath. “But I would’ve killed to be your dad, sweet girl. Know that.”
Tears prickled my eyes as I nodded solemnly.
Alessio had heard enough. He sneered at me from across the table. “While you were out picking flowers with your ma, I was hiding bruises from my friends.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my eyes shining.
“What are you sorry for? You had a good childhood. I was forgotten. That’s life.” As I looked down at the table, he spoke into the silence. “What? You don’t want a brother any more?” My heart broke. He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. Not good enough for you, am I? Just like ya mom.”
Lev gripped my hand so tight it hurt. “Shut your mouth.”
He said this at the same time Laredo called out, “Don’t speak out of anger, my son. You best be quiet, Alessio.”
“No,” Alessio went on. “How about we tell her about the time my father kicked me so hard in the chest that I stopped breathing? Or about the time when he came home from the club, pulled down his pants, and pissed all over me while I slept.”
Tears were trailing my cheeks now. My chest ached with every beat of my heart. I fought desperately not to sob out loud.
Lev growled, “I’m warning you, Alessio.”
“While she had sunshine and lollipops,” Alessio began to shout, “I had cigarette burns across my fucking arms.”
The men around me had started to object angrily at Alessio’s outburst. All I could do was blink through my tears and speak quietly. “I didn’t know.”
Alessio stood. “How could you know? Living your perfect fucking life in your perfect fucking house with your goddamn whore of a mother.” He pointed at me hard. “You got the life I shoulda had.” He clapped slowly, humiliatingly. “Congratulations, Mina.” His lip curled as he whispered, “You got it all.”
By this point, Lev had enough. He threw his chair back so quickly that it flew to the ground. He was quick, but I anticipated the attack before it began. Alessio laughed viciously, his arms wide, welcoming the impending attack. The men stood, Nicolas and Roman rushing to pull at Alessio while Davi and Philippe moved to see what Lev would do.
My arms wrapped around his waist and I gripped him tight, digging my feet in as he dragged me. “I’d like to leave now, sweetie.” Something in the quiet way I spoke must have warned Lev against this fight, because, his chest heaving, teeth gnashing in fury, he slowed to a stop, turning to wrap his arm protectively around me.
Lev turned to my brother and whispered in deathly calm, “You’re going to regret your words.” He panted. “I’m going to make sure of it.”