Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“Sir? Your brother is here to see you.”
“Saul? What’s he want?”
“No, sorry, sir, it’s Carlo.”
Even stranger. I can’t remember the last time Carlo came to visit me in my office without at least calling first. “Send him in.”
A minute later, Carlo’s standing in front of my desk. He’s in a dark suit, his eyes red-rimmed and sunken, his hair messy. I can’t tell if he’s coming here straight from the club, though he doesn’t smell like alcohol.
“Bro,” I say and he sits heavily in a chair. “You’re awake before ten. It’s a miracle.”
“Cut the shit. We gotta talk.” His tone is tense and he’s tugging at the sleeve of his suit. He’s agitated and a bad feeling lodges in my guts.
“What’s wrong? Family trouble?” Which is code for violent gang shit.
“In a way, yes. Stef told me that Maddie’s been talking to Mom.”
I stifle a groan. Fucking hell. I should’ve seen this coming. “It’s not a problem. We’re dealing with it.”
“The fuck do you mean, it’s not a problem? Mom’s having a tough time. Why the fuck is your random-ass wife bothering her?”
“My wife isn’t bothering her,” I say, struggling to keep myself calm. “Maddie and Mom have been chatting once a day about butterflies.”
“Butterflies.” His face remains flat.
“Yes, butterflies. You’d know that Mom loves them if you ever spent time with her.”
That was the wrong thing to say. His face twitches and his mouth pulls into a pissed-off frown as he sits forward in his chair. “I want Maddie to stay away from Mom. I don’t know what the fuck you’re thinking, but our mother has some pretty serious Alzheimer’s.”
“The nurse says it’s helping.”
“I don’t give a fuck what that minimum-wage rent-a-nurse says. Tell Maddie to fuck off.”
I stare at him. I know Carlo is having the same problem Stefania does, but he pisses me off in a way she never did. With him, it’s always the worst-case scenario, the end of the fucking world, and it’s not like he’s trying to do anything about it. Carlo could come home more often, talk to Mom, spend time with her.
Instead, he hides from it. He doesn’t want to face the facts. Mom’s sick and she’s not getting better. She’s only getting worse.
“I’m not going to do that. If you want to be more involved with Mother’s care, you can come see her more often.”
“Fuck you. I try.”
“No, you don’t.”
“She freaks out on me half the time, and the other half she thinks I’m fucking Uncle Marko.”
“She thinks I’m Dad more often than not. It doesn’t fucking matter. I sit there with her anyway because she’s my mother and I love her. I’m not going to avoid her just because it hurts.”
His jaw works. I really shouldn’t have said that. He stands, hand curled into fists, and I halfway expect him to lunge across the desk.
“I get it, you’re the Don,” he says, his voice quiet and strained from anger. “You get to make these decisions. You can choose who comes and who goes. I get that. But you need us, you fucking prick. You need me and Saul and even goddamn Gian even though he’s never around. You need us, and the second you start pushing us away is the last second you spend in charge.”
“Nice threat.” I cross my arms. “Still not going to change my mind.”
“Reconsider. Keep your wife away from our mother.” He turns and leaves the office.
Fucking asshole. I throw my phone at the wall and it makes a loud smash as a portrait of my father shaking hands with an ancient Frank Sinatra crashes to the floor. I sit back seething.
Stefania is smart enough and self-aware enough to recognize her reaction as jealousy. But Carlo isn’t going to do that. He’s too stubborn and pigheaded. Which means I’m going to have to deal with his temper tantrum.
The office door opens. I look up sharply, half expecting my brother to be back for more. Instead, Maddie sneaks in. “You okay? I saw Carlo storm out of here. He looked pissed.”
“I’m fine.” I struggle to compose myself.
Maddie looks at the phone and the photograph lying on the floor. Her eyebrows raise. “Right, you seem totally good.”
“It’s just family stuff.”
“I didn’t realize your wife wasn’t family.” She comes over and sits on the edge of my desk, crossing her legs. I look at her thighs and put my hand at the hem of her dress.
“Would you drop it if I said it’s about you?”
“Nope, definitely not.”
“Carlo is having trouble accepting your place in our family. That’s all this is.”
“He’s mad about your mom, isn’t he? I’m guessing Stef told him?”
I rub my eyes and sigh. “You’re too fucking perceptive for your own good.”
“I can back off, Ren. I really can.”
“No. You’re good for Mom. I haven’t seen her this calm in a really long time. I don’t know what it is about you two talking, but it helps her.”