Bellissimo Fortuna (Beautiful Fortune) (25 page)

“How?”

“To guarantee your safety. I told him that if you were hurt or killed at his hands he would never see his grandchild again. Hanging the proverbial carrot in his face that it may be a boy got me what I wanted. I knew eventually you would take him down and I hoped it wouldn’t be too late. I don’t’ know what I thought, Bronson. There was so much happening. Then you came over and I had to watch you break in front of me all the while trying to keep it together. I wavered when you left, almost said to hell with it and take our chances, but I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

“When I got back inside and he saw he was losing me, he put another screen on. I watched them turn off Luis’s breathing machine and inject his IV with something. I watched him gasp, stare in terror, begging with his eyes because he couldn’t speak. He made sure I saw what he was capable of.” She curls into the fetal position and sobs.

Fuck, if I had just listened months ago. She really did what she had to do to ensure my safety in no regards to herself. She knew I would be bitter, pissed and she still chose my life over her happiness. I crawl in bed beside her and hold her through her sobs. “I’m sorry, Callie. God, I don’t deserve your forgiveness but give it to me, please.” She doesn’t respond, just keeps purging the memories from her system through her tears.

When she turns to me, her words cut me. “So see, even if you now see I made the right choice I still fucked up. I can’t do this. I need you to leave. If you still want an attorney, fine, but I won’t fight you. I can’t anymore, whatever you want, take it. I have nothing left. I could have killed our son tonight; I could have killed him all those months ago when I put our fate and yours in my father’s hands. Please, just don’t take him all the away from me, I love him.”

“Never. I love you. Listen to me, I. Love. You. I’m fucking sorry; I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to you. I’m not taking him away and I can’t leave you. I can’t.”

“You can. Just follow my lead from those years ago. One foot in front of the other.” She turns and refuses to interact with me. I don’t leave, even when she falls asleep. I’ll prove it to her, gain her trust back. Gain her love back. I almost lost her, more than once and never again. Our father’s sins aren’t ours but we continue to battle them and are cut by them. I want to break that cycle and I want to be hers again. She’s never stopped being mine.

When I see her ribs where her gown has gaped open, I know I can fix this. There scripted up her ribcage is ‘l'amore conquista tutto’ . . . love conquers all. Yes, in this case my love will conquer her heart and bring her back to her family.

Chapter 30

Callie

He says he’s sorry and stays by my side, but in all this back and forth, past and present I don’t trust him. I don’t believe him. So because I’m near death and injured our child he is seeing clearly? How about all the months I begged him for his forgiveness, just to listen to me, or the fact I busted my ass and risked my life to bring him the information he needed to bring my father down, and reunite him with his son? I guess those don’t matter.

Sitting at my bedside, assuring me he isn’t taking my child away and promising to be there from now on . . . it all falls on deaf ears. I notice the one explanation he didn’t give me . . . Amy. I could get over it or stomach it better if it was a casual fuck, but she knew too many things, which makes me believe this wasn’t a chance encounter. I’d be better if he had a slew of one-night stands. I’m just so tired and no matter how many times I tell him he doesn’t let up.

“You ready to come home?” Bianca is packing my clothes.

“I may need Angelo to stay with y’all more than normal until I can get back on my feet.”

“Girl, you’re crazy. You are coming to the house until you are healed. Then I bet my brother carts your skinny ass to Miami. Which really sucks because then he takes my little man with him.”

“Not happening. I’m not staying at your house expecting you all to nurse me back to health and I’m not going anywhere with your brother.”

“Why not?” Bronson sweeps in.

Holy hell, personal space people. “Because I don’t like you very much.”

“Yeah, I’ll grow on you. Mom is with Angelo getting his stitches checked and he is grumpy missing his mom. Once you are sprung we can go down to the office and then I’ll talk y’all back to the house.”

Does nobody listen to me? “Okay, let’s start over. I have my own house. One Angelo and I live in. I appreciate the offer and will take the extra help with Angelo but I’m not staying at your house, or your mom’s house. I’m staying in my own home, with my son. And thanks for making sure he got to his appointment.”

“Your house doesn’t have an extra bedroom so if you insist staying there, you’ll have to share a bed with me and I’m all for it if you think you’re up to it,” he wags his eyebrows at me.

These people are fucking delusional. “Not happening. You aren’t staying, you aren’t bossing me around and I don’t have to listen to you.”

“Okay.” He kisses my damn temple and I want to melt. Why does he do that? I look up, see his smirk, and realize he didn’t forget how that used to affect me. I squint my eyes and give him my best back off look. He chuckles while lifting his hands up in surrender stepping backwards.

I can’t wait to see my little man. I haven’t seen him since my first full day in the hospital. Bronson snuck him in, and he was distraught and knew something was wrong. They got kicked out of my room despite the fit Bronson threw, and I was a wreck afterwards. He sees me as soon as we walk in the office and begins toddling his way over. “Can you pick him up?” I nervously ask Bronson.

“Sure, you still sore?”

“Yes,” I lie. I’m fucking terrified to hold my child. The little strip of stitches my reminder of what could happen. Once he is in his dad’s arm he is squirming towards me so I lean in and smother kisses all over his face. He giggles and I keep doing it until Bronson lets out a deep groan. It’s then I realize I have smashed my chest against his arm and hand, particularly by tit against his knuckles. That sound makes me shiver. My nipples tighten. I step back and sit down, letting Angelo get on my lap. All is healing per the doctor so we head to my house after dropping Gianna off.

“You could have just dropped me off first.”

“Mom was tired from the last few days, this way I don’t keep her while I help you get settled.” Once he carries our stuff and our child inside, I expect him to leave. He doesn’t, instead ordering lunch.

“Make yourself at home.” I quip.

“Thanks,” his angelic smile isn’t fooling me.

“I was kidding.”

“I wasn’t.” He eats lunch, sharing it with his greedy son and then gets Angelo settled for a nap. They’re in there so long I doze off on the couch and wake up just before dusk. I notice the quiet of the house and become panicked because Angelo should be awake by now. I jump off the couch and on the way to the one bedroom I catch sight of the beach, and see father and son sitting, playing in the sand. I snapshot that to my memory and then wonder why the hell that man is still here.

“Hey, I’m up, you can bring him back in.” I holler through the screen door.

He wipes the sand off both of them and they walk towards me. “You didn’t have to keep him occupied after his nap, I would have gotten him.”

“You were so peaceful and you need your rest. It’s fine, we had a good time.”

Instead of leaving, he goes to the fridge and grabs a beer and takeout containers. “I had some groceries delivered while you were asleep.”

“Um, thanks.” I notice the pantry is stocked to. “This is too much. Let me repay you.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just insult me. I figure it’s good for the week and then you should feel up to grocery shopping.”

“This is enough for a month.”

“You forget how much I eat.”

“You aren’t here. Eat at your own house. Pack it up and take it with you.”

“I am here. I will be here for the duration.”

“That’s not what we agreed upon.”

“I didn’t agree to anything.”

“You said okay.”

“Did I?”

“Bronson, you aren’t staying here.”

“Callie, I am. It will be fine.” I stomp my foot. He just chuckles as he passes me, kissing my temple and tweaking my chin. “Hey Angelo, want to watch the game with Daddy?” That’s how I finish my night, those two thick as thieves settled in the couch watching baseball. The next day is more of the same. He is taking this overboard.

By the third day I’m about to lose my mind. “I’m evicting you.”

“You can’t evict me, you’re renting this place.”

“I’ll call the leasing office, they can evict you.”

“Oh, Shawn? He and I are great friends, go ahead and call.” I decide I will ignore him. I start searching the help wanted ads, sure that I no longer have a job since I walked out and then missed six days of work. He stands over my shoulder, “What are you doing?”

“Job hunting.”

“For what?”

“For shits and giggles. A job you dipshit. I need to pay rent, groceries, keep our child fed and clothed.”

“I can do all that. You need to be here with Angelo.”

I roll my eyes. “Angelo is perfectly fine with your mom and you can’t pay my rent.”

“Well in Miami you won’t have my mom to watch him and I didn’t think you wanted him in daycare yet.”

“Well, in Miami I won’t be there so it’s a moot point. By the way, when do you go back?”

“I took a short leave. I have another three weeks,” I may kill him. Or myself. One of us isn’t making it out alive.

I go back to circling jobs I don’t really want, but really need. “Why don’t you hold off for another week? Catch your breath.”

“I have rent due and I can pay this month but next month I’ll be cutting it close.”

“Callie, take my money. I’ll pay your damned rent.”

“No, you won’t.”

“Okay, suit yourself.”

I learned later that week when Bronson says ‘okay’ he really doesn’t mean ‘okay.’ His first okay in the hospital . . . he moved in with me. The second over money and rent . . . he bought my fucking bungalow so now I don’t have rent.

“You crossed the line here, Bronson.”

“Sorry,” he shrugs.

“You sound like it.” He isn’t sorry. He’s getting his way and is fucking back to his old ways with me. “We need to set some boundaries.”

“Okay,” he smiles.

“First, don’t use that fucking word with me again. No more ‘okays’ from you because what that word means for you and the definition of that word are two completely different things, and you are using it out of context.”

He is laughing at me. Full out, sound escaping from his mouth, body shaking laughing at me. “I’m glad I can entertain you.”

“That, you could always do.”

“Can’t you go for a movie for that? I’m sure it’s much cheaper.”

“No, I’m good.” I flip him off and go make dinner. Secretly, I’m thrilled he is still here but I don’t trust it yet.

Another week and I still have company, so I decide to use this built in babysitter I have.

“Girls night?” I ask as soon as Bianca answers the phone.

“Hell yeah,” she readily agrees. “Big brother driving you insane?”

“He’s fucking nuts, Binks. What did I ever see in him?”

“He’s nuts alright but you love him.”

“So.”

“That’s progress. You aren’t denying it anymore.”

“Shut up and be here at nine.”

“He has no clue we are going out does he?”

“Nope.”

“Well make it worth it. Dress like the slut I tried to be in college.”

I snort, “Oh god, Bianca. You kill me.”

“I suggest you start drinking now because you are going to need it to deal with him tonight.”

“It’s like two in the afternoon.”

“You should have started at noon.”

“See you soon.”

“Oh, yes. I wouldn’t miss this. I’ll be the one standing in the corner laughing.”

“You are such a bitch.”

“Oh, if my brother wasn’t going to spank your ass for your stunt tonight I may be tempted to do it for that insult.” I hang up on her. I don’t think he will be that upset, but he is walking around my house like he owns it. Well, technically, he does, but he doesn’t own me, damn it.

After dinner I ask, “Hey can you put him down after his bath? I need to take a bath tonight?”

He raises his eyebrows, “Special occasion?” He is so barking up the wrong tree with those expectations. Sure, I used to soak in the bath before sexy time years ago, so he always equated bath with sex.

“No, just cleanliness. Ya know that thing that’s close to godliness?”

Shaking his head at me, “Yes, I’ll put little man down. We need to think about taking a day trip to Miami, I want you to check out the area and see if you like it.”

“Doesn’t matter if I like it, I don’t live there. As long as you aren’t on the corner of Heroin and Main then I think we are good. I just don’t want my son to get any ideas on a career choice at such a young age.”