Top Dog

“What happened?” she asked. “Julia looked happy when she arrived.”

“I think you mistook ‘happiness’ for a pleasant nervousness.”

“Did you give her a reason to be nervous?”

I shot my mother a look as I fixed myself a cup of coffee.

“Care to make your mother one of those?”

“Whose do you think this is?” I asked.

“Yours until I asked for it,” she said with a grin.

“And you wonder why father always cursed you under his breath.”

“He knew who ruled this house. You’d do well to abide by the same principle.”

I made myself another mug of coffee before I went to sit with my mother at the kitchen island.

“You know I know,” she said.

“And I’m thankful for you keeping our secret,” I said. “But Julia didn’t come over to rehash the past.”

“Then it doesn’t look good for a Bianchi to stop by the way she did. You need to be careful, son.”

“I’m aware of that, and I’m being as careful as I can.”

“So if she didn’t stop by to relive the glory days of the two of you sneaking out, then why was she here?” my mother asked.

“I still don’t know how you found out about us.”

“I’m a mother. I know everything.”

“We were pretty discreet.”

“That’s what you think,” she said.

“Yeah, this conversation goes no further,” I said.

“You know things are different now. We aren’t dealing with your respective fathers any longer. Her father’s reaction to your teenage love affair was timid. But now that Stefano sits in that chair? He won’t hesitate to kill you over it.”

“And I told you that Julia wasn’t over here for anything like that.”

“She just came to see how you were?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“Stefano’s dangerous, Romeo. You and I both know what he’s capable of. The manipulation. The psychotic tendencies. That man enjoys having blood on his hands.”

“Hence why our meeting was platonic for once,” I said.

“All I’m saying is be careful. The last person we need breathing down this family’s neck is Stefano Bianchi.”

“I promise,” I said. “I’ll be careful.”

I understood why my mother was worried, but I was tired of her grilling me. I was still pissed off with the way Julia left things. What the hell had she come over for? To apologize and then fuck my brains out? I mean, it was a mutual thing, but still. She didn’t have to rush off the way she did. We didn’t do anything wrong. We had a past. A history. Hell, we had a son. What the hell was so wrong with fucking the mother of my child?

I wasn't going to let her get away from me again. Nor was I going to let her keep me from my son any longer. I got why she was overprotective. But that was the thing. I got it. I understood it. I didn’t want to expose my child to this lifestyle, either. Hence why I was trying to change things. To shift the tides and make our business more legal and less bloody. I wanted that legacy for my family, and now?