Then I waited.
My temple was pounding as the adrenaline circulated in my veins. All the muscles in my arms were tense, ready for the fight that was about to happen. This man had taken everything away from me.
I despised him.
A minute later, Mrs. Barsetti opened the door. “Griffin?” She spoke with surprise, but there was a smile on her face. It was the first time I’d ever seen her smile at me. It was the first time she’d looked pleased to see my face, despite how angry I must have looked. “I didn’t know you guys were stopping by.”
“I want to see Crow.” I could barely get the words past my clenched jaw. I could barely keep my hands still because I wanted to yank the door off the hinges.
She picked up on my intensity. “Uh, is everything alright? Is Vanessa with you?”
“I want to see Crow.” I turned my back on her and stepped away from the house until my feet hit the gravel of the driveway. I didn’t hate her as much as Crow, but right now, I didn’t like her either.
She didn’t ask me any more questions and disappeared.
It seemed like a lifetime later before Crow finally showed his face. He shut the door behind him then approached me, his boots hitting the concrete before they crushed against the gravel. “Griffin.”
I surveyed the landscape of the vineyards for another second before I turned around and faced him. He stood in front of his three-story mansion, a man full of so much wealth he didn’t have enough places to stash his money. Not only was he wealthy, but that privileged life had been handed down to his children as well. A man with a perfect life, he thought he was a god who could do whatever he wanted.
I looked at him, my blood boiling when I saw his stern expression. With dark hair like Vanessa and the same olive skin, he was clearly her father. He showed the signs of strength despite his age, and after seeing him in battle, I knew he was a man worth his salt. Fearless, strong, and selfless, he would give his life for his son in a heartbeat—I saw it with my own eyes.
He watched me, his shoulders tense as he studied me with trepidation. “What is it?”
“I had to walk into her apartment, the apartment I bought for her, and see that goddamn painting on the wall.”
He kept his expression blank, maintaining a poker face even though he must have been confused.
“She bought his painting, he bought hers, and that’s where it all began—like a goddamn fairy tale. I don’t need to hear any more of the story to understand how it goes, to know that Vanessa found a perfect man whom she connected with.” I shook my head, doing the best I could not to punch him in the face. “Of course, you approved of him. A successful painter with his own gallery. A nice young man from a good family. I’m sure you dug into him and couldn’t find a single flaw. Then you encouraged your daughter to date him, to forget about the psychopath criminal that she loves. You got what you wanted—for her to forget about me.”
As the conversation continued, he slowly narrowed his eyes and he erected his walls, knowing this conversation would only get worse.
“I worked my ass off to get your approval.” I pointed my finger in his face since he was slightly shorter than me. In his black t-shirt and jeans, he had a corded neck and a hard jawline. He might not be afraid of me, but he was thirty years older than me and not nearly my size. I could crush him—and we both knew it. “I gave you free labor, put up with your brother’s bullshit, and listened to you call me trash. Fucking trash. Do you think that painter boy would have put up with that?” I slammed my fists into my chest. “Do you think that painter boy could have handled that? Do you think any other man in the world would have done that for your daughter? But did that mean shit to you? No. That asshole didn’t have to do a damn thing for you to like him. But me…I was never given a chance. You stuck your nose where it didn’t belong, and you took away the one thing that meant something to me.” I slammed my hand into my chest again. “I’ve got nothing but my self-made fortune and my boys. I don’t have a family. She was everything to me. I worked my ass off for her, but you wouldn’t let me have her. So some other asshole got his shot. He fell for my woman. She never loved him, never slept with him, but that doesn’t matter. In time, it would have happened. In time, she would have loved him. And that’s all because of you.” I pointed my finger in his face, not having an ounce of respect for him. “You know what my life was like for those three months? All I did was work and drink. Too depressed to go on, I drank until I lost my mind. I crashed my truck and ended up in a hospital. I spent all my nights alone, trying not to think about the one person I wanted to be with. And that’s all because of you.”