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Toni grasped his cane as the driver drove through the open gates. “Where are the reporters on our good days? One misstep with one of my grandsons and they go crazy.” He waved his hand in the air. “And they totally ignore all the good we do for our community.” He frowned, pinching his lips tightly as he leaned back into the leather seat of the vehicle.
Once the gates opened, the reporters raced through to follow the SUV that drove slowly up the driveway towards the main house.
“This is intrusive,” Shelly called out as she shook her head and gaped at the press through the tinted window.
Once they pulled up to the steps outside the main doors, Henry, the driver, switched off the engine and opened the driver’s door. He was a burly man of six feet, five inches who could easily pass for a bodyguard for the stars. It was only recently that Toni’s grandson Lucas insisted he hire a driver to take him around after a stroke.
Lucas had made all the arrangements and hired Henry himself.
The good thing about Lucas was, like the rest of Toni’s grandsons, he was fiercely protective of his grandfather—and anyone who was vulnerable for that matter. That was why it irked Toni so when Lucas took the initiative to help curb the skyrocketing unemployment rate among young people from various backgrounds by creating jobs in his company and opening up centers to train those who lacked job skills, the same hoards of reporters were pretty much absent from the opening—not that Lucas cared much for hype. He acted out the goodness of his heart, never for publicity. But still, a press release was sent out and very few thought it was as newsworthy as the current headline scandal of the day that often rocked ratings to soaring levels.
Lucas even went as far as personally mentoring many of the community youth. He had such an amazing rapport with youngsters who needed guidance. Lucas’s main love was for the Healthy Start Program that operated out of many walk-in clinics around the province, especially in low-income neighborhoods—in addition to Funds for the Future, another program he launched with his brother, Zack, and his cousin, Antonio III. Lucas had taken one rundown clinic that was about to close down and turned it into a flourishing program encouraging people from all economic backgrounds to do various health screening and preventative medicine practices. He’d made it fun by investing in incentive programs to get people to come in.
Then it was soon followed by that cringe-worthy scandal when he’d arranged to have free condoms delivered to local community colleges to promote safe sex—only it was taken way out of context. So this recent scandal only made matters look worse.
When Lucas was growing up, he didn’t have the privileges he currently had. Toni never knew he even existed up until his teens.
When Lucas received his inheritance, he’d done a lot of things with the cash, including purchasing fast cars and dating fast women but he’d also invested a lot of his money in all sorts of programs. Following the Romero tradition, of course. Every living person in Mayberry Hill knew about the Romero family’s Annual Diamond Ball and Fundraiser. It was the place to be every September.
Lucas was certainly down-to-earth and easily approachable. Ha! And that was his problem! Easily approachable by gold diggers!
Lucas could be a hardhead sometimes, actually most of the time. Always out to prove himself. Always taking chances. Doing the unconventional. Making strides. Creating waves. The press dubbed him the Romero Poster Boy for Bad Behavior once when he’d been mixed up in a scandal involving one of his ex-girlfriends who turned out to be some notorious jewel thief.
Toni had made sure to take a hand in raising his grandsons when he learned about his son Jack’s existence later in life. Jack was Toni’s illegitimate son with a relationship he’d had after one of his divorces. When Toni first met his son, Jack already had five sons and was going through difficult times.
“He said he didn’t have anything to do with that woman’s claim, so why are they here?” Shelly pursed her lips in disbelief.
“Because, he’s a good looking, single man who parties too hard and often with the wrong crowd.”
“But Lucas is a workaholic, Toni. He works hard so what he does outside of business hours is his own business.”
