Page 201 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“They don’t want her to, or … mostly Dante,” Andino said, like it wasn’t a big deal at all. “I mean, you would have to get the details from him on why, exactly, but he wants it to be on her. What she does or doesn’t do, or wants to do, that’s on her to decide. He doesn’t want to influence her either way. Since she’s determined to keep it to herself, that’s what her parents are letting her do. And she can let him and her mother in on the secret, or not. I keep it up—the lie, you know—for her benefit because that’s what she seems to want. She doesn’t want them to know, so I make it seem like they don’t.”

“That’s the stupidest shit I have ever heard.”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is. And you’re not to let her know the difference, either. Dante doesn’t want her to know that he knows what’s up. He’s the boss, maybe not yours, but he’s the boss, nonetheless. Her father, too.”

“They know,” Cross repeated.

“I already said that. This conversation is starting to get fucking dull.”

Cross agreed.

He stood from the table.

Andino glanced up at him, and said, “I was serious, too. Not one word to Catherine about what I just told you. It’s on her to figure her shit out—that’s what they want. It’s not your call to make.”

“Get her to slow down a bit,” Cross shot back.

He didn’t get a reply.

Cross watched Catherine down her fourth glass of red wine in less than an hour. From across the dinner table, her gaze met his, and he knew two things instantly.

One, she was lit.

Two, she was pissed.

The drunk thing, he could probably handle. She hadn’t been drinking heavily for a long while, and when she did, it was social occasions only, and just a mouthful to celebrate whatever was being toasted. The attitude, though, he wasn’t so sure on. He didn’t know why she was pissed, only that clearly she was. Their entire dinner with his mother and almost sixteen year old sister had been spent with her talking all the way around him just to avoid speaking to him.

“You’re too busy lately,” Emma told him as he walked her to the door.

“I know, Ma.”

“Slow down, Cross. Let life catch up with you.”

“I will,” he promised.

Somehow.

“You need to help Daddy pick out my car,” Camilla spoke up, grinning at her brother as she opened the front door to the penthouse. “Make sure he doesn’t screw it up.”

Cross chuckled. “I can handle that.”

“Good.”

Emma patted his cheek. “Be good, huh?”

“I’m always good, Ma.”

“Well, that’s debatable. At least, be your kind of good, Cross.”

He waited until his mother and sister were in the elevator, before closing the front door. It barely clicked shut before the first dish crashed into the sink, and then another one followed.

“What the fuck?” he asked, spinning on his heel.

Catherine glared at him, a wine glass in her hand. It, too, dropped into the sink without a care. He heard it shatter.

Cross closed the space between them fast, done with her silence and burning looks. “Are you going to speak up and tell me what’s wrong with you, or what?”

She turned her shoulder to him.