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Chapter Nine
Less Romance. More Wanking.
The next day, I was feeling slightly more guilty.
More guilty and yet even more drawn to her.
Not that I had much time to worry about it.
“If you’re in such desperate need for control, why don’t you come here and earn the right?” I heard Mum yelling into the phone as a door slammed.
“Is Grandma okay?” Maddy asked, clutching at my jeans.
My hand went to the mop of curls on her head. Rocco wasn’t even in the state, and he was fucking up his descendants. I looked around the house and wondered what to distract Maddy with. The best I could do what plop her in front of the tellie and turn the volume up too loud.
“Just hang here for a while, Mads and I’ll be back soon,” I said, ducking down to kiss her head.
She nodded. “Okay, Uncie Roman,” she said in a small voice.
I could kill Rocco for doing this to her. It wasn’t good enough he’d made Paris a love-starved simpering idiot who thought comfort came from a man’s cock, and he’d turned me into a broken shell that would never amount to anything but a gaol sentence. Now he was doing his best to make sure that gorgeous little girl in the other room turned out as insecure and worthless as her mum and uncle.
I pushed into Mum’s room.
“She’s fine, Rocco,” she snapped. “She’s enrolled in school. She’s spending time with me and Roman. She’s learning and growing and playing. What else do you think she needs?”
I didn’t hear Rocco’s reply, but Mum’s face contorted.
“Fuck you, Rocco. It’s a bit late to be talking about happy families now. You had your chance and you lost it. Or does your current marriage mean as little to you as your first?”
Oh, the steel on that woman. She made me unbelievably proud to be her son.
Mum saw me leaning in the doorway, and I could see she was torn. Did she shield me from this as she felt a good parent would? After all, she left Rocco because she wanted to spare Paris and me as much pain as possible. But she and I also had a close mother-son relationship, and she knew I was there to offer her support if she needed it.
She rolled her eyes at me as she sighed. “Are you done?” she asked him. “I don’t care who you think you are, Rocco Lombardi.” A pause. “I don’t know them. Why would their opinion matter to me? You are a piece of shit and I can only feel sorry for your child bride.”
I nearly choked at Mum using my favourite phrase for Annika. To be fair to her, I didn’t actually know her. She might not have been all that bad.
“Don’t bring Roman into this!” Mum snarled. “Don’t you dare! You can’t tell me in one breath that Maddy should have her family together and then in the next resent your son’s existence.”
Ouch. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, but it still hurt.
“No, Rocco!” she yelled. “Just, no. You want a relationship with any of them, then you have to do the work. Maddy is in my care and I will not approve visits to Sydney.” One moment, there was an enraged warrior woman in front of me, the next it was an ice queen. “You lost your right to question my parenting skills the day you raised your voice to our children. You lost your right to question me when you raised your hand to Roman. You don’t get to sit in your mansion and judge us, Rocco.” Her voice didn’t quiver, but her hands shook as she reached for me. “You don’t get to judge them for doing the best with what you gave them.”
She pulled the phone from her ear, hung up and threw it on the bed.
“Mum–” I started, but she held up a hand.
“I just…” She huffed a shaky breath and reached for me again.
I went to her and wrapped her in my arms.
“I shouldn’t…” she said, her voice breaking.
I shook my head. “He shouldn’t.”
A sob escaped her. “I still let him get to me.”
All I could do was rub her back and let her cry.
