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He turns to Abigail and says sadly, “You are right. We have expected too much from you. But it was done with your best interests at heart.”
“My best interests.”
Abi shakes her head. “You never asked what I wanted. You don’t even know what my best interests are, but I found them out for myself, with Matteo. He loves me.”
She smiles and finds my hand and faces her parents, softening her voice.
“I love him. Isn’t that worth everything?”
Her mom snarls. “It’s worth nothing.”
For a moment, the silence settles on the room as if trying to calm the situation and then Abigail says sadly, “Then we will leave, and you will never see us again.”
As we turn to walk away, her father says with some desperation.
“OK! I’ll tell you.”
CHAPTER36
ABIGAIL
It’s as if time stands still as we turn and face the broken soul of a man I always thought was the strongest one I had ever met. Now he looks a shadow of his former self as he sinks down onto the couch and places his head in his hands.
Mom says in shock, “No, Jared!”
He sighs and says softly, “They need to hear it, Anna. This is falling away from us and unless we act now, you can say goodbye to everything we’ve worked so hard for.”
I’m surprised when my mom drops beside him and places her arm around his shoulders and whispers, “You don’t have to do this, honey.”
I am more shocked at that than anything preceding it, because for once my mother appears almost human.
Matteo guides me back to the couch and places his arm around my shoulder and it’s so good knowing I have someone fighting in my corner for once in my life and I say softly, “Tell us what?”
My mother speaks first, which surprises me as she faces me with an expression I’ve never seen before. Vulnerability.
“I’m sorry, Abigail.”
I stiffen because when does my mother ever apologize?
“Everything you said is right, which is why we owe you an apology and an explanation.”
She takes a deep breath and whispers, “Your father met Judge Stevenson and Sam Bachini at college. I also went there and became friends with Claire. We all grew close, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I was back then.”
She smiles at the memory and says sadly. “Your father lived in a house with several other guys, and they joined a fraternity called The Dark Lords.”
I sit up and share a worried look with Matteo, who is suddenly more alert as we wait for the final puzzle piece to be turned over.
“It was by invitation, and only the richest kids with the most influential parents were allowed to try out. I was so proud when they accepted your father and for a while we enjoyed the status it brought. Then they allowed Sam Bachini to join, and the Dark Lords became a lot more sinister.”
She turns to my father and smiles reassuringly. “He is an evil man with evil friends. He held a power nobody could ignore and soon he manipulated your father and the Judge into things that weren’t strictly legal. They were tempted by wealth and power, which is the downfall of many great men, and when they all left college, they decided to work together to achieve greater power.”
I shiver when I’m faced with the reason behind their success and realize they are no better than Matteo and his family, worse even because it’s obvious our billions have been gained from greed and shady deals that probably cost my parents their souls.
My father speaks up. “Sam loved the darker side of life and became a respectable criminal, hiding his crimes behind a charitable institution that opened many doors for him. Judge Stevenson acted to clear up any mistakes, and I became the business behind the crimes. The respectable face of a world that was anything but. We were so tightly knit it became impossible to break away, and we agreed that to protect our organization, we would unite our families by marrying our children. Conveniently Judge Stevenson had a son, and I had a daughter and everyone’s fate was sealed. Then Sam and Claire adopted Mario, and the game changed. He wanted his own son to be the greatest power in the land, and that could only be achieved by respectability. If he married you, Abigail, he would have an open door to Washington’s elite, and we would carve his way to power to benefit us all.”
Anna nods. “We reminded him that the arrangement had already been made, and Abigail must marry Jefferson but Sam wasn’t happy. He told us Mario was standing by as the best choice, and we should cooperate.”
“But I stood my ground because the last thing I wanted for you was marriage to a criminal bastard and make no mistake, Mario Bachini is the worst example of that.”
