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Down below, a rowboat cut through the water and docked on shore. Porter scrambled out and gathered up the rope to tie it to the dock. We both watched him for a while until Viktor rose and leaned over the dock.
“It’s the Cleat Hitch, son,” he called. “Over—that’s right—under—you got it.”
I joined Viktor at the railing. “So you only wanted one?”
He shook his head. “I’d have had more children, but Sienna had a difficult pregnancy and she suffered a lot during labor. Maybe it was premature, but I made the choice while she was in recovery and got snipped. Couldn’t see her do that again.”
“I thought I wanted one more,” I mused. “But now I’m sure I’m done.”
“Does Olivia know what she wants?”
I shook my head and shrugged. “She’s been done for a while.”
Viktor put the cigarette to his lips and inhaled deeply. When he spoke, the smoke expelled in a silhouette against the night sky.
“You can still have fun, if you know what I mean, even if you know she’s not getting knocked up from it,” he said lightly.
“Jesus,” I said lightly.
There was a glitter in his eye that let me know I had no interest in learning more about his sex life. Instead, I decided that one cigarette probably wouldn’t hurt and took the box off the table.
“So you want to work with me?” I said. “Let’s talk about that.”
We spoke until early in the morning. At one point Porter came to say goodnight and around midnight, Sienna poked her head out and blinked sleepily at us. Viktor assured her he’d be up in a little while.
At the end of it, we had an agreement.
Viktor would serve as a consultant for my inner circle. Olivia would like that someone older than I was offering advice. I knew she worried about what I would do the next time boredom struck. When the time came, our sons would train together to become the next generation of kings.
But only if they wanted to.
“I won’t allow some things to continue on,” Viktor said as we walked back into the dark kitchen. “No one has to stay in this life if they don’t want it. I want Porter to make his own choices, both public and private.”
“They deserve a shot at making their own way,” I said. “Not everyone can be as fortunate at you and I.”
Viktor’s face went distant. He took his phone from his pocket and looked down at the picture of Sienna holding baby Porter on the screen. There was a long silence and he cleared his throat.
“We’ve both been very fortunate,” he said quietly.
The moment was getting a little too emotional for me. I cleared my throat and put our glasses in the sink.
“Where will you live?” I asked.
Viktor pushed his phone back into his pocket. “Here, I think. I’ll offer the owner more than it’s worth and I’m sure he’ll take it. Sienna likes it here, she loves living on the water. Even in the winter. Where will you live?”
The question caught me off guard. Despite weeks of laying in bed with time to think, I hadn’t considered the question of where Olivia and I would reside yet. My mind flicked to the bloodied grounds where our house had stood and I knew there was nothing left for her there now.
“I don’t know,” I said.
I thought about it on the drive home, sitting in the back of Viktor’s SUV early in the morning. His assistant had offered to bring me to the Barone house and I’d taken him up on that offer. My car was gone, probably sold or destroyed by Riccardo after we’d fled. I wasn’t ready to drive anyway. My hip ached and my reaction time was slow.
The driver pulled up outside the Barone home. Cosimo had cleared the vines from the house and laid down new gravel. The fountain glittered in the late Autumn sun as I moved slowly up the drive.
A long time ago, I’d walked up this path to meet my future wife.
I’d been a different man then. Cold, hurt, unwilling to open myself to anyone.
But one look into her eyes and the ice inside me began to melt.Drip, drip.Like water from snowy eaves on the first day of spring.
