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He shakes his head.
“My mum died when I was twelve. We’d just moved to the States, and she was working diner shifts most nights while I was sleeping.”
I stop, realizing how he may judge her for leaving me alone while she worked nights. “We werebroke. She couldn’t afford a sitter. It made sense, you understand? Anyway, one morning, on her way home from the graveyard shift, she was mugged by some junkie who pushed her out onto the road into heavy traffic. A cab hit her…”
I trail off, remembering those dark days. The uncertainty of where I was to go. Until the Caputos.
“There was no one to take me, and I’d have gone into the system had it not been for Julia, our neighbor—and the mother of the older boy who would become my best friend, Lorenzo. We had some good times when I moved into the Caputo’s apartment. I shared a room with Renzo, even though he was three years my senior, and we dideverythingtogether.”
I press my lips together in a half-smile as I watch Alex. “And when I say everything, I meaneverything. We lost our virginity to the same girl at the same time, for fuck’s sake.”
I can’t help but laugh darkly. “I was only fourteen, but we were inseparable.”
My brows knit as I recall precisely when everything began to change. “We developed an idea together – I was in his advanced physics class, if you’d believe. I could have beenanything. Mum always said I could.”
I snort at that.
If you could see me now, Mum…
“Renzo’s brains and my drive saw it come to fruition. All of a sudden, companies were beating down Julia’s door, trying to buy the patent for our…no, forhiswork. And well, when the US government came knocking—”
“No way!”
I chuckle at the same disbelief that mirrors my own. “Yeah. We sold it. Made a small fortune, and Renzo continued to work with them developing new projects while I finished high school, much to my disgust. Motherfuckerlovedit, though.”
My smile is sad as I continue. “But he loved nothing as much as he worshipped the girl next door, Sara Ricci. Christ, if she told him to jump off a skyscraper, he’d have asked which one.”
I shake my head, visions of Renzo assaulting my senses, making the empty space in my chest throb painfully. “And when she told him she was pregnant—despite the fact he hadn’t long turned twenty-one—he was over the moon. And it was because of that…because his dreams were coming true, that he wanted to help me achieve mine.”
A heavy silence follows before Alex asks the inevitable question. “And what was your dream, Vaughn?”
I don’t miss a beat, allowing my deep-seated, often nurtured hatred to course through my veins. “To dismantle everything my piece of shit father valued. Namely, this place. And so, Renzo gave me enough money so that I could approach Verity with more money than she could say no to. The rest is history.”
“So, where is he now?”
“Dead.”
The single word echoes through the office, ringing through my ears as I keenly feel his loss all over again.
“The dispute with the scum who neededRavishto remain open…well, it escalated to the point where I wasn’t able to leave the safety of the club without a threat on my life. And Renzo was caught in the crosshairs when they couldn’t get to me.”
Nolan fucking Fritz.
What I wouldn’t do to see that power-hungry sadist get what was coming to him.
“Fuck! I’m so sorry, Burton.”
“Don’t be sorry for me. Be sorry for Sara. A single mom before their son even arrived into the world. Be sorry for Lorenzo’s kid, growing up without his father. She named him Ren, you know.”
My smile is bittersweet as I recall how he wanted to call him Lorenzo the second. “He’d have fucking loved that shit.”
Walking to the drinks cabinet, I make short work of fixing a tumbler of whisky each.
“I’ve ensured that they have both been taken care of financially. Nice house, all the best schools for Ren, more money than they could spend in a million lifetimes…”
I return to my seat. “The only way Sara agreed to take the money was if I was removed entirely from their lives. And I’vealwayskept to the terms…until now.”
“Why now?”
