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My eyes go wide as I stare at myself covered in hickeys in horror. From my neck to my breasts is covered in hickeys.
He did not.
“Benedetto,” I shriek and stomp out of the bathroom to him.
“Yes, baby,” he cocks his head to look at me.
Fine. I pout. Fine, I like the baby too much.
I melt and take my pouty-self back to the bathroom.
Maniac.
Chapter Twenty-Five
CLAUDIO
Another day to live as a victor.
I grimace at the meddling sun that's refusing to be toned down, even with the white velvet drape on the window of our bedroom.
The sun reminds me of Benedetto because no matter how hard I tried to get rid of the bastard by keeping him occupied in New York, he found a way to slip out and bring his contemptible self back here. And not only has the son of the dead rotting idiot come back home, but he has decided to be a nuisance to both his gracious mother and me.
I would have gotten rid of him a long time ag, if it hadn’t meant that I would lose this paradise with Maria if anything happened to him. I had thought his leaving would mean no longer seeing his intolerable face, which that reminds me so much of his father.
I smile at the woman in my arms that I now feel slipping away every passing day since he came back.
The boy and his idiotic father have cost me more than their lives can ever pay for.
As much as there are things I do not delude myself into thinking and one of them is that Maria will ever love me as much as she loved my idiotic brother. But at least she warmly accepted our marriage and all these years we've been as happy as we both can be with each other.
At least I have been happy with her, and honestly, I don't care much if she is not as happy with me as am, because I know she will never be able to. I am not her dream man, but she is my dream girl, and I would have gone for her if Benito hadn't made the move before me. Bloody self-glorifying idiot who thought he could keep getting everything I wanted and that I would just step back and watch him get away with it all.
She twiddles her frail body in my arms, making that delightsome groan in her sleep and I wrap my arms around her some more.
I got her.
He is dead.
I got everything he had and valued. She is here with me and she cares for me a great deal.
I repeat the words I can't stop telling myself even though it's been four years since I've been living the dream.
The only thing I couldn't get is the family he had and I am still trying to find a way. It's one of the reasons his son is still alive. I believe I can get that family, I just have to find a way to make it happen. If the naive girl, Rose, can make him soft at heart and I begin to infuse the need for her to make him reconcile with his mother while making sure she keeps him preoccupied with his fixation on her, I can achieve that. She is my weapon for that family I'm going after.
“Good morning,” I whisper in Maria’s ear and press kisses into her hair.
“Good morning,” she grumbles from her sleep and then turns away to curl up on her side in a position that gives me her back.
Mine.
I smile to myself as I watch her in her white silk nightwear, her hair still in the ponytail she tied it into when she was doing her skincare routine last night.
I never get tired of seeing her in my bed. I will never get tired of dedicating my days to making her happy. I drag myself closer and wrap my arm around her waist to kiss her shoulders, then pluck myself off the bed because I need to get my day going. I need to set my plans in motion. Lawrence has to make sure to give me what I need from his sister and he has to do it quickly. If I pressure him and he pressures her, she will deliver. He isanother scoundrel from an idiot. I wonder how people can give birth to things like Benedetto and Lawrence. One has become incapable of being anything useful since his father’s death, the other is so desperate that he killed his parent.
That will never be me.
I snort and walk into the bathroom, trading the loathsome sight of brown and white for another loathsome site of brown and gold. Someday I will be changing things around here. I'll need to find a way to burn down some parts so I can have the liberty to change the entire manor to my liking and Maria won't get sad about it because it is the only solution.
