Page 19 of Tammaro DeLuca

I don’t want her to see me like this.

How is that?

Drunk, high, and physically fucked up.

What happened?

I’ll tell you later. Just let me know.

Fine.

“Ma, can I be excused?” Asmaria sighed.

“Why?”

“Because I’m not hungry. You’re texting at the table, and I just really want to be alone.” She replied. I could see the tears brimming in her eyes.

“What is it, baby?” I put the phone down and really studied her.

“I know he’s outside. The light came on when he walked by the pool. If he doesn’t want to see me, that’s what he should say.” Asmaria pushed away from the table and ran upstairs to her room.

I’d allowed her to choose which she wanted and made the movers take her things in there. I’d claimed the primary bedroom and had them take all of Ro’s things to the guest room. He could figure it out from there. This house has five bedrooms, two offices, a gym, a library, an extra-large kitchen, two dining rooms, and two living rooms. I haven’t even been downstairs to see the rest of the house. I wasn’t trying to get comfortable. It was too much house and as soon as he came off his high horse, we’d talk about the living situation.

I texted him and told him she was upstairs. Shortly after, he limped inside, and I knew my ‘what the fuck’ expression wasn’t lost on him.

“Massimo.” He said.

“Your own brother?” I was shocked. “It’s good to know that more than just one family member wants to kick your ass.”

“Who is the other person?” He asked, stopping to look around.

“Asmaria. She’s really hurt, Ro.” I shook my head at how much of a mess he appeared. “Why do you look wet?”

“Martina sprayed us both down when we were fighting at her house.”

“A story for another time.” What the hell was wrong with him? “What happened earlier?”

“Can I shower first and come back to this?” He asked.

“You have some nerve. You’re in the shit that you’re in because you’re selfish. ‘Can you shower first?’ Do I look like I have even more time to sit around and wait for you?”

“I guess not.” He sat down in the hall and leaned against the wall. “Go ahead.”

“I introduced you to my daughter?—”

“Our.”

“No, my daughter. Let’s start at the beginning. You ran out on me fifteen years ago. Took my virginity and disappeared.”

“You had mine as well. Don’t play the victim about you giving it up to me. I told you we should have waited. You didn’t want to. I didn’t plan to leave that day. When my father called, it was because he was taking me back to Italy. I didn’t know that until I got there. If I hadn’t dropped my phone when they dragged us from the hotel, I could have told you that.”

I swallowed, losing some of the bravado I had. “No, you don’t get to play the victim either.” I pointed out. “Ro, I didn’t ask to do this by myself. I understand you didn’t know, but I tried to find you. Whenever you began plotting this little plan of yours, you could have stepped to me like a real man and owned your shit. Instead, you let your dick talk and here we are. At any point, you could have changed the outcome of this situation. That’s not the route that you took.”

“It’s not.”

“Obviously, you don’t care about that either.”

“I do.”

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