Page 43 of Lorenzo's Claim

I truly admired Anastacia for a second. She looked beautiful tonight. Her face was pretty much bare and natural. Her hair was poker straight, stopping just shy of her waist. She wore sneakers with a fitted dress, something that paired oddly well.

“I take it you’re my granddaughter's husband, Lorenzo?” She sidestepped Ana, holding her hand out to me that I respectfully took.

“I am, and I take it you’re my wife’s grandmother?” I smiled, much to Anastacia’s surprise.

“Correct.” She stepped back a little, signalling the waiter over. “Please, add another setting.”

“No, I don’t want to impose.” I held up my hands, wanting to leave and wait in the car.

“If you didn’t want to impose, you wouldn’t have followed my granddaughter here, would you?” she questioned.

“I didn’t follow her here.”

Lie.

“I don’t like liars, Lorenzo, so sit down and see why we do this annually since you can’t seem to let her out of your sight for a night.” She pursed her lips, and I instantly knew where my wife got her attitude from.

“It wasn’t that.” I tried my best, but this woman was good.

“My Ana is not a woman you can expect to control. She is a good girl with an enormous heart, something you’ll never know if you keep acting the way you are.” She lowered herself into her seat. Ana followed her lead, sitting as well.

I didn’t want to know or experience the heart that she had. I wasn’t bothered about her. I was bothered about one thing only and that was killing her father and keeping her for fun.

“Sit down,” she said, her tone authoritative.

I sat opposite her and beside my wife, who seemed to be relaxed despite me giving her a piece of my mind outside a minute ago. But that could have been because her grandmother gave me a dressing-down.

“So, what did he say?” Ana asked, and I knew she was asking about her father.

“Nothing he could say, darling. I made my decision, and you know how final that is.” She smiled, sipping her cocktail.

“Sorry, what night have I intruded on?” I asked, feeling out of place.

“Today is the anniversary of my husband’s death.” Evelina’s eyes brimmed with tears that she rapidly blinked away.

"Well, now I feel like a dick for intruding," I said, my voice laced with regret. I ran a hand through my hair, as a wave of remorse washed over me.

“As you should.” Ana said from beside me. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or being deadly serious.

“Now, now, it’s fine. This is usually a family occasion, but with everything that’s happened recently, I decided it would just be me and Ana.” She reached over the table, taking my hand in her frail one. “For whatever reason, you are family now.” She smiled half-heartedly. “But so help me God, if you hurt my granddaughter, I will skin you alive. Don’t let my age fool you. I can do what’s needed when it comes to her.”

I wasn’t expecting her to be as bold as she was, but I respected her for that.

“I will admit, though, my husband would have liked you. He would have had sterner words than me, but he would have approved.” She squeezed my hand tighter before continuing. “I know what my son did to your father, and I am truly sorry for your loss, but I hope that marrying my granddaughter isn’t some kind of way to get back at him.”

Hearing her mention that and Anastacia in the same sentence should have made me feel some sort of guilt, but instead, I didn’t know what I felt.

The rest of the meal went smoothly as Evelina spoke about her life as much as she asked about mine. I kept directing the conversation away from myself, not wanting to delve too much into it.

“Let’s move on, shall we?” Evelina asked Anastacia, who nodded in agreement.

“Move onto what exactly?” I questioned, genuinely wanting to just head home.

“You’ll see since I’m sure you don’t want to go home without your wife.” She chuckled, clearly getting the wrong idea of how I felt about Ana.

Redand I followed Anastacia and her grandmother until we reached the final destination, which just so happened to be the graveyard. I waited by the car with Red while Anastacia and Evelina made their way to the family plot where Aleksander was buried.

“Bet you felt like a right dick storming in there, didn’t you?” Red chuckled. “I can’t actually believe you did.”

---