Chapter 24 – Geralynn
Chapter Twenty-Four
Geralynn
Renzo hasn’t called me ‘mop girl’ in at least fifteen days.
I don’t have an exact count, but I have so much time off my feet that I’ve started noticing crazy, stupid little shit like that.
Those fifteen days have been strange for other reasons too.
No more insults. No more degradation. He draws me now with clothing on instead of forcing me to strip my clothing off.
He doesn’t complain about studying for the LSAT anymore and I got my first perfect score on a practice test. If I weren’t about to pop with Renzo’s big headed baby… life would be perfect.
But nothing is perfect about that situation right now.
My body forces me to think about the consequences of what Nicki did to both of us at this point.
The baby is coming and this reality will change everything.
Renzo won’t want to play his little game anymore, and I’ll have to cope with the aftermath of my bad decision all alone with a baby that I don’t even know how to take care of.
At least the baby would be a welcome distraction. I don’t have the baby yet, just the discomfort from my third trimester and my even more disturbing emotions.
Now, I have to think about my feelings and not the way Renzo stretched me out and pushed me into a situation that was simultaneously fucked up and so orgasmic that the head rush didn’t leave me for days.
He hasn’t brought up his feelings for me since.
Once we left the cellar, he hasn’t said the words “I love you” again, and I haven’t said the words back.
My reluctance to express my love for Renzo has totally shifted our dynamic in a way that my pregnancy distracts me from…
most of the time. I don’t trust that he’s forgotten.
This week, he’s been going back to the gym with his twin brother Gino, who I got to meet for the first time.
I declined to have Nicoletta come over and hang out with me because the more the baby pushes against my pancreas, the less I want to see the woman who tricked me into this position in the first place.
I must have fallen asleep on the velvet covered chair in Renzo’s library, because I wake up without remembering having fallen asleep.
Given the pregnancy situation, waking up in confusion leaves me panicked.
My heart races and I gasp for breath as my head cranks around instinctively.
It’s just Renzo, calmly walking into the library.
My heart stops because my first thought when I see him is that he looks so fucking hot. Why does he look so hot when he told me he was going to the gym? Instead, Renzo has on a business casual suit – navy blue wool with gold buttons.
“It’s just you.”
Just Renzo. Looking hot as fuck in a navy blue suit that makes his eyes look so pretty.
It’s so unfair that he gets to look like that.
And that he gets to be such an asshole and have me still fall in love with him.
I should have tried harder not to see Renzo’s strong and protective side…
the stoicism that has kept me from blowing the fuck up at Nicki throughout this process.
“Yes,” Renzo says, his face flat and unsmiling. Did I do something wrong? It looks and feels like I’m in trouble. I sit up to gain some control over my posture and a little bit of my power while I’m facing Renzo. He hands me a large white envelope. “Look this over.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s between the two of us and I think you’ll have every incentive to sign it.”
“Another document?”
“Yes,” Renzo says. “It ensures your complete freedom from me from this point forward. I can’t make you love me, Geralynn. I understand why and I can’t undo the ways I’ve hurt you in the past. I tried fighting for you and I still want to fight… but I love you enough to let you choose for yourself.”
He’s serious. I should feel better that Renzo wants to set me free, but I just feel this sense of numbness forming a small ball in the base of my stomach.
It’s not a normal day and the past two weeks haven’t been normal at all.
He’s breaking up with me. What did I think would happen if I turned Renzo down?
Did I really expect him to keep pushing and fighting for me?
After the cellar, I allowed us to slip back into a regular routine but now my desire to hide from the confusing way Renzo makes me feel has come back to bite me in the ass. This is it. I made my choice and Renzo has his own response to that.
“Open it,” he says after about a minute of silence. “Please. I’ll move out of our bedroom soon and take full responsibility for however Nicki responds.”
This is a break up. At least that’s what it feels like in my gut as someone who has never had a real boyfriend before and never got a chance because my best friend set me up with her brother in the most twisted way imaginable.
I fight back tears and slowly peel the envelope open, convincing myself that the tears are only on the brink of flowing because I’m pregnant, not because I care about losing Renzo.
I can’t care about him.
He printed his proposed contract on fancy paper with a header containing his full name and address in downtown Buffalo – the condo he used to share with Gino before he had to take care of Nicki full time.
This furthers my evidence that he really means this and that whatever this contract contains, it will be the end of me and Renzo… for good.
The New Contract
Lorenzo Taviani proposes amendments to the contract drawn up by Nicoletta Taviani for a new pregnancy and relationship contract with the undersigned, Geralynn Samuels.
The words contained within this contract supersede all previous contracts and exist with the informed and sober consent of both parties – Lorenzo Taviani as well as Geralynn Samuels.
This contract will cover the time period following the birth of Lorenzo and Geralynn’s first child and these simple agreements will be adhered to in full by the two parties with promises of no further amendments unless both parties agree to terminate the contract.
Lorenzo Taviani gives full custodial rights to Geralynn and she can permit him to see their child within parameters she selects.
Lorenzo Taviani will provide complete financial support to their child including (but not limited to) funding for private education of Geralynn’s choosing for nursery, preschool, elementary school through an advanced degree as well as Italian finishing school.
Lorenzo Taviani will provide financial support to Geralynn in the form of an initial payment of $5 million to be made with 20% liquid funds and 80% in equivalent assets.
Geralynn will be under no obligation to have communication or further contract with Lorenzo after the birth of their child.
Lorenzo Taviani will purchase a home of Geralynn’s choosing within New York State in addition to her up front payment.
Lorenzo Taviani will supply Geralynn with law school tuition which will permit her to advance her career in support of their child. This includes a monthly stipend of $17,000 to cover living expenses and all other expenses associated with an advanced education.
From this moment forward, Lorenzo Taviani will no longer interact with, harass, or force contact with Geralynn. He will remove himself from her bedroom and deal with all future fallout from breaking Nicoletta’s contract exclusively.
There are more points to his contract, but I’m totally numb.
Renzo fought hard against signing his life away the first time.
This contract offers me more freedom and more money.
It’s not a trap, either. He’s too serious for this to be a trap.
I don’t know why Renzo is doing all of this and I’m even more scared to ask him for an explanation.
What if I don’t want to know the answer? There could be a deeper meaning to this. I scan the rest of Renzo’s contract and become crystal clear on what exactly this contract expects from me. Nothing. He wants to set me free. I look up at him, expecting him to take it all back or make another threat.
“I meant what I said. I love you, Geralynn. I can’t take back the past and I can’t undo the hurt I’ve caused overnight. I can set you free right now.”
Renzo rakes his hands nervously through his hair. His face scrunches momentarily before returning to his smooth, placid calm.
“I sign this and we’re over?”
My hand trembles and my heart races. I don’t know why it makes me feel so nervous.
I should feel happy that Renzo is setting me free.
I’m going to sign the contract. How could I avoid signing it?
I get more money than anything Nicki ever offered me.
I get everything I ever wanted including support throughout law school and financial help with this baby Nicki forced me to carry.
“Yes,” Renzo says calmly. “You sign the document and we have nothing to do with each other. From this point forward, we will be strangers in this house until you leave. No more insults. No more conversations. No more positioning you nude on the dining table.”
That last part seems to hit Renzo hardest if I had to judge by the look on his face.
Maybe it’s just because each sentence brings us closer to the end point.
Light pours in through the window of the library and spotlights on the page, seemingly allowing every other detail in the house and around us to fade into nothing.
“You might get lonely,” I tell him. “What’s to stop you from ripping this up just like the last one if I sign it?”
Renzo smirks and I can tell from the expression on his face that my question doesn’t surprise me.
We both have the misfortune of knowing each other far too well.
I understand his moves and he understands mine.
The only person in the world who could pull one over on both of us is Nicki.
Renzo has a point with this contract – it’s the one way we can both take our power back.
And he’s setting me free because… I guess the game is over.
“I give you my word that I value making my own choices far more than I value causing you pain.”
Sadness lingers in the back of Renzo’s gaze. I don’t want to entertain his sadness or let his emotions pierce through my resolve to sign this new contract and earn my freedom. I wouldn’t have any attachment to Nicki or Renzo.
“So what then? We have to stay here until the end of Nicki’s contract for this to kick in?”
When do I get to move out? I ignore the strange tug in my chest when I realize that moving out means never waking up next to Renzo again. I ascribe that feeling to relief because all I wanted from the first instant I woke up was freedom from Renzo.
“Only a couple weeks longer,” Renzo says. “That will give the agent and designer time to close on your dream home. I need your signature first.”
I don’t want to feel so in tune with the shifts in Renzo’s tone, but reading his moods has become second nature over the course of my pregnancy.
It’s second nature to wonder how he feels and I can’t help but notice the lingering sadness that he’s trying so hard to suppress.
If this makes him so sad… why is he giving me my freedom?
It doesn’t matter. I would be crazy to question this opportunity when it’s the right thing to do. I can’t spend the rest of my life knowing I had the chance at freedom but brought my kid into the world trapped in a contract with a family of mobsters who wanted to control my every move.
“Okay. I’ll sign it.”
“Perfect.” His voice is tight. But when he rests his palm on my shoulder, Renzo is strangely gentle. I half expect him to lash out and call me ‘mop girl’ last time, to unload every horrible burden he’s felt living with me throughout the pregnancy his sister forced onto both of us.
“I’ll get you a pen.”
He returns with the pen quicker than I expect and the tension between us feels strange and crackly as he hands it to me. It’s my last chance to throw it to the ground. To tell him that I don’t want to leave him or move out in two weeks. That I love him.
But I can’t admit to myself or to Renzo that I fell in love with a man who degraded me and mocked me for years.
I can’t admit to myself that getting closer to him has made me feel more like myself.
I can’t admit that for the first time, I don’t feel like a rich kid’s sidekick.
I don’t think Nicki ever consciously wanted me to feel that way, but Renzo doesn’t even leave room for that much self-pity.
Renzo. The father of my child. The demon haunting my dreams with his long, perfect tongue. The man who put a wine bottle up my butt on the same day he told me that he loved me.
I’ll never be with anyone like him again.
I sign my name and we both release a breath we didn’t know we were holding. It hurts to sign my name, but not signing it would hurt even more. I can’t be with Renzo forever. He’s made that clear with the way he’s treated me and my friendship with Nicki for as long as I’ve known him.
Once the dust settles with the baby… we’ll both be happy. And I’ll have my little one to distract me from petty concerns like my immediate happiness. Chosen or not, this baby will give me purpose.
“You’re free,” Renzo says once I’m done. “Nicki lost. We won. Once the money hits your account, I hope you celebrate your newfound freedom.”