Chapter 56
ALEX
My mother strolled into the Du Bois ballroom with her eyes pointed at the ceiling.
A new client had contacted Arlo directly and requested that I assist with a fresco restoration.
Mommy dearest didn’t have the skill to handle this project, but she agreed to give a quote.
Fresco restorations were my area of expertise.
After months of studying under Madeline Laveau, I could handle the project myself.
“Isn’t this gorgeous?”
My mother whispered as she stopped at the center of the room, staring at the hideous fresco.
“Uh-huh,” I muttered. “When can I paint over it?”
She gasped, her hazel eyes wide as she looked at me. “Paint over it? Be serious, Alexandrea.”
“I think they can afford it. I saw an original Rembrandt on our way through the house.”
“That’s beside the point,” she snapped. “You wouldn’t repaint the Sistine Chapel because you weren’t a fan of Michelangelo.”
I shrugged. “Hey, it’s not like we have to live here.”
“Attitude,” she said in a clipped tone.
“Look at the artist’s work.” I pointed my finger at the ceiling, highlighting the chipped plaster that ruined the watercolor landscape. “The artist was sloppy. They did a terrible job with the plaster. You can see clumps near the molding.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and then followed my finger. “I’ll have Armand look at this week.”
“I can restore it,” I said with certainty. “No problem. Give me two weeks.”
She chewed the inside of her cheek. “This piece is too expensive to let a novice restore it.”
“I studied under Madeline Laveau. I can fix the ceiling. And I must remind you that the client asked for me, not you or Armand.”
She pursed her lips. “Let Armand handle it. We have more pressing projects.”
A restoration of this magnitude would have made an excellent addition to my portfolio. Of course, my mother could never see my talent and never considered me of the same caliber as her peers.
“Between you and Dad, I don’t know which of you is worse. You have never given me a chance. It doesn’t matter how many galleries I sell out. You still won’t acknowledge me as an equal.”
She sneered at me. “Keep your voice down while we’re inside a client’s home.”
I rolled my eyes. “Luca will be angry if you let Armand restore this.”
She tucked her bottom lip into her mouth, averting my gaze. “Don’t threaten me.” Her voice was low, soft. “I’ve endured enough harassment from Arlo and his sons.”
“You may have run from Arlo, but I’m not running from Luca. This is your doing. You put me in this position. If you weren’t such a selfish bitch?—”
“If I had married Arlo, you wouldn’t be here.” She rubbed her temples. “I don’t expect you to understand the choices I made.”
She tugged at her jacket sleeve and glanced at her watch. My eyes widened at the sight of dark bruises on her wrist. They looked like fingerprints.
“Who did that to you?”
Mom slid her jacket over the bruises and turned her head. “It’s nothing. I tripped.”
“Is Dad hurting you?”
She released a wicked cackle. “Of course not. Your father wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Then who did that?”
Our eyes met, and without hearing the words, I knew the answer.
Arlo.
The bitch deserved it.
She killed his wife.
Locked me in a closet.
Emotionally abused her children.
My mother turned away from me, ashamed. “Last night, Arlo came to Wellington Manor and forced me to leave with him.”
“Does Dad know?”
She nodded. “He watched me leave the house.”
“He didn’t defend you?”
Coward .
“Like either of us has a choice,” she breathed. “What Arlo says goes. None of us is in control of our lives. That’s why I ran from him. I couldn’t wait to escape Arlo and live without someone telling me what to do.”
“You could have spared us.”
She shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. Arlo sunk his claws into you before you were born. I wasn’t planning on having children, but Arlo has his ways.”
“You never cared about Aiden and me, never showed us an ounce of love.”
A moment passed before her eyes met mine. “I never wanted children.”
I’d always known the truth, but hearing it aloud didn’t make it hurt any less.
My life had been hell for years because of her.
She stole a mother from her children and abused her flesh and blood.
The woman standing beside me didn’t deserve an ounce of pity.
She deserved whatever Arlo was doing to her in secret.
I hated her, but in some ways, she was a victim. We were both pawns in a sick game with rich assholes. Her father had arranged her marriage to Arlo, which made her feel like a prisoner.
A young, pretty brunette appeared in the entryway to the ballroom and cleared her throat. “Mrs. Channing,” she said to my mom, who had a different last name from Aiden and me.
The woman looked at me. “Miss Wellington, Mrs. Du Bois looks forward to meeting you. Please follow me.”
After the meeting, we entered Wellington Architecture and Design through the back door. We hadn’t spoken a word on our drive back from the Du Bois Estate, and our brief moment of honesty evaporated the second we met with the client.
My mom turned left toward her office, and I veered to the right.
Marcello entered my office with his phone in hand. After the last threat, he hadn’t let me out of his sight.
He glanced up from the screen. “How did the meeting go?”
“I start the restoration in a few weeks.”
“Do you have enough time with your upcoming exhibit and my mother’s twentieth-anniversary showcase?”
“I’m almost finished with the pieces for my exhibit. And I know what I’m doing for your mom’s show. It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to complete. Mrs. Du Bois seems pretty laid back. She’s not in a rush to get the restoration done.”
“You have an hour to finish up,” he told me. “Luca wants you in the house before the sun sets.”
I rolled my eyes and let out an exaggerated groan.
“It’s for your protection,” he added. “Not because Luca is an asshole.”
I sat at the drafting table and flipped through my cell phone until I found an old-school Eminem playlist. Marcello was a rock music fan but was used to Luca’s music and didn’t seem to mind the rap beat floating through the speakers.
After a while, I got lost in my element, singing the words as my pencil glided across the page. I clutched a piece of vine charcoal and sketched the thin lines between the Wanamakers’ living room windows. My mom had asked me to draw ideas for the redesign.
Bobbing my head to the beat, I added a few final touches to my drawing. I lifted the pictures of the house, my eyes darting between the images. A proud smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. I slipped the pages into the folder and slid off the stool.
Marcello stood outside my office with his back against the wall. I was in the zone and hadn’t noticed he left the room.
He pushed off the wall when he saw me in the doorway. “Ready to leave?”
“I’m going to the bathroom,” I told him.
“We’re leaving afterward.”
“Okay, boss,” I joked before walking down the hallway.
As I rounded the corner, I heard voices in my mother’s office. My father had left after lunch to meet with new clients and hadn’t returned. So, who the hell was with her?
A shiver rolled down my arms as I cracked her door. Arlo Salvatore towered over my mother, tall and handsome for a man his age. She was on her knees in front of him. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up at the monster in Brioni.
“Take out my cock,” Arlo ordered, his tone cold and cruel.
My mouth fell open in shock.
She unzipped his pants, and Arlo’s massive cock sprung from his boxers. Holy shit! Mom wrapped her fingers around his thickness, and my eyes widened at his impressive length and girth. His sons inherited more than good looks from their father.
“Suck my cock, Wellington whore,” he growled, shoving his hand through her hair.
He slid his fingers beneath her chin and squeezed with his free hand.
“Don’t act like you don’t want this, you dirty slut.
You would do anything for money.” His thumb slid across her bottom lip.
“Isn’t that right, Scar? What wouldn’t you do for money? ”
Nothing , I answered in my mind. The bitch sold her children to monsters to maintain her lifestyle.
“Arlo,” she whispered, shame dripping from her voice.
“You want more money?” Arlo grabbed the back of her head. “My dick won’t suck itself.”
And I thought Luca was an asshole.
She hesitated, her eyes pointed up at him, then she licked the tip of his thick cock. I hated myself for watching this scene play out. But a part of me enjoyed seeing her so vulnerable, at his mercy. After years of torment, she deserved Arlo’s wrath.
“Wait until my Sicilian friends come to town,” he taunted in a casual but nasty tone, encouraging her to take more of him in her mouth. “You’re older than the women they prefer, but I think you’ll make a nice addition to their collection.”
“Arlo, I will do whatever you want… but don’t do that to me. Please.”
He fisted her hair in his hand, mouth twisted in anger. “You will do whatever I say, Scarlett.”
I stepped into the room and cleared my throat. Mom’s eyes widened in horror, her cheeks puffed out from his size. Arlo stepped back, and his cock fell from her lips. He glared at me, not bothering to tuck himself back into his pants like this was normal.
“Alex, I told you to go home earlier,” my mom said, unable to meet my gaze. “You need to leave.”
Arlo turned so I could see him in all of his glory.
Damn .
His sons had gotten more than their good looks from him.
“Alex, please,” she pleaded. “Just go.”
“Listen to your mother,” Arlo said in a snarky tone. He grabbed her head and forced her to suck his cock. “You don’t want to watch this, Alexandrea.”
No, I don’t…
My mom gasped for air as he fucked her mouth, not the least bit ashamed for doing this in front of me. I ran out of her office and down the hallway, headed toward my office. As I turned around the bend, I crashed into Marcello’s hard chest.
He hooked his arm around me before I fell, pressing my breasts into his chest. “What’s the rush, princess?”
“I just saw your dad’s dick in my mom’s mouth.” Breathing hard, I shook my head, still in disbelief. “Did you know he was here?”
Marcello gave me the creepiest smirk.
I sighed. “What the fuck? This town… your family. Just get me out of here.”
He held open the back door for me. “Let’s go.”
I followed him outside. “Is this a normal occurrence with our parents?”
He nodded. “Your mom sold her soul to the Devil a long time ago.”
“Is this really about money? I mean, I’ve always known she owed your dad and that he paid for most of the things we had… but I didn’t realize their relationship was sexual.”
Marcello opened the passenger door for me. “It wasn’t when my mom was alive.”
I made myself comfortable in his fancy sports car as he crossed in front of the hood and slid behind the wheel. Marcello looked sexy in this car, dark and scary but also powerful.
“What was it like when your mom was alive?” I asked as he started the engine.
Marcello tugged his seatbelt across his chest. “My dad has never been a nice guy. But with my mom, he was different. She was the only person he ever loved.”
“You don’t think he loves you and your brothers?”
He rolled his broad shoulders against the leather seat. “Yeah, I guess he does. It’s hard to tell with him. Like Luca, he doesn’t show emotions.”
“Has your dad ever said he loved you?”
Marcello shook his head. “Not since my mother was alive. Even then, he could never form the words without them sounding strange in his tongue. She would wake me daily and say, “ Ti amo mio principe .”
I love you, my prince.
“That’s cute.” I smiled. “Growing up, it was just Aiden and me.” I shifted in my seat and leaned closer to him. “From what I saw in my mom’s office, Luca gets his coldness from your dad. It was like watching Luca in action. Kinda freaked me out.”
He shifted the car into reverse and backed out of the parking space. “My brother wanted to be like him.” Marcello chuckled, shaking his head. “Luca wore the same suits as our dad when we were kids. He followed him everywhere and wanted to be part of the family business from a young age.”
I propped my elbow on the armrest and looked at him, studying the hardness of his features. “By family business, you mean the illegal side, right?”
“Yeah. The shit Luca had done for our father by the time he was in high school…” Marcello sighed. “He was born for this life. My father saw Luca’s potential and bred him to enjoy taking punishments as much as inflicting them.”
“His scars,” I muttered. “Are you saying Luca wasn’t a victim?”
“No, he was,” he assured me. “But Luca enjoyed the punishments. He thought that was our dad’s way of showing his love. Luca thought bad behavior would get our father’s attention, so he did things to make him angry. I think my dad cared for him more because of it.”
“What about you?”
Marcello floored the gas as we drove into The Hills. “I had a normal childhood until my mom died. When she was home, I spent a lot of time in her studio or hanging out with Sonny at his house.”
“Really? That sounds too normal for the Salvatores.”
He snickered. “It’s not like we’re the Addams Family.”
“No, you’re more like The Sopranos.” I laughed. “When did a sexual relationship with our parents start?”
“I don’t know for sure. In my freshman year of high school, I saw them together in my dad’s office. He had your mom tied up and naked on his desk.”
“What did you do?”
He drove faster as we passed the house I had shared with Aiden, and my heart dropped into my stomach. None of the lights were on. The entire street was empty.
“I watched,” Marcello confessed.
“Seriously?”
“I was fourteen years old,” he shot back. “I was curious.”
“You wanted to learn?” I guessed.
He smirked. “Yeah, I guess. And back then, your mom was fucking hot.”
I pretended to gag, sticking out my tongue. “Gross, Marcello.”
“Give me a break,” he challenged. “I was a teenager. I just wanted to wet my dick.”
“Marcello,” I groaned. “You sound like Luca when you talk like that.”
“I’m not much different from him.”
“You’re nothing like him.” His head snapped to me, and I grinned. “That’s why I like you. I can talk to you. Luca would have dismissed me if I asked him about our parents.”
“You look like your mother,” Marcello commented, his fingers gripping the leather steering wheel.
“Shame,” I bit out. “Maybe if I were ugly, Luca wouldn’t want to marry me.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Our father would have forced the marriage, anyway. The fact you’re gorgeous only sweetened the deal for Luca.”
“Have you thought about taking Luca’s place?”
Marcello stopped in front of the gate, waiting for them to open inward so we could drive onto his property. “As the head of the family? No, never.”
“I mean with me.”
He licked his lips. “Yes.”