Nero

CHAPTER 64

NINA MARCHESI

“Mom,” Kael calls, coming down the stairs with his piggy bank in his hands. I lift my head from the bills and invoices I was adding up and focus on my son.

“Yes, love,” I answer when he stops in front of me, hugging his little treasure.

Kael bites his lip in a display of shyness that’s unusual for him.

My son isn’t an introverted child—quite the opposite.

I’d even say he’s a bit too outgoing—so his lowered head and flushed cheeks capture all my attention.

“What is it, sweetheart?” I ask, and he lifts his head.

Kael sets his piggy bank on the table in front of me before speaking.

“Can you see how much I have?” he asks. “I want to know if it’s enough to invite more people to my birthday dinner besides you and Grandma.”

I blink. Even though Kael has been talking about his birthday with his dad and uncles for weeks now, this still catches me completely off guard.

On his birthday, we go out to dinner. It’s the only day of the entire year we do that, because paying for a restaurant dinner for three people isn’t a luxury we can afford often—even if one of those people is a child who eats very little compared to an adult.

Kael is a curious child. He likes discovering places, people, and things. He asks about everything, wants to touch everything, wants experiences and more experiences all the time. Since he became aware of the spaces around him, every morning he’s asked about a restaurant downtown.

We pass it on the way to his daycare, and after a lot of insisting, I promised we’d go there on his birthday. He had no idea what that really meant, but once he understood the concept of a restaurant, he immediately asked if we could do it again the following year.

I explained that I didn’t know, but if we had the money, of course we would.

Since then, he’s been saving coins, saying it was so we could go to the restaurant on his birthday.

Of course, his savings wouldn’t be enough to cover even the appetizers—but he tried so hard and waited so long that I would never tell him no.

I’ve been juggling finances for two months to make sure we have enough for his birthday dinner in three days. And now the idea of inviting four more people completely blindsides me.

First, because even though I already knew that after almost two months with Kael, Nero and his friends had become an integral part of my son’s life—and second, because paying for four additional people is going to be…

complicated. But who said I have the courage to tell Kael that?

What mother would? I can pick up more extra shifts in the coming weeks. I solve the problem in my own head.

“Of course I’ll check, love,” I say, picking up the piggy bank. I turn it upside down and remove the cap underneath.

I pour the contents onto the table, and a considerable number of coins spill out. I look at Kael, and the proud expression on his face makes me laugh. I count coin by coin and reach fifty-eight euros. My eyebrows lift in surprise.

How did Kael manage to save that much? This is actually enough for him to pay for dinner for my mother, himself, and me. I lean back, thinking, trying to remember if I could have given him that many coins over the last year. And then a thought clicks into place.

“Have your uncles been giving you coins, Kael?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.

“Only when I deserve it, Mom,” he answers proudly.

I close my eyes, resisting the urge to bang my head against the table. They are impossible, damn it.

I could ask what Kael means by “deserve it,” but I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t like the answer, so I let it go and turn to my three-year-old with all the patience in the world—because he isn’t to blame for the stupidity of the adults who’ve entered his life.

“You do have enough to invite more people, sweetheart.”

“I do?” he asks, eyes shining.

“You do.” Kael nods enthusiastically, then that same shy expression returns.

“I want to invite Daddy and my uncles, Mom. Can I?” He asks for permission to say what I already knew he would.

“You can.”

“But what if they don’t want to come?” His voice is as unsure as his words.

“Oh, they’ll want to, Kael. They love you.”

“Can you ask them for me?” he suggests, and I laugh softly, pressing my lips together.

“I can.”

“Now? My birthday is really soon, Mom.”

“I don’t know where their house is, sweetheart,” I explain. “But I can text your dad and ask him to bring them here. What do you think?”

“No need, Mom. I know where they live,” he says confidently.

“You do?”

“I do.”

“How?”

“Uncle Drako told me,” he explains, and I nod. “Get dressed really pretty, Mom. I’ll take you there.”

Where he got the idea that I need to dress nicely, I have no idea, and I wonder if he misunderstood something Drako said.

Nero never told me where he was living, and I never asked. I didn’t care to ask—not when he always comes here whenever he wants to see Kael. I suppose after weeks, it’s time I find out.

“All right,” I say, standing up. “Let’s go.”

“Aren’t you going to change clothes, Mom?” Kael insists, and I roll my eyes.

“No, Kael. Jeans and a T-shirt are fine to visit your uncles.”

“And Daddy.”

“That’s right.”

He takes my hand and leads me to the door. When I stop to grab my bag, he stops me.

“You don’t need a bag, Mom. It’s really close.”

I frown.

“What do you mean, really close?”

“Come on, you’ll see,” he says, tugging me along.

Kael leads me across the porch and turns left. Then he immediately walks through the very next gate. I squeeze his hand to stop him.

“Kael!” I call, but he doesn’t stop. He keeps going to the door and, when we reach it, he knocks with all his little strength.

I tap my foot frantically while no one answers—but deep down, I know exactly who I’m going to find when that door opens.

And wow. I could strangle Nero for the audacity. I forbade him.

“Everything’s on me in this house! You order food and I’m the one who has to go get it,” Drako’s voice complains before the door opens.

I cross my arms, already irritated, when the idiot finally opens it. His eyes widen when he sees me, and he presses his lips together.

“Hi, Uncle,” Kael says, drawing his attention downward.

“Hang on, buddy. Just a second.”

“Sorry, Uncle, I’ll give you back the coin you gave me for the secret,” my son promises.

Drako laughs, ignoring my fury as if he has no fear, scooping Kael into his arms. He lifts him and spins, pulling a shrill laugh from the boy.

“Nero!” he shouts toward the stairs. I don’t hear the reply, but he seems to. “Remember that word with an F you banned me from saying around Kael?” Again, I can’t hear the response from upstairs. “Yeah—well, you're totally f-ed, man. Kael’s here.”

“What do you mean? Did he come alone?” Nero appears at the top of the stairs with a towel around his waist, searching for Kael with concern. He smiles when he sees him in Drako’s arms—then his expression shifts instantly when Drako moves and reveals me.

Nero grips the towel tightly and has the decency to look more alarmed than Drako about being caught. He says nothing.

For a few seconds—maybe more, I can’t tell why—I track the path of an indecent drop of water sliding from the tip of his hair, down his neck, across his muscular chest. The drop ends. I don’t.

“Feel free to stop drooling on my doorstep, Nina. Come drool inside. It's free of charge,” Drako says.

“Very funny, Drako,” I mutter.

“Who’s your favorite uncle, kid?”

“Atlas!” Kael answers decisively.

“You’ll never be rich like that, kid.”

I step inside, furious.

“Stop bribing my son!” I snap at Drako. “Aren’t you going to say anything?” I turn to Nero, still clutching the towel as if it could shield him from my judgment.

“I can explain.”

“You’d better.”

“Are you mad at the uncles, Mom?” Kael asks.

“I am, sweetheart.”

Kael turns to the idiots in the living room and announces:

“Yeah, I think today I’ll have to teach everyone how to be grounded. You’ll have to do it really nicely, right, Mom? So you can come to my birthday.”

Kael looks at me nervously, and I hurry to lift him out of Drako’s arms.

“They can still come, right, Mom? After the punishment?”

“Of course they can, sweetheart.”

“You going to poison the food?” Drako mutters, trying to be funny.

“You bet,” I promise, walking out.

***

“Hi,” Nero says, now fully dressed, when I open the door again. I cross my arms and wait—but no words follow.

“Explain yourself.”

“You said I couldn’t rent the house next door, but you didn’t say Atlas, Apollo, or Drako couldn’t.”

“Seriously? Semantics, Nero? That’s your argument?”

He smiles, which makes me even angrier—because I’m not actually angry. Him being so close to Kael is a good thing, after all.

If I’d discovered his little scheme a week after his reappearance in our lives, this conversation would be very different. But the truth is, things have changed.

Nero has been a good father. Present. Understanding. Respectful of boundaries. He’s done everything he can to give my son the best life possible. And even though I still worry that one day he’ll change his mind and leave, it’s getting harder to believe that could actually happen.

“I’d like to talk to you about Kael’s birthday,” he says, steering away from the housing issue. I let out a deep breath, agreeing that there’s really nothing left to discuss there.

“About what?”

“First, I think this is a good time to admit that I promised him a half-chocolate, half-Batman cake for his birthday.”

He admits it with so much worry—so much concern about having possibly done something wrong—that it pulls a loud laugh out of me, instantly diffusing the tension.

“When? It was the day we went to the café, wasn’t it? You couldn’t make him choose just one and negotiated the birthday cake instead, right? I knew you were taking too long!” I accuse, and he gives me a completely unashamed smile.

“You said you get used to it. It was my first time—I didn’t know how yet.”

I shake my head.

“And what’s the second thing?”

“I’d like to take him out. Nothing far. Nothing outside the city. I just want to get him out of the house a little. You’re invited too, of course,” he adds quickly.

“Do you have any idea where you want to take him?” I ask.

“I saw there’s a park in town. I think he’d like it. I also saw they even have staff dressed as superheroes.”

“Kael loves the park. With our routine, it’s been months since we last took him.”

“I can do that,” he says immediately. “If you allow it, of course.”

“On his birthday, I’ll be working during the day, and I’ll be off at night. I couldn’t go with you.”

Nero nods, resigned, even though his expression clearly falls.

“That’s okay. We can do it another day.”

I take a deep breath and speak before I lose my nerve.

“No need, Nero. You can go together.”

His brows knit in confusion.

“Will your mother be able to come with us?”

“No, Nero. You can go alone,” I explain, and his mouth opens in complete surprise. It’s almost funny. But I don’t laugh—instead, I’m honest. “I think you’ve earned that right.”

“Thank you,” he says, eyes already wet. “Thank you so much.”