Chapter 22 Aurelia #2
This was a version of me she’d never met before, and she was clearly blown away by it.
Even had to take a step back. I’d been kind and quiet and nonconfrontational up until this point, but my compassion had officially expired.
I didn’t understand how his mother could be so warm but his sister ice cold.
“I’m tired of watching Constantine be the favorite.
I know you’re close with my mother and think she’s the greatest woman ever, but you don’t know her like I do.
My whole life, I’ve watched her favor him.
And now that you’re pregnant, she acts like she doesn’t already have grandchildren.
She doesn’t spend time with them. When I’ve asked her to help me with childcare, she tells me they’re my responsibility and to figure it out.
But I know it’s because she resents me for getting divorced.
For choosing an asshole she vocally disapproved of.
She shuns me and lets me drown just so she can prove her point—told you so. ”
That was the last thing I expected Beatrice to say, and her words packed a punch.
“You come in here, and she acts like she doesn’t already have a daughter.
I heard you and Con had a fight, so you stayed here for the night.
When my husband left me and I needed her, she told me to learn from my mistakes.
” Her voice started to rise as it was packed with emotion.
“She didn’t open her home to me, a home that Constantine bought that I could never afford to give her.
It just hurts that she clearly loves you more than me, simply because you’re marrying Con .
. . than she does her actual daughter. I’m drowning, juggling work and being a single mother, and she never offers to help me, and the only time I get to myself is when my brother lets them climb all over him for twenty minutes so I can have a damn glass of wine.
” She dropped all of her problems on me in a few breathless sentences, a catharsis she needed for years.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I love my boys and wouldn’t change anything, but I feel like my mother punishes me, when I’m the victim of poor judgment.
There’s nothing my mother wouldn’t do for Con, but there’s a very limited number of things she’d do for me. ”
I remembered when I’d first met Con, he said he was his mother’s favorite. Said it in a joking way, but even he recognized it. Now I felt guilty for snapping at Beatrice during the couple of minutes she had to herself. “Beatrice, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “You’re right, I’ve been a total cunt to you.”
My eyebrows rose at her brutal honesty and emotional intelligence.
“My anger should be reserved for my mother, but the problem is, she doesn’t give a shit.
When I give her the silent treatment, I never hear from her.
When I try to talk to her about it, her eyes fill with so much annoyance like I’m burdening her.
There is no solution to this problem. I just have to accept that my mother resents me far more than she loves me. ”
“Have you talked to Con about this?”
“No.”
“Maybe you should.”
“It’s not his problem.”
“I think if he knew this is how you felt, he would make it his problem, Beatrice. You’re his sister and he loves you.”
She looked out the window to the terrace and took another drink of her wine.
“When the baby comes, I’m going to be home all day. You’re more than welcome to drop off the boys a couple days a week. I’m happy to watch them. Constantine will be there too, so it won’t just be me.”
She slowly turned to look back at me.
“And I’m sure Medusa would love to have someone to play with.”
“You don’t have to do that, Aurelia.”
“I know, but we’re family. I’m happy to help you.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, her gaze hardening in confusion, then softening when she saw the sincerity on my face.
“I would love to get to know my nephews too. I can tell Constantine thinks the world of them.” I glanced out the window. “They’re still climbing all over him as we speak.”
Beatrice brought her wine closer to her chest, then looked down into the contents.
“We could watch them overnight too, if you want to go on a date . . . and see where that goes.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Friends make sure friends get laid.”
She burst into a quiet laugh, like she hadn’t expected me to say that in a million years. “Yeah, it’s been a while.”
“Then let’s work something out. I know Constantine would be happy to help.”
“I don’t know. Men aren’t usually the ones handling the childcare.”
“Well, I know he’s different.”
“He used to run Rome and hang people from the Pantheon for violating his laws . . . but sure,” she said with a chuckle.
“That’s not all who he is,” I said. “He’s very loving and nurturing. You should see the way he cares for Medusa. I have no doubt he’ll be a great father, and I have no doubt he’d care for your boys like his own if you needed help.”
She turned her attention to Constantine, watching him play with the boys like he was having fun.
They’d stopped the monkey game, and now they were playing dinosaurs at the table away from everyone else.
He may have seen us talking through the glass and wanted us to have all the time we needed to squash our beef.
“I’m sorry about your mother. She seems so loving and wonderful that I’m sure if she understood her own behavior, she would stop it. She just needs to understand her own disappointment is interfering with her relationship with you.”
“I don’t think it’s that hard to understand. It’s been going on for years.” She took a drink of her wine. “She doesn’t believe in divorce, like most women in Taormina, so she’s not only disappointed I chose the wrong man, she’s disappointed I divorced that very man.”
That didn’t sound like the woman I knew at all, but I had to remember that we all had different sides to ourselves. That every person had a distinct and unique relationship with us, so they knew a particular version. “I’m sorry you’re in this situation, but I’m really glad we had this talk.”
“Yeah, me too.” She looked at me again, and this time, her eyes were free of their usual hostility. Now, there was affection in her gaze, a warmth that made me feel like a friend rather than an enemy. “Let’s start over.” She moved into me and hugged me with one arm.
I hesitated before I reciprocated, not expecting the relationship to accelerate to physical touching so quickly. But I accepted her hug and returned it a millionfold.
When we got home later that night, Constantine greeted Medusa with affection, then took her outside to do her business before bed. He used to have staff who took care of Medusa for him most of the time, but he didn’t struggle to adapt to the change.
When he came back inside, Medusa headed right for the stairs, like she’d been ready for bed for hours.
Constantine walked up to me, his eyes tired but still so sexy. “Looks like you and Beatrice buried the hatchet.”
“Yeah, we did.”
“And from what I could discern, it seems you were responsible for that.”
“Yeah . . . a little bit.”
He smiled at me before he circled his arm around the small of my back and pulled me in for a kiss. “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
I sank into his touch the way I did when we first met. Turned into a pool of melted chocolate from his warm flames. “She’s going to be my sister too. I want things to be good between us.”
He kissed me on the forehead and stepped back.
“But she told me Isabella wasn’t the issue. It was actually your mother.”
“My mother?” he asked, eyebrows rising in surprise.
“Remember when you told me you’re the favorite?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, you aren’t the only one who thinks that.”
When the realization hit him, he gave a sad kind of nod. “I see.”
I shared everything she’d revealed to me that night. Now I was at a crossroads, loving Sofia for the way she treated me, but also disappointed she could neglect her daughter, who needed her more than ever.
Constantine took a second to absorb all that information.
He stepped away and paced the room for a few minutes, arms across his chest, his features hardened in their focus.
“I said I was the favorite because of the way she would call and overfeed me and light up every time I entered the room. I didn’t realize all of this was happening with Beatrice.
” He took a seat on the couch. “I wasn’t there when that asshole took off.
Wasn’t there for the divorce. For any of it. So . . . I just missed it all.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“Kinda disappointed in my mother, to be honest.”
I moved to the spot beside him. “I was surprised too.”
He was quiet for a while as he relaxed on the couch. A moment later, Medusa came back down the stairs, looked at us with that pissed-off stare, and then gave a quiet whine that clearly said I’m ready for bed.
Constantine gave a quiet chuckle. “All right, baby girl. We’re coming.”
Medusa turned and headed back up the stairs.
“Wish kids liked going to bed like that.”
He gave a slight smile before he gripped my thigh and gave it a squeeze. “We’re going to have a sleepless eighteen years. I’m sure this kid will give me hell as karma, because I was a nightmare for my mother.”
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
He patted my thigh before he got to his feet. “I’ll have a conversation with my mother and get this sorted. But for now, let’s go to bed.”