31. Hussies
Hussies
Victoria
I stared at my phone and tried to convince myself not to call my sisters and give them a piece of my mind.
It was tempting, but what would that achieve?
What would be the outcome? They’d probably try to gaslight me and claim they did what they did because they thought I was dead, thinking there was no harm.
“Mrs. Ramsey is under the impression you’re a gold digger,” Amelia relayed, her ear pressed against the crack of the door.
I rolled my eyes. I had expected the cliche gold digger label. I was young and hot, and Knox was a crusty older gentleman with the personality of a mop head.
“Get away from the door, Messy Boots,” I chastised.
“Very well,” Amelia agreed with a disgruntled sigh. She closed the door before dramatically dropping onto the bed. She retrieved her special drink tumbler from the nightstand and took a long pull from the pink straw. “We need to talk strategy. We have to spin this around.”
“No, we don’t.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Listen, Knox’s mom will either come around or she won’t.
Either way, that’s her business. I won’t be the first woman in the world to be disliked by her mother-in-law.
And that’s okay. I understand that your job is to make our lives seem glamorous and hunky dory, but it’s irrelevant at this point.
As of twenty minutes ago, I received my pink slip, and That Man Over There is retiring.
Who are we trying to impress? We’ll both be bums in six months. ”
Amelia blew out a frustrated breath through her nose and sipped from her tumbler again.
“I understand where you’re coming from, but can I be frank?”
“Please.”
“I see everything you don’t see—the viciousness, the hate, the scrutiny, the microaggressions, the racism—you name it.
I’m consumed by it. And while I haven’t been your publicist for long, I feel protective of you and Knox.
I don’t want to witness anyone mocking or vilifying you if I can help it.
You and Knox have been through enough and deserve to be happy and stress-free, not under fire every time you turn around. ”
I softened in understanding.
“You’re not superwoman, Polly Pocket, and you won’t be able to shield us from everything. Let them speculate, let them talk, and let them hate because meanwhile, I’m making Knox’s pockets hurt and living my best life.”
We laughed until knocking interrupted us.
“What’s good?”
“My love. Do you have a moment?” Knox asked through the door.
“I might. What’s up?”
“My mother would like to apologize. Would you spare her a moment of your time?”
“Sure.”
The bedroom swung open, and I almost laughed when Knox gently shoved his mother into the room. Lorena seemed less confident than when she first arrived and tried to put me in my place.
“I guess that’s my cue to leave. Good luck, Victoria,” she wished before slipping out of the room.
We were alone, avoiding the obvious elephant in the room.
Lorena clutched her leather handbag so tightly, I swore her knuckles cracked.
“I don’t hear apologizing,” Knox said through the door.
Lorena rolled her eyes and muttered Italian under her breath.
“I was pregnant with twins, you know,” she said suddenly.
My eyes widened in disbelief.
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Mhm. Knox was originally a twin; however, he absorbed his twin in the womb, and now this is what I’m left with.”
I snickered, and soon she joined me.
“Of course Knox is the evil twin.”
I’m sorry for her loss, but thank goodness there aren’t two of them. I can’t imagine. I would’ve had double the dick, but double the headache.
Lorena sat in an armchair by the window, set her purse on a side table, smoothed her hands down her skirt, and crossed her ankles.
“I apologize for my behavior, Victoria. I was cold, dismissive, and didn’t give you a chance. I’ve lived with a knot in my stomach for years after what Naomi attempted to do to my boy. She had us both fooled—me more than him—and it almost cost him his life.”
“I understand, Mrs. Ramsey.”
“No,” she whispered. “You don’t understand.
Even when the evidence was presented, I thought the cops had gotten it wrong.
Naomi wouldn’t do something heinous like that.
She loved Knox. It wasn’t possible, but there it was in black and white.
The future I thought they would have dwindled away into nothing. ”
Tears crested the woman’s eyes, and my heart lurched for her.
“And poor Knox. He was devastated. I thought he would remain a bachelor forever, and I had made peace with that. Sad to say, but I was a little gleeful that he’d given up on love.
But then, you came along and changed his mind.
I panicked. Especially after reading all the headlines, and I formed an opinion of you before meeting you, and that was wrong.
” She took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry for disrespecting you, Victoria.
Truly. You didn’t deserve my suspicion. Knox deserves happiness, and so do you. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
The tightness in my chest eased. “Lorena,” I said softly. “Thank you. That means more than you know. And for what it’s worth, I don’t want anything from him except to love him and be loved back.”
“Thank you, Victoria. I want to spend some time getting to know you if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all,” I replied, returning her smile.
* * *
“My Heavens! Who needs enemies when you have sisters?” Lorena exclaimed after I gave her the cliff notes of my long-standing feud with Hope and Faith.
“You can say that again.”
“My sister and I no longer speak,” Loreno mentioned..
I raised a brow.
“Word?”
“Word.”
“Well, spill the tea,” I urged. I held back my sigh when she gave me that blank, owlish look Knox gave me when I said something and was reminded we grew up decades apart. “Tell me what happened,” I rephrased.
“Oh! The hussy stole my boyfriend right from under me. His name was Rocco Romano.” I folded my lips in to hide my smile and prevent myself from asking if Rocco had beef with Elmo.
Focus, girl. You’re supposed to be bonding with your mother-in-law over your ain’t shit siblings.
“Tell me more.”
“He was the most handsome man in Little Italy. He had the most lustrous dark, wavy hair, these beautiful amber eyes, and a smile that could make your heart skip several beats.”
“Not one beat?”
“Several,” she reiterated.
“And how did you and Rocco cross paths?”
On Sesame Street? Ha! Let me stop.
“He worked at the local butcher, and his body showed it, too.”
“I bet.”
“When I visited, he’d always wink and smile at me. He’d tell me he put a little extra for me in my order and suggested I visit closer to closing so we could get to know each other better.”
“Please tell me you didn’t fall for that.”
Lorena tutted under her breath. “Of course not. I was young, not dumb. He wanted to slip me his salami.”
“Not slip you his salami,” I drawled.
“Pun intended!”
Lorena continued telling her story about her sordid love affair that ended in heartbreak, betrayal, and humiliation when her younger sister set her hooks—pun intended—into her man.
“They married, and a few years later, they were swimming with the fishes.”
Wait… did this woman put a hit on her sister?
“Hold on. You said you don’t talk to her any longer.”
Lorena shrugged casually. “She’s deceased; therefore, we don’t speak.”
“I mean… hell yeah. Continue.”
“Rocco thought making an honest living was beneath him and became mob-affiliated.”
“Say less. You live by the streets; you die by the streets.”
“That’s a lovely way of putting it, Victoria,” she said, patting the back of my hand. At one point, I had pulled up a chair and we had cracked open a bottle of wine while trading stories.
“So, tell me about you and Mr. Ramsey.”
“I met my late husband at a pizzeria. He could make one hell of a pie.”
This explains so much….
“I remember walking into the shop after the funerals, and he was doing the tricks with the dough, twirling and tossing it above his head. He took one look at me and forgot to catch the dough. It fell on his head, and I couldn’t stop laughing.
He was as red as a tomato when he finally got himself out of that mess.
He apologized and said that it’d never happened to him before.
I said, ‘What? Dropping dough on your head?’ He said, ‘No. A woman’s never taken my breath away like that before. ’”
I wiped away a stray tear.
Why the fuck am I crying?
Lorena sighed and reclined in her chair.
“Dante was a beautiful man inside and out, and we shared many wonderful years together. He always made me laugh, and he had a penchant for mischief. There wasn’t a serious bone in the man’s body.”
That’s peculiar because the way Knox tells it, his dad had his foot on his neck. But, then again, at Knox’s big age, he still needs a foot on his neck.
“Dante was a little strict with Knox because that boy always found himself in the most absurd predicaments.”
“Like battling it out with a crackhead outside a bodega?”
My mother-in-law threw her head back and laughed.
“I didn’t want to believe the story when he told me.
I thought he was telling a little white lie.
A few days later, I walk to the bodega and see the woman on my son’s bike.
Gio’s bike was very distinguishable with the embellishments he put on it.
Plus, I’d seen that bike in the middle of the damn driveway so many times that it was imprinted in my mind.
“Did you get the bike back?” I asked excitedly.
“Of course, I got it back. We weren’t wealthy, and we couldn’t afford to replace his bike at the drop of a dime.
Plus, we needed Gio to have a bike because he needed to burn off all that energy.
I fought that woman for my child’s bike.
I was losing badly until I found a steel pipe in that alley.
I gave her all I had,” she boasted pridefully.
“I returned home before Knox came home from school and pulled myself together. I had to put makeup on because that bike thief gave me two black eyes.”
I snickered.
“Damn. Not y’all both getting your asses kicked.”
She smiled genuinely. “I didn’t mind. I’d do whatever I could to protect my son.
That’s why I took—” She paused and swallowed around a lump in her throat.
“I didn’t handle the Naomi situation well.
I was so excited that this woman who seemed perfect for my son appeared in our lives, but I was so blinded that I failed to protect him and led him to the lion’s den. ”
“You have to let that go, Lorena. The important thing is that you’re here now, and you’re willing to make me pasta a minimum of twice a week.”
She smiled widely before saying, “I think I can manage that, but may I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“You’re not with my son for the money; I can accept that, but why are you with him?”
I chewed my bottom lip and thought of the most poetic way to tell her I loved her son.
“No, I’m not with Knox for the money. I’d still be with him if he only had two seashells to rub together because even on the worst day of my life, when we were stranded thousands of miles from home, Knox made me feel like a millionaire.
He made a hut feel like a mansion and a turtle feel like a feast fit for a king.
I’ll be honest, Lorena, I despised your son before the island, but I fell in love with him because he’s the most selfless, caring, and capable man I know.
I suspect he was all that before the crash, and the island drew it out of him.
I love him more with each day, and let’s face it, Giovanni is the only one who can handle Tori Montana. ”