Chapter 24 Parents #2
I find Nico sitting on a bench, his head down. In front of him is a large granite headstone that looks like two black stone slabs standing side by side. The cutout between the stones forms a cross. It’s absolutely stunning.
“I’ll wait here,” Jake says from behind me.
I don’t turn to acknowledge him. I keep my sight on my husband’s back. Slowly, I approach. He doesn’t turn around, but when he speaks, I know he knows it’s me.
“They’re not even buried here.” His voice is low, but deeper than usual. “I had this placed here so that I could always come and pay my respects.”
My heart ached for my husband. As successful as Nico has become, there is still a large hole in his heart where his parents are concerned.
I readjust Noah on my hip. He must have fallen asleep during our walk through the cemetery. His head is on my shoulders, and his soft snores in my ear tell me he isn’t waking anytime soon. I should have made him and Jake stay in the truck, but something told me Nico needed both of us.
Walking around the bench, I take a seat beside my husband.
“Why don’t you go back and visit their real graves?”
To buy an entire tombstone for an empty grave seemed a little extra when he owns a private jet. He could easily hop on a plane to go visit their gravesides. Or hell, have them dug up and reburied here.
He looks over at me, and his eyes are red, yet there is no sign of tears on his face. He takes Noah out of my arms and cradles him in his lap. Once he has my son settled, I slip my fingers through his, figuring he needed the connection.
“He had them cremated. He said it was so that we could always have them with us. That was bullshit. He just didn’t want to waste the money on a proper burial.” After finding out about his godfather, I know now that the ‘he’ in this story refers to him.
He scoffs and shakes his head. “Their ashes are probably sitting lost in a storage facility somewhere. Who knows, he could’ve dumped them after I was sent away.”
My heart aches so badly for him. I know how much he loved his parents.
It’s in the way he speaks about them, the way he has small reminders all around him of them.
His entire home office has an astrological theme.
I know it’s because he and his father were both into stargazing.
My son’s name is Noah because it was the name his mother picked out for him before changing her mind at the last minute.
To think that the one thing he had left of them is missing or discarded like trash, has my eyes burning with unshed tears.
“What happened to your godfather?”
I’ve heard him speak about the man multiple times, but he never talks about him now or what he’s doing.
Nico is quiet for a moment. “He became successful after I went away. Gained a little notoriety. He was never as smart as my father, so he wasn’t ever going to grow the business as well as him.
He took my father’s legacy and sold it. All my father’s hard work was summed up in a measly million-dollar deal.
He took the money and used it in a startup business that had a minor success. ”
He’s quiet again. I don’t rush him because I know how quickly Nico can shut down about his past. I allow him to tell the story at his own pace.
“I was sixteen when I made my first attack. His wife was younger than he was, but not by much. After studying her, I knew she had a thing for younger guys. I had her sucking my cock three days after approaching her.”
I gasp. Not because I was jealous or anything like that, but a sixteen-year-old having sex with a grown woman is not okay. Even if he was the one initiating it.
“Within four months I’d completely taken her from him. I sent him the videos of her fucking and sucking me and my brothers. He was devastated. They divorced, and because there was no prenup, she got half of his fortune. But I wasn’t done.”
He readjusted Noah in his arms.
“After I took that bitch from him, I went after his reputation. I dug up all his dirt and sent it to business partners and associates. Hell, some of the shit I sent wasn’t even true. Before long, his connections were tanking, and he was losing business left and right. But he still had too much.
“The next thing I ripped from him was his little startup business. I swooped in like a fucking thief in the night and bought up all the shares his other partners were selling. Once I had the majority of shares, I voted him out just to dissolve the entire fucking company. He was jobless and going broker by the second. He couldn’t even seek help because I had taken away everybody in his circle. ”
He stares off into the distance, his gaze not on anything in particular.
“He lost his big house, the cars, the vacation properties and everything else he had. But I still wasn’t done. I wanted him to suffer. I want everything from him.” The way those last five words are growled tells me just how much anger he still holds for his godfather.
He turns to me, his dark brown eyes staring back at me.
“Do you know crystal meth looks a lot like cocaine when it’s ground up?” He turns back to the vacant spot he was staring at. “Peter had always been an occasional coke user. All it requires is the right place and time. And when your life is falling apart, drugs are always an escape.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Is my husband insinuating he purposely got his godfather addicted to drugs? Nico took everything from this man, from his woman to his friends to his business, and still introduced him to drugs.
“Why?” That was my only question.
I get that the man sent him away and took his parents’ money. Yes, Nico has a right to be angry, but I feel like I’m missing something crucial here.
He turns to me, the redness in his eyes has intensified, but still no tears.
“I found out that on the night my parents had that wreck, their brakes had been tampered with. Their accident wasn’t an accident, it was a murder. My godfather paid off the cops and had the investigation thrown out. He is the reason my parents died.”
I gasp and place my free hand over my mouth. No wonder he hates the godfather so much. And I guess I’ve been around my husband too long and I’m just as twisted as he is, because I feel like he’s justified in his actions.
“Where is your godfather now?”
“In the psychiatric ward in Mt. August. Years of drug abuse have done damage to his brain. He’s damn near a vegetable. Every so often I go see him just to remind him that I’ve kept him alive just so he could suffer.”
This time when he turns to me, he looks me over. His gaze searching my face.
“I’m not a good man, Tiff. I’ve done some horrible shit in my life.
I know everything that’s happening to me is karma.
But I can’t find it in my heart to regret anything I did.
Because it all brought me right here.” He lifts my hand and places a kiss on the back of it, then leans down and kisses Noah’s forehead.
“I’d go through all the shit…” he trails off, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “All the things I went through, I’d go through them again if it means I get to have you.”
Nico has just revealed the darkest side of himself.
The things he has done to his godfather alone should make me want to leave.
I should see that this man would stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I mean, he proved that with everything he did to get me.
This is a big red flag. This flag is so big it should be raised up and flown over the white house.
Yet, fleeing is the furthest thing from my mind.
Letting go of his hand, I cup his face and stare into his eyes. “I love you. And no matter what, we will get through this.”
His past was catching up with him. All the issues with the hotels, the attacks on my life — all of it was because of something from his past. I was willing to face the monster with him. No matter what came, we would face it together.