“What?!” Liam roared.
The door cracked open after a few moments. “Mr. T?”
Liam managed a half smile for the young man who peeked inside. “Hey Dave.”
“Sorry Sir, you wanted to know when your car was ready?” Dave’s light brown eyes darted nervously between the battling duo.
“Thanks Dave.”
“Uh, should I start packing the trunk, Sir?”
“Thank you, Dave. Yes, that’ll be fine.”
“Where are you going?” Athena demanded when the study door closed at Dave’s back. “Did you hear me Liam? Where-?”
“Away from here.” Liam’s voice was like lead. “I’m sure I could go a year in this place without seeing you once, but I just can’t stomach another night with you under the same roof.”
“You pig! You dare speak to me this way! I’m the mother of your sons!”
“And I’ll always love you for that despite your monstrous ways. I couldn’t ask for a finer brood of men to carry my name into the future, but the price of all that magnificence has been steep,” he went behind the bar to wash his hands in the sink there. “I’ll be in the city. I have a place there.”
“I’ll bet you do!” She spat the acknowledgement. “Which black cunt will you be shacked up with tonight?!”
Liam finished up at the sink, a grin livening his gorgeous face with delicious humor. “You’ve always tried to make it sound like I had a bevy of companions waiting on me somewhere. Does it make you feel better to know it’s many instead of just one?”
Athena’s lip curled. “Your bastard’s mother, then? That puttana!”
“Goodbye, Athena.”
She raced to the study door, arriving there before him. “You can’t leave me. You won’t. We’re bound. You’re mine. You can never leave.” Her eyes flared when he slammed his fist above her head against the door.
“I can do many things,” his voice was almost a snarl. “I can tell Rubius and Delia Campagnone what you put their daughter through. I could let them come after you with the full force of their fury which they have every right to as parents, but I won’t and not out of love for you. I have no love for you other than what any father should have for the woman who bears his child. No...I won’t leave you to them because of Gabriel.” Liam turned his eyes toward the ceiling. “He’s up there hurting, wounded, hiding from the world and unable to be a father to that innocent miracle Giselle left behind. He’s going to need all of us to get through this. Even you.”
He pulled the study door open. Athena’s weight against it was of no consequence.
“You’ll be back!” She cried, unashamed as she rushed out behind him into the hall. “We’re bound, Liam! You’ll be back!”
“Sure I will. For the occasional soiree we’ll have here for the good of the company, parties for the kids. Sure I’ll be back. As soon as Saturday, as a matter of fact. The moving trucks will be here for the rest of my things.”
Liam walked out of the front door. Athena followed. The cases had been cleared from the foyer and secured in the trunk of the cobalt blue Dodge Polara Liam would drive into the city.
“I’ll never divorce you,” her tone was cool then, self-assured. “Tell that bitch Erica, she’ll never have your name.”
Liam’s strides slowed before he took the steps down from the wide porch. He turned to his wife then. “We’ll see,” he said.
“You’re mine,” she declared to Liam’s back as he took the steps two at a time.
“You’ll be back!” She called, even as he settled behind the wheel and ignited the engine.
“You-you’ll...be...” her words failed at last when he gunned the engine and accelerated down the drive. Bits of sand and grass flew in his wake.
“You’ll be back,” her words were too low to be heard. She sank to the porch, sitting there on the white brick and watching Liam Tesano drive out of her life.
~58~
“He can’t stay there, Roman.”
Roman reconsidered the juice he was about to treat himself to. He leaned on the cooking island and gave his wife a pleading look. “What do you want me to do, Imani?”
“I want Brogue here with us. Giselle would want this. She’d want him growing up around his family. Hill, Isak and Smoak will be the only brothers he’ll ever have. They can’t be raised apart-”
“They won’t be. They’ll see each other a lot.”
“Where? At your mother’s? You don’t even want our boys around her and now that Liam’s moved out-”
“Imani? Stop.” Roman took his wife by the arms, squeezed to reassure. “We’ll think of something.”
“I’ve thought of something,” Imani retorted. “Have Brogue come live with us. Hill and Isak are such a little unit. It would be good for Smoak to have someone closer to his age-”
“There’s only a small problem with that, Sere. Brogue has a father.”
Hope filled Imani’s expressive dark eyes. She curved her fingers into Roman’s T-shirt. “Gabe could come live with us.”
Roman forced himself not to laugh. “I think you know that won’t work,” he couldn’t keep the amusement from his voice.
“That child needs to be with people who knew Giselle-really knew her- who know his heritage-”
“That can’t happen.”
