Nonna nods. “To be frank, the night of that brawl changed him, and I’m not sure it’s always been a good thing. You see, that’s the moment he decided to become rich. We left town after that, but from that moment on, nothing came before his ambition, even when it should have. I’m sure there have been plenty of nights when you kids and your mother experienced that firsthand.” She turns to press a tobacco tinged kiss to my temple.
“And moving back here was… What? His big chance to rub his success in their face?” I ask, straightening. It seemed so random, Daddy deciding to move to the middle of nowhere. It hadn’t made sense. Our lives were set in Manhattan. He had no reason to come here. Now, it all makes sense. All along, he was building his Dolce Sweets empire as some kind of revenge. Which means that all along, he knew one day he’d come back here. Nice of him to let us know ahead of time, to prepare us for the big change.
“I suppose it was, in a way,” Nonna says. She finishes her cigarette and searches for a place to snuff it out. “I’d better go wash up and brush my teeth, so your grandfather doesn’t smell this on me when he kisses me goodnight.” She gives me a wink and rises from her chair to stash her cigarettes.
“TMI, Nonna,” I say, shaking my head.
“I’ll leave you two alone to make eyes at each other.” She nods toward the Darling house and flashes a grin before ducking in through my window and disappearing into my bathroom.
I can feel Devlin’s gaze on me, the weight of it, the heat. But I don’t look at him, the boy from the family that drove my father out of town. I don’t blame him for coming back to the town that didn’t want him, that said he wasn’t good enough. I don’t blame him for returning to throw his success in their faces by building a branch right here in the town that rejected him, on a piece of land that must have been theirs since they’re disputing whether they still own it. I just wish he’d told us, that he’d given us some warning. I wish he’d told us what this town meant to him instead of letting us find out about the Darlings ourselves.
But now it makes so much sense. Why he wants us to take over the school, why he wants my brothers to take the Darlings’ spots on the football team, why he wants to impress the mayor and buy a house that once belonged to the Darlings, right next door to one of the boys who told him he wasn’t good enough to attend a party in this house. It must feel really fucking good to come back and buy that very house, to show them that “our type” does belong in this neighborhood, as an equal to any of the Darlings.
Now, more than ever, I know that the Darlings are nothing but entitled assholes from one generation to the next. I know that I will never be anything to them but a dog, a piece of trash, just like my father was before me. And they will never be anything to me but a family that tried to destroy mine and failed. Daddy came back from that and made millions. He came back to show them what Dolces are made of.
And I’m going to have to do the same thing. Without a backwards glance at Devlin, I stand, climb in my window, and pull the window closed except for a crack to let the cool fall air in. I pull the curtain closed, erasing Devlin and his beautiful house with one sweep of my hand.
ten
Devlin
Crystal. Fucking. Dolce.
She blew into my life like a fucking hurricane. Hurricane Crystal, with those curves all hidden under her mommish dresses like some kind of proper society lady when I know better. I know what’s up. I know what’s under there. That waist I could almost wrap my hands around, tits that make me want to bury my head between them and an ass that makes me want to bury my dick in it. One taste, and I’m standing out on a balcony waiting for her like some pathetic, pussy-whipped puppy.
I’ve been doing this shit since I saw her out on the balcony that first night wearing next to nothing, a flimsy little nightgown that made her look like a ghost.
I didn’t know she’d be haunting me for the rest of my fucking life.
eleven
Crystal
Day 4 without Royal. I’m beginning to understand the Darlings. I know what makes their family different from mine. My family taught me love, loyalty, the strength of our backbones, the way our blood runs thicker than chocolate. But now I know a new truth. The Darling’s truth.
Love makes you weak. Hate makes you strong.
“Get out of my house.”
“Your house?” Mom’s shriek slices through the remaining drowsiness in my mind.
They’re fighting. Typical.
I sigh and climb out of bed, pulling the covers up and arranging the pillows while their voices continue.
“You think because you left me to run down here and prove what a big man you are, that this house is yours? Well, guess what? We’re still married, Tony! That means this house is half mine, just like everything else you own, you selfish bastard.”
When she gets going, Mom’s Jersey accent starts to slip out, no matter how many years she spent training it into hiding. I swallow hard, glancing at the window when I realize their voices are coming from outside. I left my window cracked to let in the fresh, fall air, not to let in the voices of my embarrassing parents. I really hope they go inside before they start making up.
“Then get out ofourhouse,” Daddy barks.
“Oh, you’d like that wouldn’t you?” Mom asks. “Well, I’m not going anywhere until my kid shows up. Got that? You’ll just have to have your little underage whores meet you at the office for a while, now won’t you?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh yeah?” she asks. “Maybe the police should be questioning you, Tony. Maybe he found out you were fucking his little girlfriend, and you’re the one who got rid of him. You’d do anything for a piece of teenage ass, wouldn’t you?”
I hear his heavy footsteps stomp across the wooden floorboards of the downstairs veranda. Now he’s going to grab her and tell her she’s gone too far, and she’ll slap him, and then they’ll start fucking.