“Will you come back?” Angelica asked.
“There’s nothing for me here until your mother dies, so why would I?”
Aria screamed again as her men went for him. Trent got in a few good punches before Graham, Mateo, and she could stop him.
“Please, just stop—no more fighting. Please,” she said.
“Then he needs to show some fucking respect,” Mateo said. He looked at Dominic, who was dabbing his lip with a napkin.
Mateo got Dominic’s attention. “You need to realize something, boy. Do you think you had it rough? I’d love to see how you act when you know how they were all treated.”
Dominic snorted. “What? They didn’t get a pony?” he asked sarcastically.
Hope snorted. “Did he keep you locked in your room the majority of the time?”
Dominic rolled his eyes.
“She’s not kidding. These four women were in their rooms most of the time and could only come out when Lorenzo wanted to show them off or had something for them to do. He rarely allowed them to be together. There weren’t holidays, birthdays, or even family dinners. He took them out of school when they were in eighth, seventh, and sixth grade, brought in a tutor who did a half-assed job for a year, and then quit,” Trent said. “You think you had it bad, but I’m telling you that you got lucky not having to be around him all the time.”
“I’d like to get to know you,” Angelica said. “Can you, my sisters, and I go into a room and talk? I want to ask you so many questions, and I’m hoping you’ll want to get to know us.”
Aria waited to see what he said and exhaled when he shrugged and nodded.
“Follow us,” Angelica said.
Faith patted Graham on the chest. “It’s okay.”
“I’ll be outside the door,” Graham said.
“What, you don’t trust me not to hurt my sisters?” Dominic grinned.
“Fuck no. I don’t trust you. You come in and judge them by what your father told you even though you know what a bastard he was, and you act like a spoiled child,” Graham said. “Remember what I said. I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your fucking brain if you hurt one of them.”
Aria gasped and pressed her hands against her mouth, leaning back against Trent’s chest as her children walked out of the room.
When she heard the door down the hall close, she turned in his arms and sobbed. Her men sat her down and got her to settle and drink some water.
“Everything is going to be okay, pet,” Trent said.
She nodded. “I hope he’ll give us a chance.”
“He’s just an angry young man right now,” Mateo said. “Give him time.”
She nodded and waited. It seemed like hours instead of minutes before she heard the front door open and close, and her daughters walked back into the room. They all three came to her and hugged her tightly.
“I’m so sorry, babies.”
“You’re not the one who should be sorry,” Faith said.
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Graham said.
Aria watched her children pour some juice on the sideboard and sit around the table.
“What did he say?”
“He’s a jerk,” Angelica said.
“I think he’s hurting,” Faith said.