Acquisition (9 page)

She had chosen leather cuffs that didn’t quite match the dress, but would save the awkwardness of having anyone notice or comment on the bruises marring her wrist. She didn’t reply as she walked beside him, not even tempted to make a run for it. There was no point, and he had Lucas, but it was more than that.

She was still angry and embarrassed about the previous night, but memories of their previous time together had left her in a more mellow state, and she realized she didn’t really want to run away. She might feel like she had to at some point, but she wasn’t there yet. Nor was she firmly back with Luka. She was just floating in limbo, and it was an uncomfortable place to be. It was still better than the last eleven months she had endured on her own, aching for Luka in the middle of the night when loneliness had overwhelmed her.

She had missed him, and she couldn’t pretend otherwise. She knew what he was and what he did, but she still cared about him, even if she didn’t want to admit it to anyone but herself.

***

The elder Rinaldis had moved sometime in the past eleven months. They had once lived in an almost palatial home on the outskirts of the city, but now had an opulent penthouse in one of the most coveted buildings downtown. She tried to focus on the new surroundings to quell some of her nerves while she rode up in the elevator beside Luka, hands buried in the pockets of her black coat.

She was no longer able to distract herself when they stepped out of the lift and walked across the marble foyer to the entrance of the Rinaldis’ apartment. Luka didn’t bother to knock, and she shouldn’t have been surprised. It was the same way at their old home, the one where they had raised their four children. Curiosity prompted her to ask, “When did your parents move?” They stepped inside, and she removed her coat to hand to Luka, who was hanging it in the closet himself. That was different too, because they used to have an honest-to-goodness butler at their old place.

“Amber moved out to a place of her own, and they decided to downsize since they’re getting older. Mother said the house was too much to keep up with, and she wanted to be closer to her friends and shopping, and since Papa is mostly retired, he’s content to live wherever Mother wants.”

She nodded, smoothing down her dress as she followed behind him, the car seat brushing gently against her leg with each step. She looked down at her son, smiling when she saw his eyes pop open, and he gave her a toothless grin. She figured he’d soon be ready to nurse, which would be a welcome escape—of that she had no doubt.

The sound of voices drew them and she admired the sitting area with its tasteful elegance before letting her eyes dart around the room. She saw Dominic first, having no doubt it was him as he scowled in her direction. He’d never been warm or friendly, but his dislike was unmasked now.

She looked away quickly, her gaze settling on Roman, who gave her a polite incline of his head, before looking at his partner. She gasped softly when she saw Sarah’s rounded tummy. “You didn’t tell me Sarah was expecting.” She made the admonishment in a whisper.

Luka arched a brow. “Honestly, catching you up on my family’s endeavors wasn’t really on my mind.”

She nodded, trying to hide a pang of discomfort at his words. She wasn’t entirely certain why they hurt, but they did.

A quick glance at Roman and Sarah’s fingers confirmed matching wedding bands, along with the same tastefully sparkling diamond on Sarah’s left hand that had been there the last time she saw her. From where she stood now, she couldn’t see any remnants of scarring where that crazy Lithuanian woman had cut off two of Sarah’s fingers eighteen months before. There were probably small scars up close, but if she hadn’t known about the incident, she wouldn’t have even looked, because there were no visible reminders.

Finally, she could put it off no more and glanced first at Mario, and then Avriella. Mario was as hard to read as ever, though he did step forward and shake her hand before his attention turned to his grandson. In seconds, Lucas was out of the car seat and in his pop’s arms.

She braced herself to face Avriella, who had always been the least welcoming and hadn’t been good about hiding her disapproval of their relationship. She pasted on a smile as she faced the older woman, noting there were a few more lines on her face, and a few more gray hairs peeking through the glossy black, but otherwise, Avriella remained unchanged. “Thank you for having me, Mrs. Rinaldi.”

Avriella surprised her by stepping closer, taking her hand, and leaning down to press a kiss first on one cheek and then the other in a very European fashion. It was the warmest greetings she’d ever given. “Thank you for joining us, Abby. And please call me Avriella.”

She tried to hide her shock as she nodded before moving aside so the other woman could meet Lucas too. She watched with some amusement as Luka was shoved to the side while the grandparents fussed over Lucas. At the moment, the baby was content to be the center of attention, though she was certain he would soon grow fussy and ready to eat.

Perhaps she wouldn’t need it as an escape method after all, if the warmth continued to flow her direction. Meeting Dominic’s gaze, she wasn’t terribly optimistic about that as a woman in a simple black dress came to the doorway to announce dinner was ready.

She followed them in, unsurprised when Luka swooped in and took Lucas from his father’s arms before sitting in a seat at the long table, patting the cushion of the chair beside him. As she started to drop into it, she was startled when someone grasped the back of her chair to steady it and assist her.

She looked over her shoulder and up at Roman, a quick glance at his left ring finger confirming it was him, since she sometimes confused Roman and Dominic, though she had never mistaken either of the brothers for her lover. “Thank you,” she said with a hint of bewilderment. Why were they all—aside from Dominic—being so nice to her?

He winked at her. “You’re welcome. At least one of us knows how to act like a gentleman.”

An old, familiar urge to smile filled her as she remembered the banter the brothers used to share.

“Hey, I’m holding the baby,” said Luka. “I can’t really pull out the chair and do the gentlemanly thing right now.”

Sarah, who had waited for her husband to assist her into her seat, which happened to be next to Abby, gave Luka a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. He’ll figure that out soon enough for himself.”

“How long?” asked Abby as she darted a glance at Sarah’s burgeoning stomach.

“Ten weeks, or perhaps eleven.”

She frowned, speaking without thinking. “Shouldn’t you have an exact date? They had that for me at my first ultrasound with Lucas.”

There was a moment of tension, and then Sarah blinked. “Yes, the official due date is ten weeks, but I just have a feeling that she’s going to be about a week overdue.”

Roman sat down on Sarah’s other side, rolling his eyes. “I don’t hold any faith in that feeling, love. Just because you and Robbie,” he grimaced as he said the name, “Were both a week overdue doesn’t mean anything. After all, Luka, Dominic, and I were all born several weeks early.”

“But that doesn’t count because you’re triplets, and you were going to be born early anyway.”

Abby could tell it was a familiar conversation, and she observed their interaction with amusement and a touch of envy. Had she and Luka once been that happy and carefree? She wanted to think they had, but she couldn’t honestly believe it. There had been too many secrets between them, even if she hadn’t known he was keeping secrets, and she hadn’t felt free enough to admit how strongly she felt for him, so how could they have been so relaxed and so obviously in love with each other as Luka’s brother and his wife?

“When did you have the ultrasound?” asked Dominic.

She was startled by the sound of his voice, and even more startled to find herself seated across from him, his gaze pinning her as though she were an insect on the wall. Abby cleared her throat before trying to answer. “I was twelve weeks along with the first ultrasound, and there was another one at twenty weeks.”

“And you knew he was a boy ahead of time?” Despite his mild tone that suggested nothing more than basic curiosity, there was something in the way the eldest Rinaldi brother held himself that revealed it was a loaded question.

She nodded, unsure how to answer. Dominic seemed to want something, but she didn’t want to give it—especially if it was an excuse to verbally attack her, as she suspected.

“Do you have pictures?” asked Luka.

She started to nod again, but then changed her mind. “I did, but I don’t anymore. They’re in my old apartment.” Knowing that neighborhood, and the sleazy apartment manager who’d run the place, her things had likely been rummaged through, ripped off, and thrown away by now. There would be nothing left.

“It’s okay,” said Luka. “I’ll have them retrieved.”

“Of course, if you’d been there, you wouldn’t need pictures to know what your son looked like before he was born,” said Dominic in a deceptively neutral tone.

Abby stiffened, wrapping her fingers tightly around the fork and knife, though no one else had lifted their silverware yet. She wasn’t certain if she was using it as a way to control a surge of anger, or if she was just keeping murder weapons handy in case Dominic continued to push her. “I had my reasons.” She shot a glance at Sarah and Avriella. “I doubt you want to go into them.”

“I’d be fascinated to know why you think it was okay to run away from my brother and steal his child, while planning to keep Lucas away from him forever. I’d love for you to enlighten me as to why we should all just forget about that and move on as though nothing has changed?”

Abby continued gripping the knife, but her fingers loosened on the fork as she almost unconsciously decided to embrace one as a weapon. She was surprised when Luka put his hand over hers, squeezing lightly until she released the knife and let it fall to the table with a small clatter.

It was even more surprising when Avriella spoke up, and on her behalf. “Dominic, you promised to be on your best behavior. You’ve never been in Abby’s position, so you can’t understand how she must’ve felt when she discovered the truth. If you can’t be civil to your brother’s…Lucas’s mother, then perhaps you’d like to call it an early night?”

Dominic looked surly for a moment, and then glanced down at his plate. “No way am I missing Lucia’s lasagna.”

Avriella gave her son a slightly acerbic smile. “Then I suggest you cram as much of it in as possible, and however much is required to keep your mouth closed during dinner.”

Abby struggled to keep her own mouth from falling open at Avriella’s words, startled both by the other woman seeming to be defending her actions, and by the way she had spoken to her oldest son. She hadn’t spent a great deal of time with Luka’s family, but from what she had, she remembered Avriella as a doting mother, one who seemed to think her sons could do no wrong. This was such a change from the woman she remembered that she shook her head with confusion for a moment as everyone began to eat.

Under the clink of silverware and dinner conversation, she leaned closer to Luka, pitching her voice to a low whisper. “Did your mom have some kind of near-death experience or something?”

He looked surprised by the question even as he was shaking his head. “No, of course not. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged. “The new house, the new attitude, and the fact that she actually doesn’t seem to mind that I’m here are what prompted me to wonder what made her change. I thought perhaps she’d undergone some kind of life-changing crisis.”

He dabbed at his mouth with a linen napkin. “Nothing life-changing. I think she just has some stuff in common with you that she didn’t realize before. Just give her a chance.”

She nodded, the response hovering on the tip of her tongue that she had always been willing to give Avriella a chance, but the other woman hadn’t seemed interested in reciprocity. Instead, she turned her attention to the excellent lasagna, followed by even more excellent tiramisu, though she’d only gotten two bites when Luka started to fuss.

She slid back from the table and held out her arms for the baby, asking Luka, “Where can I feed him?”

Luka got up and showed her the way to a guestroom, which was still larger than the apartment she had shared with the baby until Luka had kidnapped them out of that life and back into this one. She settled on the bed, adjusted her clothing to allow the baby to latch on, and tried not to think about the conversation that was probably flowing now that she was no longer in the room.

They were likely tearing her down and showing their true feelings, but she couldn’t let that get to her. It didn’t really matter if Luka’s parents or brothers liked her, since they weren’t in a real relationship any longer. As long as they treated Lucas well, that was all that really mattered.

By the time the baby finished, and she adjusted her clothes, the dining room was empty when she made her way back to it. She jumped with surprise when someone touched her shoulder, turning to find Avriella smiling at her. “I’m sorry I missed the rest of the meal.”

Avriella waved a hand. “Believe me, I understand. I nursed three babies, though I didn’t do it all alone. I had help in the form of formula.”

Where she once might have considered that a passive-aggressive comment about her refusal to use formula, she now recognized it as simply a statement made in passing. Perhaps she had judged Avriella too harshly in the past. Maybe the other woman was reserved, and she had mistaken that for standoffishness. Maybe.