Chapter 20
“He is very serious. Do you not think part of the reason he is serious is because he is afraid all the time?”
“I am not afraid,” Antero lifted his chin. “I am brave and strong but even if I was afraid, it would be okay. Humans are meant to be scared. It keeps them alive. My mother tells me this all the time.” He glared at the large man, “I simply don’t like you because you hugged her without asking.”
“I would like to get to know you. Perhaps with time you will grow to like me.”
“Unlikely,” Antero scoffed as he released his mother’s hand. He walked to the window and stared out and then looked back to his mother. “I wonder if someone fell from here if their bones would all break or would some remain intact.”
“Intrusive thoughts often come to him when he’s stressed,” she explained to the man with the gaping mouth. “Antero is what is commonly referred to as neurodivergent. He is highly intelligent but lacks emotional and social awareness. We are working on it with a therapist. The school he attends is quite renowned for their abilities in working with children with similar dispositions. In fact, one of his teachers was once a pupil there and is quite warm, funny and kind.”
“Did you attend?”
The question caused her to lift an eyebrow in his direction. “No. I am not nearly as gifted as Antero is.”
“You share similar personalities. You both are blunt. You both are matter of fact. I can also see both of you thinking of ways to get out of this room.” He looked at the boy, “he’s not above taking my weapon and shooting me.”
“I don’t know how to use a gun.” Antero remarked narrowing his eyes.
“I will teach you.” Torquato said with a shrug. “You will need to learn eventually if you will run this family when I die.”
“I will run your family?” Antero moved from his position to stand back in front of his mother. “Me?”
“You are my son, my only child, the first born. Someday, you will be the Don of the Lozano family.”
“Will I be allowed to kill my mother’s father? Don Mariani.”
Alcee turned to look at Antero in disbelief, “why would you suggest such a thing?”
“He makes you cry. He makes you scared. He is a bad man. I don’t like him because makes you cry. In the movies Amal likes to watch, the good guy who protects people kills the bad guys.”
“Yeah, Amal and I are going to discuss her choices of movies she watches when she is babysitting you.”
Antero shrugged.
“We can make it happen,” Torquato gave the same shrug as his son. He moved to sit behind the desk. He opened a laptop on the desk and entered his credentials. “What is the name of the school you attend, Antero? I want to see it.”
Antero walked over to him, “Mom types faster.”
“I bet she does. She’s a damn good IT technician.” He held his fingers up in the boy’s face, “these are meaty like giant sausages not meant for tapping on keyboards or threading needles. However, they are very good for other things.”
“Like opening pickle jars.” Antero said with a minor twist of his lips. “Mom says someday when I get big I can use my hands to open the jars because she needs to bang them on the counter to get them open.”
True.” He nodded, “they’re also good for holding things tight you don’t want to lose or for strangling people who piss you off.”
Alcee groaned at the comment, “don’t feed his intrusive thoughts!”
Why not? It seems your friends do by letting him watch R rated movies.”
“I don’t watch the kissing scenes. Gross.”
“Kissing isn’t gross. You simply need to kiss the right person. Some people are dirty, and you would do well to never put your lips anywhere near them. Others, like your mom, are sweet and kissing her is a treat.”
1/2
Chapter 20
“Have you kissed my mom?”
“I have. I liked it so much,” somehow he’d managed to get the child onto his lap as they opened up the website for Antero’s school, “I spent the last several years trying to find her so I could kiss her again.”
“You couldn’t have tried very hard. She’s right there.”
Alcee almost laughed at the way Torquato’s lips twitched.
“Well, in my defense, your mother gave me a phony name.”
“She did?” Antero turned to look at her, “you did?”
“I did but he lied about his name too!” she defended herself against the matching pair of accusatory eyes staring her down. “You are not Bruno.”
“My middle name is Bruno. I was named after a very ugly uncle.” He winked at Antero as he shifted him on his lap.
Antero looked at his mother excitedly, “I was named after his ugly uncle too then.”
Torquato looked at them. “What do you mean?”
“My name is Antero Tyrell Bruno Mariani.”
“Ah, yes, I forgot I’d seen the Bruno on your health insurance application. We’ll get your name changed to Lozano.”
“Why?”
“Do you want to keep the name of the man who makes your mother cry?”
“No.”
“Don Lozano,” Alcee whispered quietly in protest.
“Torq. My family calls me Torq. You will be my wife, Alcee so you will call me Torq. We share a son. We were supposed to be married years ago. If I hadn’t been so excited to discover a sweet and innocent woman I wanted to marry instead of my betrothed six years ago, we would be married
now.
I wish I delivered my news in person. How delightful it would have been to enter the house to tell your father in person I didn’t want to marry his child because I found a wife of my own I wanted to marry instead. I would have found you, saved the world a headache and been with you both all along. Unfortunately, I was busy scouring the city for you and couldn’t be arsed to visit Edgardo.”
His words caught up to her brain from her ears and she stared at him incredulously.
“Wait, you cancelled the engagement because you wanted to marry me?”
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