“But why?” I pressed. “Why do you hate them so much?”
“Hate is such a strong word. They aren’t worthy of my hatred. Quietly simply, they are below me and they should be below you.”
I thought of being below Tiernan on the floor of my bedroom and squirmed as arousal prickled down my spine.
“What did they do?” I asked again, even though Caroline’s face was growing so cold, I worried it would fractured into ice chips.
She looked down at the papers than back up at me, calculating. “They have always wanted what is mine. What was Lane’s.” Her left eyelid twitched. “They don’t seem to understand that I will not be taken from. I have earned what I have, every ounce of it, and I will always do battle to keep it.”
I blinked slowly, feeling as if I was being given the Cliff Note’s on a much larger, more complicated story.
“Is that why you want to take us in?” I asked, steeling my shoulders against her tangible irritation. “To take something from the Morellis?”
“Maybe they never should have had their uncouth hands on you in the first place,” she suggested, relaxing carefully into her chair to address her almost uneaten salad. “Look at how they hurt you.”
“Tiernan never laid a hand on me,” I defended, even though I knew it was stupid, even though I didn’t want to.
She raised a thin blonde brow. “There are many ways to skin a cat.”
The metaphor was said flatly, in a way that signaled she was done with the conversation until I signed the documents.
“I won’t sign without Brandon,” I told her, my voice surprisingly strong even though I was faintly worried I’d be homeless after this lunch.
The truth was, I already felt homeless without Brando by my side.
“You will do as I say.” Caroline didn’t even lift her head as she daintily ate her salad. “Obedience, Bianca.”
“Fuck, obedience,” I said, ignoring her startled look at the glances from the table beside us. “I’ve been obedient my whole life and it’s only ever gotten me shitty second-helpings after everyone else took exactly what they wanted. There is one thing that matters to me more than anything else in this world and it’s my brother. Whatever I am, orphaned Belcante, fostered Morelli, or adopted Constantine, Brando is with me.”
“Bianca,” Caroline said in a low voice that clinked like ice against her teeth. “You will sign these papers and we will deal with getting Brandon together after that.”
“Absolutely not.” I glared at her, refusing to be cowed. “I don’t mean to be rude, Caroline, but I think you can understand that family comes first. Brandon is all that I have left of mine.”
After a second, her mouth moved into something like a smile that was really a grimace. “Yes, I understand what it is to put family first. You are being foolish and ungrateful, though, which I will not understand. You should be thanking me.”
“I just did,” I reminded her of the beginning of our lunch. “I will again, when you help me get Brandon back.”
Another eye twitch as we stared at each other across thousand-dollar china. I was nothing and no one, an orphan from Bum Nowhere, Texas, but I was done letting other people attribute my worth. I was smart and capable and I could carve out a life for Brando and me, even if everyone else stood in our way.
Even if Caroline Constantine forbade it.
“Eat the rest of your lunch and we will discuss it again like adults after you’ve had some sustenance. Clearly, you have low blood sugar,” she said dismissively, turning back to her salad.
And that was it.
When I knew Caroline wasn’t the kind benefactor I’d hoped for, when Elias’s words of warning finally sunk in.
Because it was obvious she wanted to use me just as badly as Tiernan had wanted to and I was going to find out why.
Right fucking now.
I stood, tossed my napkin on the table, and leveled Caroline with my own cold gaze. “I’m going for a walk, I’ll make my way back to Bishop’s Landing myself. If you open the gate to me, I’ll be grateful. I want to stay with you, Caroline, and I’m thankful for your graciousness, but you clearly don’t understand me.” I placed my fingers on the table and leaned over so I looming slightly over her. “I may be young, but I’m not stupid. I don’t know what’s going on between you and the Morellis, but clearly, you’re using me in your war against them and I won’t be a pawn. You want to use me, fine? But first, you get me my brother back.”
I turned on my heel and stalked out of the restaurant with my head back, the speculative gazes of the other diners rolling off me like water off a duck’s back.
9
BIANCA
I called Elena Lombardi, Tiernan’s lawyer, on my way to the subway.
She didn’t seem surprised to hear from me, but I had the impression she was a hard woman to rattle.
“I need help,” I told her honestly as I shifted through Tinsley Constantine’s old Prada purse to find some change. Instead, I found a condom, a tube of lip gloss and a crumpled hundred-dollar bill. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Well then, I’m glad you called me, Bianca. That is why I gave you my card.” There was a pleasant smile in her voice along with the trace of an Italian accent. It made my heart pang to hear it because Aida had spoken to us in broken Italian from time to time and I hadn’t heard it since she passed away. “How can I help you?”
I explained my situation leaning against a traffic pole at the mouth of the subway station. She listened without interrupting until I was through, somewhat breathless even though I hadn’t moved an inch.
“You want to know how to get custody of Brandon for yourself,” she repeated thoughtfully. “I’m afraid that’s going to be impossible until you are eighteen and even then, improbable unless you have a full-time job and a permanent residence of your own.”
Frustration burned away my lingering politeness. “Fuck that. How is that fair, Elena? I’ve been taking care of Brando since he was born and now, I can’t even see him because Tiernan won’t let me.”
Silence.
“I don’t truly believe Tiernan would keep you from your brother,” she said slowly, as if she was still processing her thoughts. “You have to understand, Tiernan is a man who has never gotten what he wanted. At every turn, it’s been ripped away from him. Now, it seems he feels very passionately about having you and Brandon in his life. Sometimes, when people feel threatened, they lash out and threaten others. I’m not saying it’s the same, but that feeling you have because someone is trying to take Brandon from you? Is it possible Tiernan could be feeling a little of that, too?”
I hadn’t thought about that, which shamed me a bit. It was easy to look back at our time in Lion Court, even before those weeks Tiernan visited our home in Texas, and see the bond he and Brandon had formed. The memory of the big, bad scarred man making pancakes with flour on his face for a little boy because he’d thought he’d missed his birthday. The Hulk figurine that had appeared on Brando’s bedside after his seizure. Picasso, and the date for surgery set in January that might actually stop my brother’s seizures permanently.