Amore Mio (#4)

Chapter 4: Peace To The Dead

Vote, comment, and share this story with your friends. ENJOY! ❤️

——————————————————

(Leo's POV)

          After making sure Lucian had his dinner and went to sleep with the feisty little Mariana, I finally changed into sweatpants and headed out of the back entrance of the mansion toward the warehouse. Vince caught up with me, unable to drop the massive grin from his face.

          "It's happening!" he beamed with excitement.

          "It won't be if you keep showing your teeth like that."

          He immediately killed his smile and masked it with a look of the murderer that he was. Opening the door to the vast warehouse, he let me in and locked the door behind us. Eros and Belle stood over the woman sitting on the chair. She still held that sense of superiority and elegance that revolted me in every possible way.

          Her blue eyes were wearing out with age, but her botox-stricken face held her features up and brows in place. "Sembri triste e stanco (You look tired and sad)."

          "Grazie per la preoccupazione, Nonna (Thank you for the concern, Grandmother)." I walked toward her and exchanged a kiss on the cheek. "How was your flight?"

          "I remember getting on the airplane, but I do not recall getting off." She straightened her spine, tilting her head to the side in a knowing manner. "Leonardo, che cosa hai fatto (what did you do)?"

          "Absolutely nothing." I shrugged as I seated myself on the chair Vince pulled out for me right in front of my maternal grandmother. "You fell asleep on the flight. The staff didn't want to interrupt the great president's precious sleep now and get in trouble for it."

          Her eyes narrowed a tad as they bore into me fiercely. A decade ago I may have never even imagined doing what I did today. I wouldn't have even thought about raising my voice at Nonna, but the more I grew, the more I began to see her for the conniving old woman that she was. Scheming, manipulative, and hateful.

          "Dimmi la verità (Tell me the truth)," she demanded in her authoritative tone as if I was one of her stooges. "What did you do?"

          "Well," I leaned back in the chair, "there may have been a little sedative involved in your seltzer water."

          "Perché (Why)?"

          "Because we decided it was enough," Belle chimed into the conversation, not bothering to sit on the chair Vince set for her. "You've had way too much power for far too long. I thought it was time to end it."

          "Arabella," Nonna spoke her name through gritted teeth, her knuckles growing white due to the tight fists.

          "Arabelle," Belle corrected the woman as usual yet Nonna always did it on purpose for reasons unknown. "It's a bloody e at the end. You insist on testing my patience every single time, and one of these days, I'll be putting a bullet in your head, yeah?"

         "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now, Belle." Eros squeezed my sister's shoulder then knelt before Nonna, taking her hands in his tattooed ones. "Marsilia here doesn't need a bullet. A smart woman like her isn't dumb enough to have the next queen kidnapped." He placed a kiss on the back of Nonna's hand and winked like a charmer which unsettled me. "Am I right?"

         Nonna retracted her hand from Eros' grip and shot him a glare. "Next queen? A king can only have one. There has never been a second one for the same man and there never will be. This kingdom is built on rules." She turned her agitated gaze to me at once. "Your puttana (whore) died after being crowned, so she was your regina (queen). There will be no other, Leonardo. You will sit on the throne alone like your father until your boy comes of age and then his wife will be the next regina. If you choose not to accept my generous offer, I shall rip the crown from your head and hand it to Gabriele who is the rightful king. Raffaello was meant to take over after Bartolomeo, but your other nonno (grandfather), Giorgio Bonferroni, was a filthy mobster. Gabriele would've eventually taken Raff's position. Never Leona, never your father, not even you or that figlio di puttana (son of a bitch) whom you call son."