Armani POV:
"I just wanted to know what happened to your eye," I responded, surprised that my voice sounded meek and timid.
"Both me and my mother were kidnapped when I was seven. The kidnappers didn't like that I had two colored eyes. They said my hazel eyes looked just like my fathers. I think they were scared of my father, my eyes creeped them out whenever I looked at them. They cut it out the same night they left me on the orphanage's door step," From the way she spoke of the event one could assume that she didn't care or that it didn't bother her. But I could tell it did. And I could tell the two boys did know it by the way one placed a hand on her lower back while the other her upper back, at the same time.
"I apologize I should never have said anything to begin with. It wasn't my place," I apologize with a sad smile, just to be waived off by her.
"It's fine, you were curious.If you weren't i would have been worried you weren't human or worse one of the kidnappers," the way she said it made it sound like a joke but i could tell she was serious about the last one. If only she knew what we did for a living.
Lucian chose that moment for him and Hayden to walk over to us. Hayden carrying the little boy.
"I hope you all are getting along," Lucian spoke from behind the tree of teenagers in front of me, smiling at me. Hayden comes to stand beside my handing the boy with glasses the baby. I was surprised to see that they didn't jump when Lucian spoke. He was known for his stealth. His footsteps were silent, but from their posture I could tell they knew he was walking up behind them.
"Of course we are, darling,"I responded with my signature smile.
"Have you introduced yourself yet?"Lucian questions with a raised eyebrow.I could feel myself blushing. He smirked at my blush. "I didn't think you had."
"Harley, twins, and Lucas, this is my lovely wife of eighteen years, Armani." - gesturing in my direction - "And my lovely wife is Harley Anderson, Xander and Alexander Damaris, and Harley's son Lucas. I wanted to just bring Harley back at first but I knew they wouldn't leave each other.And I had no right to separate little Lucas here" - walking forward and ruffling Lucas's hair - "from his mother. I would introduce Hayden to ya'll but it seems you already know him," Lucian finishes lacing his hands on Haydens shoulders as he comes to stand behind him, beside me. "Now why don't we go inside the maids have taken your bags inside and into your rooms," He continued, after a brief pause.
"Rooms?" Xander questioned, as if he didn't expect them to have rooms.
"I know you are used to staying in the same room together, but I feel that you shouldn't. Harley is a girl and needs her own space, you two are boys and quite frankly i would be more concerned, if you shared a room with each other, of the trauma Harley would have, and mostly already has from you two. I was a teenager myself. I know how you can get. And Lucas has his own room right across the hall from Harley in, but he's two now and needs his own space to learn and grow in,"Lucian explained. I noticed that at the mention of them not sharing a room they became tense and Lucas's eyes filled with tears. I found it strange. Most people would be ecstatic to have their own space to be them. But here these three teens and a toddler are acting like it's the end of the world. "I know at the orphanage you probably had to share a room because of them not having enough rooms. But here you don't. We have plenty of rooms," Lucian continued. I could see it in their eyes. His explanation was pointless, and all he was doing was wasting his breath.
"Y..y..you're separating us?" Lucas said,voice filled with tears as he peered up at Lucian from his perch in Alexander's arms.
"No he's not,"Harley spoke up, sending a cold glare Lucians way before turning to look at Lucas. "I can promise you that he is not separating us. We will share a room just like before and if he has a problem with it I will get after him with my shoe,"Harley said with an evil smirk. The twins smirked with her while Lucas just let out an adorable little giggle. From the tone of her voice the smirks it sounds to me that she had a hidden meaning behind her words.
"Mamma, that's not nice to hit people," Lucas scolded, sending a glare her way that wouldn't scare a mouse.
It took one look from Harley for Lucas to shut up and apologize.
"Why don't we go in and I'll show you to your rooms. And before you say anything you can pick your favorite out of the four rooms to be y'all's," Lucian siad, quickly cutting off any protest from them.They nodded and followed Lucian into the house.
"I'll go ahead and give you a tour of the house before we go to your rooms," Lucian said over his shoulder.
~After the Home Tour~
"Shall we head upstairs now to see your rooms?"Lucian asked, turning to look at them.
They nodded and turned walking back inside, making our way to the foyer and up the stairs.
"This first door is Lucas's room," Lucian said as he came to a stop at the top of the stairs.
"It's nice. But too close to the stairs,not enough closet space, and no tub in the bathroom,"Milo - as I learned he liked to be called - said, after they inspected the room.
"Moving on then, this is Harley's room," I piped in gesturing to the room across the hall.
"Three things: it's pink, there is no shower, and it's close to the stairs. On the plus side it has a nice sized closet," Alex - as I learned he preferred to be called - said as they walked out of the room, all looking slightly disgusted with the color pink.
'On to Alex's room then,"Hayden said, leading them slightly further down the hall.
"It's a little dark for our taste, the closest again too small, and again no tub,"Harley lists the problems with the room. I can tell them doing this is getting on Lucians nerves but at least he hasn't said anything...yet.
"This last room is Milos," Lucian was calm about it but I could tell he was annoyed.
"I think this is perfect, it's not too close to the stairs, it has a tub and shower, large closet, not too dark, not too light, no pink, and a reading corner for Lucas," Harley said as she came out of the room. "What do you guys think?"
"I think it's perfect, it has everything we need," Milo commented, while Alex nodded.
"What do you think, little man?" Alex asked Lucas.
"I think it's perfect for us. Can we unpack our stuff now?" Lucas asked, letting out a big yawn.
"Sure you can. Me and Hayden will wait for you to get back to eat dinner. I'll let the maids know they can start cooking now while yall unpack. Dinner should be ready in anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. I'll send Hayden to come get you when it's ready," I said, turning with Lucian and Hayden to head down stairs leaving them to unpack.
~Dinner is Ready~
"Hayden, will you go and let them know that dinner is ready?" I asked as we fixed our drinks. We were going to fix theirs but Hayden said not to, to let them do it when they get here.
"Of course mom," He turned and made his way through the dining room to the foyer and up the stairs.
Me and Lucian sat down and were making small talk about little things when we heard them enter laughing at something Harley said. But then they all got quiet when they realized she wasn't laughing, and turned to look at her slightly scared and shocked.
"Wait," Milo started.
"You were serious," Alex finished.
"Yes and if you don't start behaving yourselves I might just carry through with it,"Harley threatened.
Whatever she threatened them with really scared them because it even had Hayden gulping and backing away to sit at the table and with his training he shouldn't be scared of anything a girl could say. He sat down on the right side of Lucian who sat at the head, while I sat on the left. I looked over at Lucian to see he had a proud glimmer in his eyes toward Harley for scaring the poor boys.
I patted the seat next to me for Harley to come and sit in. And as shocked that the boys followed and that Alex was the one that sat beside me instead of Harley as i had hoped she would.
"Typically the men in the house sit on the right side of the table. The left is for women and children," I said as I glared at MIlo and Alex. They didn't seem bothered by my glare which startled me slightly.
"Where Harley sits we sit," Alex stated, making no move to get up.
"You want them on the other side that is fine but if they move over there so will i," Harley stated, sending a glare of her own at me. Which was slightly terrifying.
"So will I," Little Lucas said, scowling at me.
"We sit together or we don't sit at all," Milo stated firmly.
"Sweet heart i think it will be fine to let them sit wherever they chose for now," Lucian finally decided to pipe in.
"There is no for now. We sit together like we are now or you can have your maids bring our food up to our rooms," Harley said in a tone that was unwavering.
Lucian nodded agreeing to them. It was ridiculous and when my extended family came from Spain for a visit they wouldn't stand for it.
I motioned for the maids to bring in the food and addressed them about their choice of drinks, "What is it you would like to drink? Harley you can have a glass of white wine if you wish, we don't have any other alcoholic drink choices for women. But there's whisky and bourbon for you boys. Or water if any of you prefer."
"I would rather have a glass of wine myself, that is if you have red wine," Milo said, shocking me. Men drink whisky and bourbon, not wine. Wine is for women. I was appalled at the thought of it. But chose not to say anything as Lucian nodded at a maid and she brought him a glass of wine.
"And would you prefer red over white wine Harley?" I asked as the maid grabbed another wine glass and prepared to fill it.
"Neither. I prefer whisky, or tequila ," Harley looked, as applauded as I felt by her drink choice, by the thought of drinking wine.
"We don't have tequila but we do have whiskey, from Knox & Day distillery," At Lucians words Harley nodded and shared a smile with Alex. Lucian didn't seem to notice their shared smile and had the maid fix her a glass and sat it down in front of her. Harley took a sip of her drink and immediately spit it back out in the cup.
"Oh dear, you should start drinking wine. The only whisky and tequila you have was probably cheap and not near as strong as that was. I apologize for not stopping you. But that is expensive and quite strong whisky," I said quickly. It shocked me that she looked offended.
"That's not the problem, the problem is that this whisky is supposed to be 90 proof and it's not. In fact it's about 10 because it's deluded with water. And no it's not my first time having good expensive whisky," Harley said standing. "And I know the maid did not dilute it just for me, which means the whole bottle has been diluted. I'll be back," And with that she turned and stormed out of the room.
"Where is she going?"I asked, annoyed that we haven't even had the food placed on the table yet.
"To get better whisky,"Alex said quite bluntly.
"And before you ask where, we brought some with us," Milo explained.
"Well while we wait, what is it you wish to drink?" I asked, turning to look at Alex with a pleasant smile on my face.
"I'll get my drink when Harleys back but a whisky glass would be nice," Alex spoke with respect but I could tell he did everything but respect me.
I noticed that both of them started to fidget while we were waiting for Harley to return. They looked nervous and reached over to hold each other's hands under the table.And Lucas looked like he was going to cry.
"Are you alright,"Lucian asked, noticing the change in their behavior as well.
"We're fine," Alex said in a clipped tone.
A few moments later, when Harley returned, you could see the relife on their faces. She had an unopened bottle of Knox & Day in her hand. When she sat down the twins immediately placed their hands on her thighs on either side drawing small curls with their hands for a few moments. Harley laid her hands on theirs. And Lucas laid his head on Harley's shoulder from his high chair in between her and Milo. After a few moments they visually relaxed and Harley removed her hands from theirs and poured the whisky in hers and Alex's glasses.
"And Lucas, what would you like to drink?" Lucian asked, before I could.
"Grape juice please," he said with a giggle.
One of the maids brought Lucas his drink in a blue sippy cup. While the other maids brought out the food.
The maids sat down three large bowls of Pasta salad and two large things of bread. Once they left everyone started to fix their own plates. I noticed that Alex fixed both his and Harley's plate, who was fixing Lucas's plate, picking out the cherry tomatoes which, I'm guessing, he doesn't like eating. It bothered me, he would never learn to eat them if she didn't make him.And Milo fixed his own plate and got bread for both Lucas and himself.
"If you don't make him eat it will never learn to eat it when he gets older," I commented when everyone was settled.
"Then it's a good thing he won't be eating them when he's older. And for your information I'm not picking it out because he doesn't like them, he loves them, I'm picking them out because no matter how much he loves them he's allergic to them. Which is something he got from me. And if you were too busy judging my parenting styles you would have noticed that Alex was doing the same thing to my plate," Harley immediately snapped back catching me off guard, rendering me speechless.
We ate the rest of dinner in silence. Harley went back and fixed three more plates of pasta. And the way she ate was so unlady-like. I wanted to make a comment but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. It was late and she hadn't eaten any suitable food since ten something that morning.
When we were done eating the maids came and cleared the table. Then came back with clean plates and two large pieces of tiramisu.
"It's been years since i've had a good tiramisu," Alex commented, sending a look to Milo.
"I know your pain. I wish we would have had some sooner but the one person we know who can make it decided to torture us for the past four years without making it," Harley then said in a teasing tone sending a playful glare at MIlo.
"Yeah it was pure torture," Lucas said also sending a cute glare at Milo.
"Hey, it hasn't been four years, it's been four months. And it's not like any of you don't know how to make it. Plus it's not my fault that a dish of this that should feed up to twenty people and take over a month to finish can take y'all a week, no scratch that an hour tops," MIlo said, holding up his hands in defense.
"You made tiramisu and didn't ship me any?" Hayden chimed in faking outrage.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this attack on Milo and his tiramisu? And for your information I have not had any to ship you any. They ate it all before i could refile your request and send you extra like you asked,"
"Wait, so that's what happened to the tiramisu you promised me that you said must have gotten lost in the mail," Lucian cut in.
"So that's why you requested an extra large order this time," Milo said
"Well he ate my last one. And kept saying how good it was. I figured I could get a bigger order for us to share," Hayden said like it wasn't a big deal. And I guess it wasn't considering the person who made such a good tiramisu is now living with us.
"I was going to serve it at dinner whenever we brought home the new addition - additions - to the family as a treat," Lucian said quickly as if that explained any of this.
"So let me get this straight. MIlo makes this 'amazing' terminus. He has been sending it to Hayden for a few years now. Lucian ate Hayden's last thing of it. Hayden requested Milo make him a bigger batch to send him. Milo made it but before he could ship it to Hayden Alex and Harley ate it," I interrupted before Lucian could say something else, quickly summarizing the situation.
Lucian and Hayden looked at each other before turning to me and nodding. I shook my head tilting it back and rolling my eyes at their stupidity.. Somehow Lucas ended up in Harley's arms for the rest of dinner. The rest of dinner passed in silence and it wasn't long and Harley, and the twins were going to bed. Lucas had fallen asleep in Harley's arms a long time before. Hayden was passed out on the couch. Tomorrow - or i guess today - was sunday so no one had to be anywhere unless there was an emergency with Lucians business.
I covered Hayden with a blanket and then went up stairs to mine and Lucian. I changed into my pajamas, a pink silk button up shirt with matching shorts. While Lucain took a shower. He wasn't out of the shower when I got ready for bed so I went to check on our nest additions to the family. They were already in bed. Harley was lying on her left side, with her arm around Lucas. Alex was lying on his right side facing Harley with his arm around both her and Lucas, his hand clasping Milos shoulder. Milo was spooning Harley, his head in her neck, arm around her and his hand clasping Alexes shoulder. When I got back to the bedroom Lucian was standing in the window wearing matching pajama bottoms with no shirt. It was quite a sight to see, the tall, muscular, tattooed Lucian wearing silk pale pink pajama bottoms.
I wanted to laugh at the sight of him but decided against it. He must have seen it on my face because he gave me a look that said don't you dare. I lost it after that. I started laughing so hard my stomach hurt, so hard I fell to my knees and flopped on my side, so hard my lungs screamed for air and when they could find none my screaming laughter turned into silent screaming laughter that hurt just as much. When I finally calmed down I noticed that Lucian had a smile on his face as he watched me.
I grabbed my phone from the front left pocket of my shorts and took a quick picture of him smiling like a kid from watching me laugh at him wearing pink.
"You will wear those to breakfast in the morning or I will post that picture on instagram and send it to all of your men," I threatened.
"That was not part of our bet. Our bet ws that we play a game of chess. I lose, I have to wear pink to bed for a week, you lose you had to let me have my way with you in the back of a limo, which is what started this," Lucian glared at me.
A few weeks ago we were coming back from a galla, just me and Lucian. I had worn a short, open back, low cut, emerald dress, when he placed his hand on my inner thigh and slowly inched it up more and more. After some time he tried to touch me. I didn't allow it and asked him to stop, like the child he is, he pouted and complained and kept trying all the way back and even after we were home. I eventually agreed to let him only if he beat me at a game of chess. I would let him the next time we were alone in a limo if he won, and he would wear pink to bed if he lost. He, obviously, lost.
"This is not a part of the bet. You either wear it to breakfast for the buation of this bet or you might just lose the intimidation edge you have over you men," I explained with a smirk.
"Fine," Lucian eventually agreed like a plugent child. "Can I at least wear my black 'My Wife is Psycho' shirt with them?" He added after a moment of silence.
"Yes," I might as well let him. No point in keeping him totally miserable.
He nodded, walking towards me. He slipped his arm around my waist and gave me a quick kiss before walking past me to crawl into bed. I followed closely behind him.
~Sometime Later~
We laid there for a while. I knew Lucian wasn't asleep, he always lays awake till after i've gone to sleep. But I can't get my thoughts to quiet down enough to let me sleep. I want to say something to him but I can't or rather I don't want to. I know what he will say the moment I bring it up. But i can't help it so i finally decided the only way my mind will let me sleep is if i ask him.
"Does she remind you of her?"I ask into the darkness hoping that while I was having an internal battle Lucina hadn't dozed off.
"Who Harley?" His voice was tired as if he was on the brink of dozing. I felt bad for keeping him from sleeping.
"Yes. Does she remind you of her," I wasn't meaning to upset him when I asked him this question but I could feel the way he tensed, hear the way his breath stuttered.
"Eating dinner with her tonight made it feel like my bambina was still here," The way he said it made my heart clinch. I felt it to.( Bambina = Baby).
"There's something about her that makes me think it's possible she is her."- I raised up on my elbow, to stare into his eyes - "Before you say anything think about it. She has my blue eye. She says her left eye used to a hazeley copper, the same as your fathers. Her name is Harley, the same as our little girls. We never found a body. We found blood. Enough blood that she should have died but she's a Marchetti. She could have lived, and we both know it," Lucian looked both devastated and angered like he always did after she was mentioned.
He reached up and cupped my face in both hands. I knew what he was going to say before he said it, we had been over it before. "You need to stop. I have learned to accept it. You need to too. She is dead. Gone. I will agree with you that she looks, acts, and sounds just like I have always imagined my little girl would,but I know it would have to be a miracle for Harley to be her. And after fifteen years I've given up hope that our bambina is alive." (bambina = baby)
What he said hurt me more than I would ever let on. I knew in my bones that my baby girl was alive and I was going to prove it to Lucian. Harley may not be her but she was so much like her. I knew then that I was going to at least get a DNA test to prove that she wasn't our baby girl before I continued my search.
Lucian let his hands drop and I laid my head back down on his chest. I would start by asking Milo about her parents and then Alex before I asked her. She would probably think I was crazy, but I was desperate at this point. With this new found determination I closed my eyes and fell into the dark void of peaceful sleep.