After we finished our long breakfast, we said goodbye at the gate.
Mom hugged me for a long time, like she wouldn’t see me for months instead of weeks. “I love you, son.” She came up to my chest, so she rested her face against my pectoral.
I patted her back. “Love you too, Mama.”
She squeezed me before she finally let go. “I’m so proud of the man you’ve become.”
My eyes softened as I looked down at my mother. “Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re so successful, so handsome, and you treat Sapphire so well. That’s all your father and I ever really wanted… for you to be a good man.”
Instead of making me feel good, shards of ice pierced me everywhere. She was flattering me, but she somehow cut me down and made me feel like shit. My mother was praising me because she thought I was a good person. But I was anything but good. Muse was with me because she had no other choice. I bought her like livestock and made her sleep with me as part of her debt.
If my mother knew, she would never forgive me.
I didn’t know what to say to her, so I said nothing at all.
My father came next and hugged me. “Love you, son.”
“Love you too, Father.”
He kissed me on the forehead then faced me head on. “Something on your mind?”
He could read my expressions because they were nearly identical to his. “Yeah, I just remembered something I have to do at the office.”
My father didn’t question it. “Get home safely.”
“I will.”
He kissed Muse goodbye before he finally let us go.
We piled into the SUV then went to Carter’s place to pick him up. My eyes were on the road, and I searched for the right street where I should turn, but I couldn’t get my mother’s words out of my head.
I’m so proud of the man you’ve become.
I wasn’t a man at all.
I was a monster.
11
Sapphire
Conway dropped off Vanessa at her apartment in Milan after we’d dropped Carter at his. He got her bags out of the back and carried them inside.
Vanessa and I hugged at the sidewalk.
“My family loves you,” she said. “So, thanks for putting up with Conway. I’d rather hang out with you instead of him any day.”
I knew she was joking, so I smiled. “Thanks for being so good to me.”
“You want to get lunch this week?” Vanessa asked. “There’s this great little café right down the street you’ll love.”
Conway walked up at that moment.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “After a few hours at the studio, I’ll come by.”
“Come by where?” Conway asked, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.
“We’re having lunch together this week,” Vanessa said. “And, no, you aren’t invited.” She flipped her hair and walked off.
Conway growled quietly under his breath, annoyed with his sister.
Then Vanessa ran back and darted into his side, nearly tackling him as she hugged his waist. “You know I love you.”
With the snap of a finger, Conway’s anger was gone. He looked down at her before he patted her on the back. “Sometimes I forget. But I love you too.”
She turned and walked back into her apartment. She waved from the doorstep before she walked inside.
I grinned at Conway.
“What?” he asked, turning serious again.
“Nothing.” I climbed back into the car, and then we were on the road a moment later.
Conway drove with one hand on the wheel, and even though no one else was in the car to witness, he reached for my hand. He held it on the center console between us, his eyes on the road like the affection was completely normal. He kissed me and touched me, but those embraces always led to sex.
But this…this was something else.
“No one can see us, Conway.”
His thumb gently brushed over my knuckles. “I know.”
I stared at the side of his handsome face, his hard jaw and corded neck. He wore his sunglasses, and even though his pretty eyes were hidden, he still looked phenomenally handsome. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the sexiest billionaire in Italy was mine—and he paid a fortune just to have me.
“Are you going to tell me what was bothering you yesterday?”
I was hoping the subject had been forgotten. “It’s stupid, and you aren’t going to want to hear about it.”
“It probably is stupid. Doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
“Wow, so sweet and rude at the same time.”
He grinned, showing all of his perfectly straight teeth. “Muse, tell me.”
“Alright…your family is so amazing that it makes me a little sad.”
“Sad, how?”
“You’re just so close. Your parents love you. They love Vanessa. I don’t know…you have such a beautiful gift. Even when my family was alive, we were never close. When I see the closeness and the love…I get jealous. And not jealous like I am when I see you with another woman. Jealous in a different way.”