Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 135536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Shortbread rested her hand on my thigh, squeezing it.
“My parents would go through vicious cycles. Romeo cheated. Monica kicked him out. Then, eventually, he crawled back to her for a second chance. Always wanting to impregnate her again. Rinse and repeat. Except the baby never came. Monica was completely barren, save for lucky old me.”
A bitter smile found my lips. I’d lost count of the times I’d wished I wasn’t born at all.
“When I was six, Monica discovered Romeo cheating. Not just cheating. An actual affair. The woman moved into his downtown penthouse. Brought her shit in. Kid included.”
The same penthouse I’d occupied on and off while Shortbread turned my world upside down. The same penthouse I’d shared with Morgan.
Come to think of it, I couldn’t find a more suitable destiny for said penthouse than to be burned to the ground.
“As a little boy, I grew accustomed to caring for myself while my parents entered crisis mode. I prepared my own showers, clothes, lunch, homework. Monica paid little to no attention to me, dedicating her time to failed seduction plots and impregnation attempts. Never mind that she couldn’t care for her existing child. So, at first, when she kicked Senior out, I managed.”
Releasing a breath, I cupped Shortbread’s hand, still on my thigh.
“Then I started first grade. Soon enough, it became apparent that I had no grown-ups in my life. I arrived to school late—if at all—since Monica’s driver often ran errands for her, leaving no time to take me. I was unkempt. Smelled. Fell behind on homework. By the end of the first semester, CPS knocked on our door.”
Shortbread’s fingers tightened over my leg. I studied the sunroof, refusing to see the pity in her face.
“The natural solution would be to hire nannies, but my parents had been burned before. Past nannies constantly broke their NDAs, blabbing to the press. Zach’s mother offered to take me for a few weeks, months—however long it took.”
By then, Zach and I had become inseparable brothers.
“Ultimately, Senior couldn’t bear the shame it would bring to his doorstep if people knew he handed his only child over to strangers. He was bitter and angry at Monica for failing her only job—to be a mother. So, he found a solution. He sent me to his younger sister in Milan.”
Sabrina Costa was the definition of hot mess. The love child of privilege and stupidity.
The woman spent her time jumping from one toxic relationship to another without taking a breath. She filled her days with parties, shopping, and scoring cocaine without her family’s knowledge.
Her drug habit had taken her across the ocean, to somewhere her parents couldn’t monitor her every move.
Dallas brought my hands to her lap, wiping them of burger grease. “They uprooted you in the middle of a school year?”
I nodded. “Since I didn’t speak Italian, my parents decided I should be homeschooled by Sabrina, who I doubt possesses more knowledge than a Little Einstein music box.”
Perhaps I was being harsh. Surely, the music box knew more colors and animal sounds than my aunt.
“The minute I arrived in Milan, I realized where things were headed. Sabrina didn’t spare me a single minute. She constantly went out, partying and staying with her rotating boyfriends. I was alone in her apartment. Just me and the textbooks Senior dropped me off with. Once a week, she would return with a bag or two of groceries, but those hardly covered two days of meals.”
Shortbread’s jaw tensed as if bracing for a physical hit.
“I managed, okay?” A hollow chuckle escaped me. “I always found tins of food lying around. Sometimes, I’d only eat a few spoons of tomato paste a day. Dry pasta—I didn’t know how to make it. Tuna cans were a real treat. Whenever she brought some over, I had a blast. Eventually, even those deliveries stopped. One of her boyfriends took over.”
Dallas stiffened beside me, the wet nap clenched in her fist. Darkness blanketed the park. Somehow, we’d missed the sunset.
“The first day I met him, he took me out. I was so happy. It marked my first time leaving the apartment since I arrived almost a month before. I thought Sabrina finally found someone who wasn’t a total piece of shit. Gabe told me he’d take me to eat, and he did, only it wasn’t at a restaurant. We arrived at a fighting arena in the outskirts of Modena.”
Shortbread’s eyes saucered at the word arena.
And still, she said nothing.
“He led me to a cage, locked me inside, and told me if I wanted to eat, I needed to win. I didn’t. Not for the first four rounds. In fact, I didn’t even fight the first two matches, I was so stunned. They opened the cage and nudged me to the center of the arena with a cattle prod, where an orphan a few years older beat the shit out of me.”