C H A P T E R - - - - F I F T E E N - - - - R E I D A N
Mama Bianco was silent for a long moment, staring down at her own hands, which were becoming increasingly lined and veiny in her advanced age. She needed to eat more, to focus on her health. Instead, she was here, trying to get Reidan to kill the girl that she believed her late husband loved. It was a tragedy, really, something that would have hurt Reidan’s heart if he had more sympathy for his mother after so many years of emotional abuse.
“So, she’s gotten to you, too, I see,” his mother said slowly a few moments later, crossing and uncrossing her legs but not making any motion to get up. That was odd. Reidan had expected to her storm out as a result of his insolence.
“Ma,” Reidan said in a scolding tone of voice, “nobody gets to me. Come on, you know me better than that. Nobody ever gets to me.” The words felt weird coming out of his mouth, like his tongue didn’t want to say them or something, but he faked the smuggest smirk he could plaster onto his face for his mother’s benefit.
It worked, at least insofar as his mom cracked a little smile, a small flaw in her otherwise flawless veneer of untouchability. She was like a demigoddess rather than a woman, a vengeful angel rather than a person he should have had every reason to love. They just didn’t work that way. Maybe that was why Reidan was so screwed-up, and why he could only manage to feel pleasure in strange, outlandish ways. Either way, it was too late to change anything about it now.
“You are different from your father that way,” Mama Bianco said, her eyes becoming a little softer as she thought of her husband. “That’s good. Keep it that way. Hold on to whatever it is that lets you be alone, and don’t let go of it. Let it carry you through the years until nobody can touch you anymore.” She smiled and shook her head. “I’m sorry—just an old lady rambling to her son. That’s what I am now.”
“Ma, stop it,” Reidan said, getting up from his chair to walk around the desk and squatting down in front of her so that they were eye-level. “You’re a beautiful woman, still. And you’re not alone. You got us, me and Matteo. We’ll always watch out for you.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” Reidan’s mother said, protesting weakly and waving her hand forward as if it to push him away.
“Of course, you can,” Reidan argued. “We’re always going to be there for you. Just say the word, and we’ll help you out. Always.”
Mrs. Bianco’s eyes flicked back over to Reidan’s, some shadow passing behind them that Reidan couldn’t quite identify. “Always?”
Reidan felt a tiny little chill go down his spine, his skin prickling uncomfortably as he heard the edge of impatience in his mother’s voice. “What? What do you need?”
Reidan’s mother shrugged and looked away again, her face falling back to blankness, the mask of emotion she’d worn just a few moments before nowhere in sight. “Oh, it’s nothing, dear. Nothing at all.”
Reidan sighed deeply, getting to his feet to stand over his mom. “What is it? Come on, just tell me.”
Mama Bianco tapped the tips of her fingers together a few times, licking her teeth before answering. “The girl.”
“Selena?” Reidan asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“The secretary,” his mother replied, stubbornly sticking to the inaccurate description. “She has to go. Otherwise… how will I really know that I can depend on you, Rydey?”
Reidan fought as hard as he could to suppress a groan, but he couldn’t keep himself from shutting his eyes and sighing in annoyance. “Mother… I just explained to you why I can’t do that…”
“You can’t?” his mother asked sharply, getting to her feet and walking around Reidan and the desk to pour herself a drink at the minibar against the wall. “Or won’t?”
“Either.” Reidan shook his head as his mother poured herself a large shot of whiskey. “Listen, I know you’re going through a tough time right now, but really, this isn’t the way. I promise you that you will regret it if you start to interfere with the business.”
Mama Bianco put the glass of whiskey back down on the minibar, smiling brightly at her son like a light had just been switched on inside her head. “Oh? Is that a threat, darling?”
Reidan hadn’t meant it that way, but he couldn’t back down now or else he’d look weak. He tightened the muscles in his jaw and stared his mother down, refusing to blink or flinch or budge an inch. He had to show that he was resolute in this. He wasn’t firing Selena. There was just no way he was going to let this happen under his leadership.
“I see,” his mother said, picking up her drink again and downing the rest of it in a single gulp, wincing a little at the bitter taste and wiping her mouth a moment later with the back of her perfectly manicured hand. “So, there is nothing further for you and me to discuss.” She turned on her heel and headed for the door, but Reidan caught up with her in time, stopping her with a gentle yet firm hand on her shoulder.
“Wait, Ma, stop. Don’t do this. Don’t walk away from me. Not now. Not after losing Dad the way we did,” Reidan said earnestly, feeling totally exposed and vulnerable in front of his mother’s sharp, pointed gaze.
“That’s just the thing, Reidan. If you can’t defend me now, after everything I’ve lost, how can I depend on you ever? What’s the point in even calling you my son?”
Her words stung like a bullet to the chest, the pain spreading outward as her accusation echoed around his head. She was threatening to disown him, all because of Selena, who he barely even knew. The smart thing here would be to nod at his mother, tell her that she was right, and carry out her will—if only to make sure that there wasn’t unnecessary strife in the business so soon after his father’s death.