Ancient history
Lucy
We couldn’t handle Luca Moretti. I doubted that Satan himself could handle Luca Moretti. He was an unbelievable prick. If life was fair, Luca would be as ugly and awful as his personality, but unfortunately that was not the case. No, he was basically an older version of Felix: tall and powerful despite his advancing years, his salt and pepper hair perfectly styled. He was in a suit and his lip actually curled when he took in us Mayweathers: Mikey and I were both wearing jeans and thick jumpers, Mikey still had his work boots on, and my trusty Uggs were warming my feet.
I suppose I should have changed, but when I asked Felix how fancy his mum would expect us to be and if I should wear a dress, he’d frowned, saying it was too bloody cold for that and that I looked perfect as I was. That was a stretch seeing as I was wearing thermals and a ridiculously thick jumper. But judging by the way he subtly tried to crowd me towards the Aga in the kitchen at every opportunity, I think my thermoregulation trumped all other fashion considerations in his mind.
There were still times when he glanced at my hands with a worried expression. The red marks had faded now, but it was like he had to keep checking. That tortured look would come back into his eyes, his jaw would clench and he’d grind his teeth. Yesterday, when I reminded him that I was absolutely fine, he lost his shit, ranting on about the danger of prolonged cold exposure to people with Raynaud’s, spouting all sorts of facts I’d never heard of. He’d clearly been researching and working himself up into a right tizzy.
“Felix, enough!” I’d snapped, and I think my commanding tone shocked him into silence. “Enough now.” His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. I stepped to him and covered them with mine. He immediately relaxed his fists and took my hands in his, his expression softening. “You’ve got to stop worrying. There wasn’t any permanent damage and?—”
“But therecouldhave been, love,” he said, back to that tortured tone of voice. “There could have been all sorts. I read an article that said?—”
“Enough of the articles, you nutter!” Honestly, he needed to calm down. “My hands are fine.I’mfine. But you won’t be if you carry on obsessing on what could have happened.”
He’d promised to calm down about it, but it seemed that didn’t extend to allowing me to wear anything less than Arctic clothing to walk half a mile to his mum’s house.
Mum was in one of her boiler suits with a wax jacket over it that she was yet to take off. Even Felix was relatively casual, looking edible in jeans that sat so perfectly on him it actually made my mouth a little dry. After a string of awkward greetings, Luca turned to Felix.
“Couldn’t have put a shirt on for your mother?” he asked. The guy hadn’t spoken to his son in five years, and this was the first thing he said?
The one bit of satisfaction I had was when thedogs jumped up on him, and Samwise licked his smug face. The expression of pure disgust was something I wished I’d caught on camera (it was just as well that I’d made an executive decision to keep Legolas in the hallway). But that was the only highlight so far.
Bianca made being on edge into an art form. She was so obviously thrilled to have her son home that she was vibrating with nervous energy. Bianca didn’t care what we were wearing or that she was in a full evening gown; she just cared that we were there. And she greeted us as though she hadn’t seen us in years rather than just a couple of hours ago, hugging us all in turn, even a surprised Mikey. Luca seemed to want to ignore the fact we were even there. Instead, he took every opportunity to get digs in with his son.
“I hear you lost the Framlingham Estate,” he boomed out at Felix. (Luca did a lot of booming, and the drawing room, as they called it, was so big that it echoed off the walls, stopping all other conversation.)
Felix narrowed his eyes as he considered his father. He was clearly furious but holding back, no doubt for his mum’s benefit. His knuckles were white where he was gripping his beer bottle (the fact he and Mikey had asked for beers and proceeded to drink them straight out of the bottle had also drawn a sneer from Luca for some fucked up, posh person reason, no doubt) and he had that small ‘v’ in between his brows, which I knew was a sign he was under stress. I tried to tell myself that worrying about Felix’s stress levels wasn’t my job anymore, but all I could think about were the times I stroked his head to calm him and make that v disappear in the past.
“Let’s not talk business, Dad,” Felix said in a low, controlled voice, and Luca boomed out a laugh.
“Yes, no business now boys,” Bianca said in a high-pitched,nervous tone. “I’ll be back in a jiffy. Just need to check the beef.”
“Right, yes I thought you wouldn’t want to talk about losing out in front of your new little girlfriend.”
“Her name is Lucy, Dad. She’s standing right here.”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” I put in but then wished I hadn’t when I saw a cruel smile spread across Luca’s face.
“Oh really? Thatisinteresting. Your mother told me different, Felix. Dump him, did you?” He took a step towards me with that creepy smile on his face and I couldn’t help myself take a corresponding one back.
“Yes, Dad, she dumped me.”
Luca snorted. “Not the first and won’t be the last.”
Felix turned to him and took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly. His knuckles were white where he was gripping his beer.
“Well, yes. I suppose you’re right. But Dad, not quite sure I could have anticipated the last one. Why would I suspect that my own father would bribe my girlfriend to pass details of a land deal I’d been working on for two years to a competitor?”
I gasped. Mum started coughing on her gin and tonic. The room went silent. Is that what happened five years ago with Felix’s ex? Bloody hell, what kind of monster was this man?
“I did you a favour there, boy,” Luca said, absolutely no remorse in his voice. “You certainly do pick them, don’t you? What about that other one? The famous one?”
“You know her name Dad,” Felix said through his teeth.
“She dumped you as well, didn’t she? Went off with that actor fellow.” He snorted.
Felix opened his mouth to reply but just when he was about to speak, Bianca swept back into the room, her smile faltering at the palpable tension in the air.
