Page 121 of Lucian

“Hey, asshole,” Paulie barked from the couch. “I’ve only been here twenty minutes. Give an old friend credit where it’s due.”

“Then whatever you wanted can wait until morning,” Lucian stated, turning to leave.

He wanted Jordyn. Desperately. The injuries to his neck were aching, just like his throat. His muscles screamed in exhaustion and protest. All of the cuts along his knuckles stung to the high heavens. If anything, he needed a hot shower, Jordyn to make him forget about the day, and a long nap.

“No, it can’t,” Antony muttered unhappily.

“The fucking lawyers took care of it,” Lucian snapped impatiently. “Call them.”

Antony chewed on the inside of his cheek, an action Lucian was unaccustomed to seeing from his father. It usually signaled his nervousness. “I’ve been on the phone with more lawyers than I care to talk to tonight, son. That’s not what this is. I’m aware the detectives are going to mark it down as self-defence. I’m not concerned. Please sit down and talk to me. When we’re done, you can do whatever you want. Go home, stay here. There’s church tomorrow, but we certainly don’t expect you to go if you’re not feeling up to it. It’s up to you.”

Anxiety slipped through Lucian’s veins. “I’m not hiding again.”

“You won’t have to,” Paulie said softly. “Sit and talk to your father, Lucian. This is important.”

Lucian wasn’t even paying enough attention to notice the meaning behind his father’s consigliere’s words.

“I really just want Jordyn. Okay?”

“As soon as you let me say what I have to say,” Antony responded with a firm tone.

Lucian quickly realized arguing with his father was going to be useless. Frankly, he didn’t have the energy for it, either. Still, he refused to sit, leaning back to a wall with crossed arms instead.

Antony took that as his sign to continue. “John considered many paths you might someday take, Lucian. I believe there were certain ones he took that he didn’t want you unknowingly following.”

“I’m not in the mood to talk about the dead tonight,” Lucian said dully. “I’ve been prepared to leave them where they are for years.”

Not considering he had just about become one of them.

“Stop it and listen to me.” Antony’s glare pinned Lucian in place and kept him quiet. “John’s marriage made him openly unhappy, even though it had been arranged years before it finally was seen through and he agreed for the sake of his father. Honestly, I would have been surprised to find out he hadn’t had a mistress and a child on the side, rather than finding out he actually did.”

Lucian didn’t understand where this was going. He heard it all before. “So?”

“You might have been born before he married Kate, but he always considered you. Where you would go, how he would handle you after his father-in-law was gone and John took over the family. There were mistakes he made that he didn’t want you to make, but he didn’t want to tell you that you couldn’t make them, either. He wanted the decisions to be only yours because they were what you wanted, whether they were the right ones or not; regardless if he agreed with them or not.”

Antony frowned, staring down at the papers again. “Do you understand what I’m telling you, Lucian?”

“I get it in context, but as it applies to me at this point in time, not really.”

“Okay, so let me explain it differently. You may have been the illegitimate son of a Cosa Nostra man, but you were still his son. Eventually, you would have been the illegitimate son of a Cosa Nostra Don. The woman you came from didn’t matter to la famiglia, only your father’s side. When certain people were gone, the threats to you so to speak, John could have introduced you into his family, and you would have been accepted.”

“His wife’s opinion wouldn’t have mattered,” Paulie added from the side. “Not about his mistress, his child, or his second home. Not if she wanted to keep her place.”

Lucian swallowed the thickness building in his throat. “I’m aware.”

“But you never considered that was his plan, did you?” Antony asked.

“I asked—”

“About when you were young,” Antony interjected gently. “When you were just a child. You didn’t ask me about what he might have done when you were older.”

“How would you know?” Lucian shot back. “You didn’t even know about me until after.”

“I know because I have his Last Will and Testament, Lucian, which very clearly stated what he did and did not want for you. Specifically, any child of his, but it was clear he didn’t have plans on having more children, and certainly not with Kate.”

Lucian’s brow furrowed as he tilted his head to the side, taking in the information. “Why’s that?”

“John was careful to designate what he wanted to go to his child without ever naming a child. He never gave the indication what should be done if he had more than one child. Everything he gave to you, was given under the pretense if he had a child, this is what that child should have. Never more than that one hypothetical child—you.”