Page 50 of Beni

Beni shrugged. “Marcus … Chris, and even Corrado, though he’s not in the business like we are because he does his own shit, they never had the problem I did.”

“Which was …?”

“I couldn’t separate him in my mind. I couldn’t … differentiate, Ma.”

“Your father, you mean.”

Beni nodded once. “I couldn’t switch back and forth with him—my dad, my boss. It was fucking me up, but here, it’s easier.”

“But do you like Chicago?”

“I do.”

Cara gave him a soft smile. “Well, then I suppose that’s what’s most important. I want you to be happy, Beni. You know that, don’t you? No matter what you have to do to be happy, that’s all I want for you.”

“Yeah, I know, Ma.”

She came down the hall, then, arms already outstretched to take her son in her embrace. He let her, soaking in the familiar warmth and smell of his mother, even as her arms squeezed tightly enough around his neck that he thought she might take away what remained of his air.

“I love you,” his mother said.

Beni kissed her forehead. “Love you, too, Ma.”

It was at that moment Bene and Marcus decided to come around the corner, a bag in each of their hands. The last bit of shit that Bene had left in his bedroom. Cara stepped away from her son with another smile, turning to her other boys with a nod.

“I will be in the car, then,” she said.

“We’ll be right down, Ma,” Marcus replied.

Bene cleared his throat, passing a look back at his twin at the end of the hallway. “Actually, I think I’ll walk down with you.”

“You should have a minute with—”

“I’m good.”

“Bene.”

Beni said nothing, simply arched his brow at his twin, and waited Bene out. One way or the other, his twin was going to have to work this shit out, and if he was going to do it alone, then so fucking be it.

Coldness stared back.

Shocker.

“Later,” Bene murmured.

Beni nodded. “Drive safe.”

Without another word, Bene snagged up a handful of bags in his empty hand, and stepped out of the opened apartment door with their mother leading the way. That just left Marcus, the one bag he held, and the three others left sitting on the floor which he easily managed to lift.

“You all right?” his brother asked.

Beni folded his arms over his chest. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Change is hard.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Marcus gave him a look.