“Meadow, I can’t live without you, I won’t, baby, but Mum is waiting—”
As if the woman in question knew I wanted time alone with Luca, her radar honed in.
“Luca! Where are you?”
The growl left my lips without permission, but I couldn’t find it to give a crap. Weeks of holding myself back and not being me all came crashing down around me.
“Can’t she wait for a few minutes? Didn’t she just drive over with you? Am I not allowed to have a second with you just to kiss?” I spat out loud enough so anyone standing in the room behind would be able to hear me.
“Meadow, that is enough. What is wrong with you, fucking hell?” Luca scolded me, his tone warning but low, because, god forbid, if his mother heard him swearing at the age of twenty-nine.
Jumping to my feet, my limit reached, I did something I promised I would not do. I lost my temper.
“Her!” I screamed, pointing a finger at Mrs Donatella, who was standing by the door, glaring at me.
“Your mother and your sisters, Luca, that is what is wrong with me. They have you chasing your tail and jumping at their every command. You break dates with me for them, and you immediately leave me when they call. Hell! If they clicked their fingers, I wouldn’t be surprised if you sat down and panted.”
Pushing the chair, so it was now between us, I created a visible barrier to stop myself from throwing myself in his arms and begging for forgiveness. I was important. My needs were real. My heart was breaking, and no one seemed to care.
“My mother, that is who you are talking about like this, yes?” Luca growled, his eyes narrowed and fierce.
“Yeah, your mother, Luca, apparently the most useless woman on the planet. You have a sister that can’t change a light globe at two in the morning. Another one who won’t drive to the supermarket because she doesn’t want to park her car where it might get scratched. Need I go on?”
“No, I think you should stop before you go too far, Meadow,” he warned.
“Too late, Luca, your selfish family has pushed me for weeks now. They insult me constantly, they speak down to my parents and siblings, and you let it happen because you refuse to hold your nerve and tell them to back off.” Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision, but I didn’t let them deter me. Luca needed to know that he was failing; he was failing me.
“Your mother always throws your father’s memory in your face. It seems to be her weapon of choice.” Throwing a death glare at the horrible matriarch, I sneered at her.
“If he was the kind of man that would agree with this kind of behaviour then he wasn’t much of a man at all. And not one I ever wished to meet.”
A collection of gasps from Luca, his mother, and another person I guessed was Kayla were quickly followed by a banshee screech from Mrs Donatella. I felt Luca’s eyes on me, but my interest was on his mother and the evil smile on her cruel lips.
Oh, this was not going to be good.
Then before anyone could attack me for what I had unfairly said, Luca’s mother twisted her mouth in a smirk that chilled my blood then dropped to the floor like a bag of sand, hitting her head on the corner of the door frame as she fell.
And that was that. Luca shouted for his mother, rushing to her, sisters screamed bloody murder, and I was the bad guy and forgotten about—again.
Well played, old lady, very well played.
***
“Well?” I asked my brother when he came back to the waiting room. His girlfriend’s mum was a nurse in the ED, so I talked Breck into trying to get any details on Mrs Donatella’s condition seeing as though Luca had not made an appearance since arriving with his mother in the ambulance.
The scene back at the house still blew my mind, the chaos after she fake fainted, the judgemental glares and the shock directed at me from Luca. That hurt the most, never had he ever looked at me, like he did while he bent over his mum. I felt the blame and the condemnation roll off him. He never spoke to me when he pulled out his phone and called triple zero. He never looked my way when the paramedics loaded the faker on the gurney and wheeled her away.
Nada. And it has been like that since I arrived with Mum and Brecken, sitting out here like a dumb arse in the most uncomfortable chair, starving and tired.
Breck flopped down in the seat beside me, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze.
“Sorry, sissy, the family has requested no one out here is to be told anything. But if it helps, that came from Kayla, not Luca.” Breck rushed to add when Mum reached a hand out and slapped him on the back of the head.
“I didn’t think we would find out, but it was worth a shot.”
“Maybe we should head back to your place, Meadow,” Mum suggested, “that chair can’t be doing anything for your back and you haven’t eaten for god knows how long. You have to think about the baby, missy.”
I reared back in my seat, my hands flying to cover my stomach.
“How? … what? … how? … huh?” shocked silly, I gaped at my mother, in shock and in awe.
How the hell did she know? I only found out myself that morning after taking seven pregnancy tests in the small bathroom at the shop.
“I may not be your typical mother, Meadow, but I am a woman. I know the signs, weight loss, tiredness, and you have developed a grumpy growl that is very cute but quickly getting on my nerves.” Trish winked at me, then busied herself with rummaging through her handbag, then produced a Mars Bar and tossed
