THE GRANDMOTHER

CHAPTER SIX: THE GRANDMOTHER

Louis stood in the middle of the bedroom, staring at the massive bed like it was a cage about to snap shut.

He should be getting ready for bed. That's what normal people did.

They brushed their teeth, they changed into something comfortable, they lay down and closed their eyes. Quite simple…

But nothing about this situation was simple.

The bed was huge…bigger than his entire bedroom back home…or former home.

Silk sheets with fluffy pillows, the kind of bed you saw in movies where rich people lived perfect lives.

Not the kind of bed where a guy who'd been sleeping on a broken couch for two years was supposed to sleep next to a man who bought companies like other people bought groceries.

His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. His hands were clammy. His legs felt like they might give out.

Maybe I could just... find another room, he thought wildly.

This place has a hundred rooms. He wouldn't even notice. I could hide until morning and figure something out…

A month ago, if someone had told him his life would look like this, he would have laughed in their face.

A month ago, his biggest worry was making rent. A month ago, he was getting fired from jobs he didn't even like and counting quarters for bus fare.

Now he was standing in a billionaire's mansion, wearing clothes that cost more than his old car, waiting for a man to come to bed with him.

‘How did I get here?’, he whispers into the silence.

He felt it before he heard it. That presence. That heat at his back that he was starting to recognize before he even saw Lorenzo's face.

"What you think about?" Lorenzo's voice was low, right behind his ear.

Louis didn't even have time to answer.

Lorenzo's hands grabbed him, spinning him around, and then his mouth was on Louis's…hard and demanding, like he'd been holding back all day and couldn't anymore.

"Wait…" Louis tried to say, but the word got swallowed.

Lorenzo was pulling him toward the bed, kissing him deeper, and Louis's hands came up to push against his chest but Lorenzo wouldn't budge. "Wait, wait, WAIT…"

They hit the bed. Louis bounced on the mattress, gasping, and Lorenzo was above him, pressing him down into the silk sheets, and Louis's heart was going to explode…

The phone rang.

Lorenzo froze. His whole body went still, like a predator interrupted mid-hunt.

He slammed his fist into the mattress so hard Louis flinched.

Lorenzo grabbed the phone from the nightstand. "What." His voice was ice.

Louis couldn't hear what Anya said, but he could see Lorenzo's face change. The heat drained out of it. His jaw tightened and his eyes went cold.

"Now?" He pauses. "Fine."

He ended the call and sat up, running a hand through his hair.

Louis scrambled to pull his robe closed…the one that had somehow gotten pushed aside during... whatever that was.

Lorenzo glanced at him. For a moment, something flickered in his eyes. Something that might have been regret or frustration….or something else Louis couldn't name.

"Grandmother," Lorenzo said flatly. "She finds out. About us. About marriage. She wants to see me now.", he lets out a low chuckle, mischievously.

Louis's chest flooded with relief. He tried not to let it show on his face. "Oh. Okay. I'll just... go to bed then."

Lorenzo leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead…soft, almost gentle, nothing like the aggressive kiss from moments ago. "I be back. You sleep."

He stood and walked to the door. Louis watched him go, and for a second, he saw something in Lorenzo's expression that made his heart clench.

Not the cold billionaire or the obsessed stranger.

Something else. Something that looked like a boy about to face something he'd been afraid of his whole life.

Then the door closed, and Louis was alone.

*****

Lorenzo walked into the sitting room where his grandmother waited.

She sat in her favorite chair, the one that had belonged to her mother, sipping champagne like it was a Tuesday night…which, technically, it was.

"Ridiculous to call me this late because…"

"Because you have some husband now," Isabella Volterra finished for him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She didn't look up from her glass.

Lorenzo shrugged. He was done pretending this was anything but what it was.

"You have lost your mind," she continued, still not looking at him.

"If you are doing this to spite me, you have succeeded. Now cut it off. Whatever arrangement, whatever contract…end it. It’s disgusting and disgraceful."

Lorenzo smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "Spite? Of course not, Nonna. You raised me to be obedient and to fear you. I would never do such thing."

The sarcasm hung in the air like smoke.

Isabella finally looked at him. Her eyes were the same blue as his…the same blue that had been passed down through generations of Volterras who ruled with iron fists and cold hearts.

"My love life is not your business," Lorenzo said, picking up an apple from the bowl on the table, turning it over in his hands.

"I am serious about this marriage."

"You married a man." Her voice was sharp now. "Not even a rich one who could strengthen our connections. A nobody with debt. An American."

Lorenzo took a bite of the apple, chewed slowly and swallowed. "You are already doing research about my husband. Is it the fact I married a man or because he is a nobody as you said that disgust you?”, a deep silence fell on the room after that question.

“I appreciate if you stay away.”

Isabella laughed…a dry, brittle sound. "I always knew I had an idiot for a grandson."

Lorenzo smiled again, and this time there was something almost genuine in it.

"So marrying a man was what I needed to do to make you call me your grandson. Even if it is in negative way. Good to know."

He stood, tossing the apple core into the trash. "You think you control everything. I know. I don't mind being your puppet. I been puppet my whole life."

He looked at her, and his voice dropped, cold and quiet. "But if you even point your finger toward my husband, I will bite. Hard. You understand?"

He didn't wait for an answer….Then walked out.

Isabella Volterra watched him go, her face unreadable.

She took a long, slow sip of champagne, then set the glass down with a soft click.

"Idiot boy," she murmured to the empty room. "I will teach you a lesson like I always do."

****

Louis was half asleep when he felt the bed dip.

A familiar smell hit him…cologne, yes, but underneath it, something sharp.

Alcohol…he'd been drinking.

Lorenzo slid under the covers and wrapped his arms around Louis from behind, pulling him close.

His body was warm against Louis's back, his face pressed into Louis's hair.

Louis lay very still. His heart was pounding again, but not from fear this time or maybe it was. He couldn't tell anymore.

"You okay?" Louis asked quietly.

Lorenzo didn't answer.

Louis waited. The silence stretched between them, heavy with something Louis didn't have words for.

Lorenzo wasn't okay. Louis might be slow sometimes, but he knew that much.

He knew about complicated families. He knew about the weight of people who were supposed to love you using that love like a weapon.

He turned slowly in Lorenzo's arms, until they were face to face. In the darkness, Lorenzo's eyes were dark pools, unreadable.

Louis reached up and wrapped his hand around the back of Lorenzo's head, fingers threading through his hair.

"Hey," he said softly. "You okay?"

Lorenzo stared at him for a long moment. Then his hand came up and covered Louis's, pressing it against his own cheek.

"You are soft," he whispered.

It wasn't an answer but it was something.

Louis didn't pull away. He lay there, holding Lorenzo's face in his hands, and wondered who this man was underneath all the money and the power and the obsession.

He's just a person, Louis thought. A broken one, maybe but just a person.

They stayed like that until Louis's eyes got heavy and sleep pulled him under.

****

When Louis woke up, the other side of the bed was empty.

He lay there for a moment, blinking at the sunlight streaming through the windows.

The sheets next to him were cold. Lorenzo must have left hours ago.

He found his way downstairs through sheer luck and following the sound of voices.

The house was a maze…he passed three rooms he didn't recognize before he finally found the dining room.

Lorenzo stood by the door, shrugging on a coat. He looked like he'd been up for hours. His hair was perfectly styled.

His suit was immaculate. There was no trace of the vulnerable man from last night.

"There he is," Lorenzo said when he saw Louis. He crossed the room in a few long strides, reaching out to run his fingers through Louis's hair.

It was still messy from sleep, falling across his forehead in tangled waves.

Lorenzo's fingers traced through it slowly, almost thoughtfully. "Getting longer," he murmured. "Pretty."

Louis blinked, still half asleep. "What?"

"Nothing." Lorenzo pulled his hand back. "I am off. Business in another country. I take my plane, I be back tonight."

"Oh." Louis rubbed his eyes. "Okay."

"You sleep all morning," Lorenzo continued, looking him up and down. "You get fat. Lucky there is gym in house. You use it."

Louis ignored the comment. "Hey, are you okay? About last night? You came home drunk and you seemed…"

"I have drinks with my grandmother." Lorenzo's voice was sharp, cutting him off. "That is all. Don't ask things that are not your business."

Louis opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. Fine, if Lorenzo wanted to pretend last night didn't happen, that was his choice.

"I have to go," Lorenzo said, turning toward the door.

"Wait." Louis grabbed his arm. "I need to see Chloe. You said I could."

Lorenzo paused. For a moment, Louis thought he was going to argue.

Then Lorenzo waved a hand at one of the assistants hovering near the door.

"Put him on video call with sister later today and keep an eye on him," he said.

The assistant nodded quickly. "Yes, Signor Volterra."

Lorenzo looked back at Louis, his expression unreadable. "You behave. I be back."

Then he was gone. The door closed behind him with a soft click, and Louis was alone in the massive dining room with three staff members watching him and a video call to Chloe scheduled for later.

Later, he thought. Not now. Later.

He walked to the window and watched Lorenzo's car disappear down the long driveway, through the gates, into the world Louis wasn't allowed to visit without permission.

His hand was still in his pocket. His fingers brushed against the few crumpled euros he'd found in his jacket this morning…leftover from some previous trip, maybe, forgotten in a pocket.

Not enough for a taxi or enough for anything.

But enough to know that the gates weren't locked.

Not really.

Louis watched the car disappear and felt something dangerous flicker in his chest.

Later, he told himself. I'll figure it out later.

He turned away from the window, runs towards the bedroom to through some clothes on…he couldn’t just take it anymore.

He walked downstairs toward the door, trying to look casual. "I think I'll explore the gardens," he called to no one in particular. "Get some air."

The assistant didn't look up from her tablet. "Of course, Signor Carter. Would you like someone to accompany you?"

"No," Louis said quickly. "No, I'm fine. Just... walking."

He stepped outside, the morning air cool on his face. The driveway stretched before him, long and empty. The gates were visible in the distance. Not locked but just... closed.

He took a step toward them.

Then another and another, touching lightly the hospital address he had scrabbled on a paper in his pocket.