Chapter Seven

Inside the muggy, dust-choked living room of the apartment, the air hung heavy and stagnant, saturated with the foul stench of unwashed dishes, rancid grease, and rotting takeaway containers accumulating in the overflowing sink.

The brutal afternoon heat had soaked deep into the thin concrete walls during the peak of the day, turning the small, crowded space into a suffocating box. Overhead, the cheap plastic ceiling fan groaned weakly on its highest setting, its motor humming a low, irritating buzz while doing little more than pushing the hot, dusty air in lazy, ineffective circles.

On the worn, peeling leather couch, Andrea sat back, sprawling his legs across the coffee table while swirling the last lukewarm drops of cheap scotch in a cloudy glass. Susan leaned close against his side, her skin sticky with sweat, looking up at him with wide, desperate admiration. Across the room, Veronica sat stiffly in an armchair, her face flushed a blotchy red as she furiously fanned herself with a faded grocery circular, her glare fixed venomously on the silent front door.

"Look at this place, Andrea!" Veronica snapped, her voice raspy from the dry, dusty air. She slapped the paper circular down against her knee, pointing a trembling, manicured finger toward the kitchen counter. "It’s four in the afternoon and we are sitting in an oven! My skin is breaking out, my blood pressure is through the roof, and the refrigerator is smelling like a morgue because the power keeps dipping! When is that ungrateful girl bringing the villa keys?"

Andrea took a slow sip of his warm scotch, wincing slightly as the cheap alcohol burned his throat before letting out a soft, dismissive chuckle. "Calm down, Mother. You’re working yourself into a stroke over nothing."

"Over nothing?!" Veronica’s voice spiked an octave higher, her dark eyes narrowing into razor-sharp slits. "I am a Tinnons! I am not meant to sit in house concrete trap sweating through my clothes while my black cards are frozen like I’m some common beggar! She humiliated me at the boutique, Andrea! Me! In front of Mrs. Gable and her daughters! She locked my accounts."

"And she’s paying for it right now," Susan chimed in softly, resting her chin on Andrea’s bare shoulder, her fingers tracing small, lingering circles over his chest. She cast a triumphant, mocking smirk toward her mother. "You saw how she sounded on the phone, Mummy. She was practically choking on her own tears. She realized she’s nothing without Andrea. Buying that villa right across the road was just a desperate, pathetic attempt to stay near him."

"It doesn't matter how desperate she is if she isn't here handing over the deed!" Veronica countered bitterly, her chest heaving as she adjusted her damp blouse. "She promised eight o'clock, but I want those accounts unfrozen now. I have a three-page shopping list for the high-end market tomorrow morning. I need fresh organic cuts, imported ice creams, and structural water bottled from Europe—not this tap garbage!"

"Mother, relax," Andrea said, his voice dripping with supreme, unearned authority. He reached out, tapping the edge of his phone screen to check the time before sliding it back into his pocket. "Vanessa is a broken woman. In alI these years, she has never once stood her ground against me. Every time she threw a little tantrum in the past, all it took was twenty-four hours of cold silence and a firm voice to bring her back to her knees."

"He's right, Mummy," Susan murmured, pressing a soft kiss against the side of Andrea’s jaw, her eyes shining with greed. "Andrea knows how to handle his women. She’s probably spent the whole afternoon crying into her pillow, packing up her luxury bags, and making sure the primary suite is spotless for us."

"Mummy, I want some ice cream!"

Leo’s sharp, tearful cry suddenly shattered the tense back-and-forth, instantly breaking the cozy dynamic on the sofa.

Susan turned around toward the hallway, where five-year-old Leo stood in his sweat-stained pajamas, rubbing his red, heat-flushed eyes with small, dusty fists. The boy's face was flushed dark red from the oppressive bedroom heat, his mouth agape in a full-blown tantrum.

"Hey, ahhh... quiet down, Leo!" Susan said, her soothing tone wearing thin as she took a quick step toward him before turning back to meet Andrea’s gaze with a coy, admiring smile. "Vanessa will be here tonight and you can get all the ice cream you want! She’s going to stock the whole walk-in freezer at the villa just for us."

She looked up at Andrea, running a manicured hand down his arm, her eyes dark with suggestion. "You are such an amazing man, Andrea. See how you fixed all of this so easily. By 8pm tonight, we would own a new house and that wold be all thanks to you."

Andrea smirked, setting his empty glass down on the stained wooden coffee table as his bloated ego expanded. "Fixing things is what I do, darling," he said, running a hand through his unwashed hair and looking down at her with quiet possessiveness. "Vanessa was always easy to handle. A little sweet talk, a little authority, and she's ready to sign over her entire life. By tonight, we'll have the keys to the $2 million estate, and you won't ever have to worry about a thing again."

"Ice cream!" Leo wailed again, his voice rising in a shrill, glass-shattering scream as he stomped his small bare feet against the sticky floor tiles.

"You know..." Susan said, her patience completely evaporating. She scooped Leo up into her arms, ignoring his squirming, and carried him over to where Veronica sat. "Andrea and I have something important to handle upstairs. You stay here with Grandma, okay?"

She dropped Leo off unceremoniously beside her mother’s armchair, completely ignoring the boy's continuous whining.

Andrea looked over at his mother with a slick, self-satisfied grin, resting his hand casually over the curve of Susan’s waist. "Keep an eye on him, Mom," he said smoothly, a low, arrogant chuckle escaping his lips. "We’re going upstairs to celebrate our victory early. When Vanessa gets here at eight with the master keys and the unblocked cards, just give us a shout."

Veronica scowled, slapping her faded magazine down against her lap with a sharp crack as she pulled the fussing boy into her arms. "Hurry up and handle your business, then," she snapped, her eyes narrowing with dark, vicious impatience. "I don't want to hear this boy screaming all evening, and I certainly don't want that ungrateful girl keeping me waiting a single second past eight o'clock! If she isn't at that door the moment the clock strikes, I'll drag her through that living room by her hair myself!"

Susan giggled, taking Andrea’s hand and tugging him eagerly toward the dark, narrow staircase. "Let her try to run, Mummy. She has nowhere else to go."

Upstairs in the dim, suffocating master bedroom, the heavy velvet curtains were drawn tight against the harsh twilight, trapping the entire day's heat inside the enclosed walls. Susan pulled Andrea close the very second the wooden door clicked shut, her movements frantic and hungry. She reached up, unbuttoning his damp linen shirt and sliding it off his shoulders, pressing her palm against his chest as she looked deeply into his eyes.

"You know... I wish everyone could just see us for what we really are," Susan murmured, her voice dropping into a thick, breathless whisper as she leaned into him.

"What do you mean?" Andrea asked, stepping deeper into her embrace and cupping her flushed cheek with his hand.

"I mean as lovers," Susan whispered against his neck. "As the father of our son... not just brother and sister in public. I’m tired of hiding it, Andrea. Once we move into that villa, I want the primary suite. I want everyone to know who really owns your heart."

"Yes," Andrea whispered, his voice thick with unearned pride as he leaned down, pressing a hot, possessive kiss against her throat. "We were never real brother and sister, Susan. You are my soulmate, my darling. Vanessa was just the bank frame holding our empire together."

They sank onto the tangled, damp bedding, lost in their own greed, lust, and delusion while the sweltering heat of the evening settled heavily over the roof. Hours slipped away unnoticed as they indulged in their cozy, secret world, completely convinced that below them, the entire city—and Vanessa’s vast fortune—was bending to their absolute demands.

*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*

A sharp, violent pounding on the wooden door panel shattered the heavy silence, startling them both awake from a deep, heat-drenched stupor. They had completely slept off, tangled in the warm, sticky bedding.

Andrea sat up abruptly, gasping for breath as he rubbed his bleary, bloodshot eyes. Beside him, Susan scrambled in a panic to cover her bare shoulders with a thin, crumpled sheet. The bedroom was pitch-black now, save for the weak amber glow of a distant streetlamp filtering through the dusty window blinds.

"Whatever you guys are doing in there, it’s 8 PM already, you know!" Veronica’s harsh, grating voice barked through the wooden panel, followed by another aggressive rattle of the brass door handle. "Get down here right now!"

Andrea wiped a heavy sheen of sweat from his forehead, shaking his head to clear the sleep. "Coming, Mother!" he shouted back.

He threw his legs over the edge of the bed, pulled his trousers on, and stuffed his arms into his crumpled shirt without bothering to button it fully. Together with Susan, who quickly adjusted her messy hair and pulled on a silk robe, he hurried down the dimly lit hallway and down the creaking wooden stairs.

Veronica stood pacing near the living room coffee table like a caged animal. Her arms were crossed tight over her chest, her face flushed a dark, blotchy purple as she glared back and forth between the ticking wall clock and the silent, deadbolted front door. On the sofa cushions, Leo lay curled up in a deep sleep, his small chest rising and falling despite the oppressive, muggy heat.

"Look at the clock, Andrea!" Veronica demanded sharply, her voice trembling with rage as she turned to her son, her fingers twitching at her sides. "It is eight-o-one! The door hasn't knocked! The phone hasn't rung! It seems she's running late!"