Daydreamer

Lucy

Dinner was tortuous. The atmosphere was thick with tension. Luca continued to have little digs at Felix and Bianca:

“Ha, one thing my wife excels at is overcooking the bloody beef. So, Felix, still working under a female boss?”

“She’s my partner, Dad. As you well know.”

“Hmm, took you long enough to build up your portfolio though, didn’t it?”

Bianca got more and more on edge, dropping serving spoons and apologising way too much over the state of the meal. Felix sank more and more into himself, his eyes gradually becoming dull and resigned – just like he used to look as a child after a run in with his father. Mikey and Mum managed to steer the conversation away from Luca, talking about things he clearly wasn’t a part of. By all accounts, Mum had managed to drag Bianca out from under his control a lot more since moving to Moonreach. But the way they were ignoring him seemed to further enrage Luca, who just became more poisonous. But it wasn’t until he went there that I lost my shit.

“Well, at least your dogs are a proper breed, I suppose,” Luca said to Hetty. “Not like that awful thing you and your mother brought home, Felix.”

Everyone at the table froze.

“Don’t, Dad,” Felix said in a low voice.

“What?” Luca said, all innocence. “I did you a favour there too, didn’t I? You and your mum getting all soppy and wanting to give that fucked-up mongrel a home. It was embarrassing.”

The silence was thick and awful. Bianca’s eyes had filled with tears. I remembered Benji, Felix’s dog. They’d been inseparable the year before Felix went off to boarding school. He’d loved that dog. Then there was that horrible day when Felix came to the cottage with red-rimmed eyes. The day I told him a story with his face buried in Bilbo’s fur. Mum told me Benji had gone off to live on a farm. It had been a year after Dad had died, which we’d all taken badly, Felix grieving as much as us. So the loss of Benji was particularly acute. I never questioned what had happened, but there was a sick dread forming in my stomach and a vague ringing in my ears as I listened to Luca. Suddenly, the rage overtook the shyness and, for the first time in my life, I didn’t care if I was the centre of attention as I pushed back from the table in one violent movement and stood up.

“Lucy?” Mum asked. Everyone’s gaze was fixed on me now, but I only had eyes for Luca.

“What did you do?” I managed to get out past my throat, which was now thick with fury. My voice didn’t sound like my own – it was low and biting.

“What are you talking about, young lady?” Luca said, feigning innocence again.

“What did you do with that dog?”

“That dog was a fucking embarrassment. I did us all a favour.”

I looked at Mum. “That’s his worst childhood memory, isn’t it?” I asked, and Mum gave a short nod. I turned back to Luca, my hands bunching into fists at my side.

“Get. Out.” I said, my voice shaking with fury.

“What?” Luca’s eyebrows went up.

“You heard me, get out.”

“You can’t tell me to get out of my own home.”

“You are a sadistic, narcissistic, disgusting excuse for a human being. You don’t deserve to be here. How on earth you produced a man like your son is beyond me.”

“Some lower-class employee’s brat isn’t going to tell me to leave my own home. Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I don’t work for you anymore, Luca,” Mum put in. “I haven’t for a long time, remember?”

He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, clearly to him once an employee, always an employee.

“Your son is a successful, clever, shrewd and a brilliant businessman,” I said. “But more than that he’s kind, funny, loving, good fun, charismatic. He’s the kind of man people gravitate towards. You’re the kind of man they avoid. There’s more power in his way of being than yours. He’s more influential than you, more successful and you can’t stand it.”

“Can’t keep a woman, though, can he?” Luca sneered.

“That is because you,” I pointed a finger at Luca then, “have fucked him up. You. That’s why he did what he did to lose me. You made that happen.”

“And I wouldn’t be so sure about your ability to keep a woman either, Luca,” Bianca put in. When I looked over at her, she was standing herself, glaring at her husband. “I told you what would happen if you didn’t behave tonight. I wanted to wait until after the Mayweathers had left, but Lucy has put it so much better than I would have. Get. Out.”

“Bianca, darling,” Luca said in a placating tone, standing from his chair and holding his hands up. “There’s been some misunderstanding, but it’s nothing we can’t sort out as a family.”

“You took that dog to the pound,” Bianca said, her voice shaking with barely contained anger.

“Oh my God,” Luca groaned. “That was years ago. Why are you all banging on about it now?”

“You broke his heart,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. One escaped and she swiped it from her cheek in an angry gesture. “Just like you broke mine. You made me lesser. You made it so I would tolerate my beautiful boy being shouted at over and over again. Being shoved out of the way. Being put down. B–b–being hit. I watched him become a shadow of himself. I knew the only time he was happy was at that tiny little cottage with Hetty, so I threw myself more and more into my charity work to justify him spending more time there. I agreed to go to all those stupid business dinners and to host those unbearable parties so that my son wouldn’t be exposed to you.”

“This is all total bullshit,” Luca blustered. “I gave you a good life, Bee. You and Felix both.”

Bianca shook her head. “You wouldn’t know a good life if it smacked you in the face. For you, it’s all show and appearances. No love, no warmth. Nothing that matters. So now you can indeed get out.”

“Where the hell do you want me to go?”

“How about you stay with your secretary in her little flat that you pay for?”

Luca blinked once and the colour drained out of his face.

“Or with any of the other women that you sleep with? I’m sure one of them will have a spare room for you. But if you think that now your business is failing, you’ll have access to my money, you can think again. Don’t even think about trying. The trust is ironclad. I think my parents always knew you would do this.” Bianca, coming from a very rich family, was the one with the real money in that marriage.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Wrong,” Mikey said, standing from his chair and sauntering over to Luca. “You’ll be leaving, mate.” He took hold of Luca’s arm and lifted him to his feet. Luca tried to shake him off, but he was no match for my brother.

“Felix,” he said, looking at his son for support which just showed how deluded the man was. Felix stood, went over to the other side of Luca and together with Mikey pulled him away from the table.

“Fine, fine,” Luca spat. “I’ll go. You don’t need to strong arm me like bouncers.”

Mikey and Felix let him go and he straightened his suit jacket, pulling the cuffs of his sleeves down in sharp, angry movements. He attempted to leave with as much dignity as possible, but Legolas chose that moment to trot into the dining room straight up to him and head butt him in the groin. That pony was a pain in the arse, but in that moment all was forgiven as far as I was concerned. It was perfectly timed and made Luca’s exit that much more satisfying. Luca stormed off as fast as he could, given the severe pain he was now in thanks to Legolas. Not much later we all heard the front door slam and tyres screech on the drive.

“Well, that’s done,” said Bianca, breaking the tense silence. Then, surprising us all, she turned on the spot back to her chair at the head of the table and took her seat. She whistled, and Legolas came trotting in, followed by both dogs. She gave Legolas an apple that she’d plucked from the fruit basket and chucked the dogs a huge piece of beef Wellington each.