Discarded by My Mate, Claimed by My Adoptive Brother

4

KATHERINE

Oh. My. Goddess.

I stood frozen on the lawn, taking in that scene: Diana, sobbing at Lucian’s feet, begging him to be allowed to stay.

“Please” she wailed – but no tears fell from her eyes. “Please, you can’t kick us out! This is our home!”

Mateo ran out a few seconds later, joining his mother in the charade, cries and all.

“Please, uncle Lu! I don’t want to leave my room!”

Now – I wasn’t a total monster: I understood how hard all of that was, especially for Mateo, who was born into that house. That place was his home – and, had it been up to me, I would’ve gladly allowed him to stay. Hell – I would’ve let them both stay, and Lucian and I would’ve stayed in our cottage.

But the truth was written all over Diana’s face. Her "grief" was so transparently fake that even an i***t could see through it – and, considering she had cheated on her mate for at least two years, I seriously doubted she wanted to stay in that house because she missed him.

No – what she wanted was the status that house implied, and she wanted my husband.

I might have been on the verge of divorcing him, and just pretending to be a good wife, but the blatant audacity of it made me see red.

It was one thing to be humiliated and cheated on – but to live with my husband’s mistress in the same house was unacceptable.

I’d already sacrificed enough of my dignity to accept that as well.

“I … Diana, I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s possible” I said, pretending to speak as gently as I could, approaching her. Unnoticed, I slipped a hand into my purse and swiftly checked my phone: it was recording.

Good.

“There are rules, traditions …”

My half-hearted plea went exactly where I expected: nowhere. Diana sprung to her feet, pointing an accusing finger at me.

“You … you monster! You want to kick my child and I out of our home, don’t you?!” she yelled. “You’re such a b***h! You’ve always been an awful, jealous b***h!”

“No, of course not, but …”

Mateo started sobbing too, and in a matter of seconds, the peaceful lawn of the villa had turned into a battlefield – or, rather, a scene of proper verbal abuse, the two of them screaming at me and Lucian standing there like a pretty, decorative log, doing nothing.

“You’re such a sad, vindictive …”

“ENOUGH!”

That was when Lucian decided to stop being a useless statue: he yelled that order, and the lawn fell silent.

“We need to talk” he then said, grabbing my arm and physically dragging me across the lawn. No matter how much I pleaded, or tried to tell him he was hurting me, he didn’t listen.

“What’s the matter with you?!” I hissed.

“With me?! What’s the matter with you!” he hissed back. “They just lost their husband and father! Can’t you show a little humanity to them? That has been their home for years, Katherine!”

“I know, Lucian, it’s just … it’s not proper!” I insisted.

“No, what’s not proper is you acting so heartlessly!” he growled, his eyes bleeding into a darker shade: my stomach clenched in fear, recognizing the threat in his gaze. “Why are you being such a b***h?! Maybe Diana’s right, you’re being jealous, even if I have no idea why …”

Okay. That’s more than enough.

“Heartless? I’d be heartless?!” I hissed back, staring right at him and letting my own wolf show up. Lucian recoiled, shocked. “Me, Lucian?! Okay, let’s recap this week’s highlights. I had a fever, and you forced me on that boat because Diana wanted it. You didn’t listen to me on said boat, and allowed her to insult and belittle me. Then I fell off the boat, and you rushed to help her, even if Nathan was already going to get her, leaving me to die and giving me a half-ass excuse for that. Then … oh, yes, you dismissed me and sent me home yesterday night, after I handled your brother’s funeral, the wake and all the rest, without so much as a thank you, because Diana needed help with something that could be very easily handled today, or tomorrow, or any other day. So, who’s heartless here?!”.

“Babe …”

“One time, Lucian” I hissed. “Name one time, one, in two years I’ve been part of this family, Diana has been nice to me. And I mean actually nice”.

As I expected, he stayed silent.

“Y-you know she’s just like that sometimes …”

“Except it’s not sometimes” I replied. “With me, it’s every single time. So, forgive me if I’m not thrilled to share the house with her”.

Silence stretched between us for a good minute as we both heaved: I could see the gears turning in his head, the flicker of shame in his eyes as he struggled between doing the right thing, for once, and succumbing to his lover’s whims.

“What if we just gave them a week or two?” he then proposed, his voice barely a whisper. “I know things are not good between you two, and you’re right – it wasn’t fair for me to call you heartless, and I … I should’ve intervened more when she was mean to you. But they’re really in a hard moment, now. They’re grieving”.

I closed my eyes for a moment, forcing back the tears.

“I see you’ve made your choice” I said, flatly.

“Katie, please, let’s just compromise. They’re my brother’s family, I have to take care of them. I promise they’ll behave, Diana especially. I’ll talk to her. I’ll handle it all”.

I’m sure you will. And f**k her too. Guess that’s part of the care package.

I took a breath. “Two weeks, Lucian”.

Endure. You’re about to get out of this mess. Endure a little more.

He sighed in relief and pressed a kiss on my forehead. It took me all of my will to not recoil from that – from having the same lips he used to kiss his lover on my skin. “Not a day more, I promise you. Thank you – thank you so much”.

A week passed – and things were both good and bad.

They were bad, because of course, I had to get used to a new, much bigger home in which Diana was a constant presence: she was constantly around, shooting death glares or smirks at me, and always, always trying to hang as close as possible to Lucian, trying any trick up her sleeve to claim his whole attention: one day she needed his help with something, the other she was feeling heartbroken over Nathan and that she couldn’t stand to be alone.

They were good because, unexpectedly, Lucian was no longer being so submissive to her: whenever she tried to touch him or stay too close to him he took a polite step back, defended me when she went too far, refused to be at her constant beck and call and started spending time with me.

That was what surprised me the most.

It seemed like my outburst on the lawn had made him do, if not a complete 180, a good turn: he’d helped me unpack my things, asked me if I wanted to start a new tv series together, and even cooked with me the previous night.

That had been a moment I had particularly enjoyed – because Diana had passed in front of the kitchen right at that moment, and seen it all. Wacthing her turn pale in anger and storm off had been the highlight of my week.

Of course, I knew this was all his guilt talking: since now his lover was living right under our roof, he wanted to keep me appeased and happy. And no matter how pathetic and disgusting I found that behavior … seeing Diana’s anger was more than worthy. It felt like justice.

It’s gonna be so much fun when I divorce him, I thought as I put dinner in the oven. I’d finished work early that day, and while I had no desire to cook, I’d decided to keep up my act – making Lucian’s favorite dish. He’s not gonna know what hit him.

“What’s for dinner?!”

Mateo’s voice echoed through the open space of the kitchen, and I turned towards him.

“Hey there” I smiled at him, trying to be as warm as I could. “It’s chicken parm, is gonna be ready in about an hour. Want a snack while we wait?”

Mateo’s eyes darkened, and I braced myself for another tantrum. The pup had been a nightmare ever since his father had died, and that I could understand, since I, too, had lost my parents young … but the problem was that his mother was weaponizing his grief, fueling his anger and aiming it right at me. He was an angel with her and Lucian, but a terror with me.

I didn’t fault him for that: he was just a child, a heartbroken boy who was being manipulated by his mother … but I would’ve lied if I said it was easy to bear all of that.

“I want pizza!” Mateo screamed.

“We’re having pizza tomorrow, kiddo” I said, trying to soothe him. “That was the plan, remember? We discussed it yesterday. We’re having chicken parm today”.

“I WANT PIZZA!”

“Mateo, it’s too late for me to make pizza now. We’ll make it tomorrow”.

“YOU’RE SUCH A b***h!” he yelled, kicking me hard in the shin. “MOMMY’S RIGHT! YOU’RE AN AWFUL b***h WHO NEEDS TO GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE!”

He bolted out of the kitchen before I could even process the pain, let alone scold him.

“Mateo! Come back here!” I yelled. I followed him up the stairs – and to my horror, I saw him making a beeline for my bedroom.

“Mateo!”

He got there first, rushing in: he tried to close the door behind himself, but I put my hand between the door and the jamb.

“f**k!” I cursed as the door crushed my hand: I instantly pulled it back, then dove into the door as quickly as I could, cradling my hand.

My heart sank.

Mateo was standing in the middle of my room, with an evil little smirk on his face, holding a small glass wolf.

My parents’ wedding favor, the one they’d kept for themselves.

One of the very few things I had of them, after most of their belongings had gone lost in the fire that had destroyed our house after the m******e.

“Mateo, don’t” I begged him.

He knew how important that wolf was to me – had asked me about no more than two months prior, when Nathan had brought him to our old cottage to visit.

His smirk widened.

Then he dropped the little wolf on the ground and stomped on it.