Page 37 of The Naughty One
“Will you come to Italy with me for NewYear’s?”
Romy looked up at him. “Blue, we need to resolve things between usfirst.”
“I know, I’m just saying … we’ll talk today, tomorrow, maybe the next day. It’s going to be hard for me to talk about some of this stuff. So, I just thought, if, and I mean, if, no pressure, if we can reach a resolution—let’s have a few days of us, away from all ofthis.”
Romy kissed his neck. “How soon do I have toconfirm?”
“A couple ofdays.”
She nodded. “Then, once Stuart and Mom leave for honeymoon, let’s go back to your apartment and lock ourselves in and get through this. I want to go with you, baby, I really do, but not until everything is out in theopen.”
“That’s fair.” He pressed his lips to hers. “I loveyou.”
Magda hugged her daughters,tears flooding down her face. “I love you, Arti, Romulus, and JunoBoo. So much. Thank you for making my day so perfect, sobeautiful.”
Stuart, himself moved deeply, also embraced them. “I will never replace your dad but just know—to me, you are already my daughters, and I think myself the luckiest man onEarth.”
Even the stoic Artemis was crying as they waved themoff.
“God, Barbados for a month …” groaned a jealous Juno. Octavia giggled with her; the two of them already fast friends. “Come on, people, let’s ignore the tidying up and go drink the contents of Mom’s liquorcabinet.”
Romy and Blueexcused themselves and drove through the cold night back to the city, making it to Blue’s apartment just after midnight. Blue opened the door for her, and Romy couldn’t help but brace herself for another unwanted intrusion. This time though, they were totallyalone.
They sat down at his kitchen table, Blue finding a bottle of scotch and some glasses and pouring a finger of the dark tan liquid intoeach.
“So,” he began and Romy took hishand.
“So.”
Blue breathed in a deep lungful of oxygen. “Hilary Eames. Hilary Eames is a vindictive, manipulative piece of human excrement. We all know that. That’s not all she is. She …” His voice broke and he looked away from Romy’s gaze. “She likes young men, Romy.Veryyoungmen.”
It took Romy a second to catch on, and her heart sank. “Oh,God.”
“Yep. After Mom died, after I came to live with Stuart, at first, she wouldn’t even look at me. Then, one night, when I was fifteen, she came to my room late at night, just in herrobe.”
Romy didn’t say anything, swallowing over the lump in her throat. Blue gave her a humorless smile. “That night, she didn’t do anything but stroke my face, tell me what a handsome boy I was. How I looked like a carved statue in one of Italy’s great palaces. The next day, she went back to ignoring me. Then a couple of weeks later, she came to my room when I was asleep and got in beside me. I woke to find her … sucking my penis. I wasfifteen.”
“Oh, no …” Romy washorrified.
Blue looked desolate. “Of course, she told me if I told anyone, she would deny it and I would be cast out with nothing and nobody. The next night, she put my hand on her genitals and told me to stroke her. I did, because I was so terrified ofher.”
Romy’s tears were flooding down her face. “Oh my God, Blue, I’m sosorry…”
“She raped me for the first time three weeks shy of my sixteenth birthday. By then, she had threatened me so many times that I was a shadow of my former self. I was completely under her control. I still can’t smell her perfume without being taken back there. The last time was when I was eighteen, just before I went to Harvard. She knew she was losing control over me, and so was even more threatening. She would have me killed if I told anybody. I didn’t doubt she had both the means and the viciousness to doso.”
He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “So, I kept the secret, both out of fear of what she would do, shame over feeling that fear, shame over what had happened. I always felt like I would never have been able to say anything, because how would I proveit?”
“So she showed up at your apartment because she was trying to exert influence?Still?”
Blue nodded. “She’s wildly jealous of you, of Magda. We still haven’t gotten to the reason why she suddenly dropped her bid for more of Dad’sfortune.”
Romy stood up and paced, her sorrow now turning to anger. “That fucking bitch.” She stopped and turned to Blue. “And I’ll bet all the money in the world Gaius knew she was going to doit.”
Blue looked surprised. “How?”
“He picked me up that night, outside your apartment. He said he was coming to talk with you. I was so intent in getting away that I didn’t question it,but…”
“Fucker. Conniving motherfucker.” Blue was angry now too but Romy put her arms aroundhim.
