her muddy brown eyes. She wears a silky floral robe over a translucent nightgown, and I quickly look away before I can see something I’ll never be able to unsee.
“Nana…” I murmur just as footsteps resonate from behind her. A moment later, three handsome young men—triplets, more than likely—begin pawing at my grandmother. One of them kisses her neck while the other cups her breasts. The final male tilts her chin to the side to kiss her lips. All of them are heavily muscled, with chestnut brown hair and emerald green eyes. They look to be in their mid-twenties, younger than Nana by over forty years.
And they’re also butt ass naked.
“Not now, my pets,” Nana coos, slapping one of them on the ass. “I have my granddaughter over to visit me.”
“For fuck’s sake…” I curse, diverting my attention towards a hanging plant. Charles’s face turns beet-red as he focuses on his feet.
“I-I’ll just be…um…going…Miss Peony,” he stutters, finally raising his head to meet my gaze. There’s a question flashing in his eyes, one he doesn’t dare say out loud.
“I’ll be fine,” I assure him softly, pulling him into a tight embrace. Fuck, I’m going to miss the old man. A lot. I might actually cry—which is an oddity by itself, considering the fact I haven’t cried since middle school.
“Call me if you need anything,” he whispers in my ear. “Anything at all. Someone to talk to. Someone to listen to you. Even just someone to raise your spirits.”
“I will,” I promise, rubbing his back.
With great reluctance, I force myself to step away from the man who has been more like a father to me than my own ever had the chance to. I’m stunned to see tears in his eyes, but he blinks them away before I can comment.
“I need to return to your mother,” he announces, already turning back towards the sleek car still idling in the driveway. “Call me when you settle in.”
“Will do.” I lift my hand in a cheery wave as he begins to back out of the driveway. “Be safe!”
I watch him until he disappears in the twisting landscape of maples and oaks. The farther away he gets, the more it feels as if my heart is physically crumbling into thousands of pieces.
“I always liked Charles,” Nana says, seemingly oblivious to the men lathering her body with attention. With a roll of her eyes, she grips the hair of one of the men and pushes him away. He collapses onto his ass, eyes blinking rapidly as if coming out of a daze. “Enough. This isn’t appropriate behavior for my granddaughter to see.”
“You don’t fucking say,” I mumble.
“Ignore them,” Nana whispers conspiratorially. “They’re just a bunch of horny dogs.” Despite her crude words, she stares at them fondly, almost reverently. “That’s Polo, Christian, and Gabriel,” she introduces, gesturing to each one.
“Um…hi?” Because really, how else am I supposed to greet my grandmother’s much younger boyfriends?
“Pleasure to meet you!” the one she introduced as Christian exclaims, extending a hand. All I can do is eye the proffered limb warily. Heaven only knows what he used it for.
“Peony,” I answer, lifting my duffel bag helplessly in the air as an excuse not to shake his hand.
Polo, standing beside Christian, smiles warmly and offers me a nod, but Gabriel merely glares and grunts. Oh, boy.
“Let me show you your room.” Nana, in her usual dramatic fashion, sashays away from her lovers and towards a grand staircase situated in the center of the parlor. She pauses abruptly and raises one gray brow. “Are you coming?”
With a huff, I begin to trudge after her, ignoring Christian’s offer to carry my bag, and my eyes devour the ostentatious interior greedily.
The walls display a hint of color, now faded with time—ghostly mosaics and shredded paintings propped over the pale, orchid-colored walls. Tall marble vases dot the ceramic-tiled floor, each holding clenched buds withering in their bug-riddled refuse and overgrown grass. A five-tiered chandelier hangs from the ceiling, covered in a fine layer of dust. From what I can see, there are no televisions or any modern electronic appliances.
There better be a fucking coffee maker, or else I’m going to riot.
Nana continues to lead me up the stairs until we reach the entrance to an attic, the ladder already pulled down. I eye the dark hole with trepidation, memories once more coming to the forefront of my mind.
The steel walls of the locker seemed to steadily be shrinking like a vise. Each breath I