Chapter Twenty-Eight
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
February 2029
MY ASSISTANT SYDNEY COMES running into my office with wide eyes. She braces on the door, catching her breath, to say, “Nina, there’s someone here to see you. I tried to tell her you were busy, but she said she didn’t care. She says she’s—”
“Your mother.” Brina stands behind Sydney with an unimpressed expression. Her thin brows are peaked and her lips are drawn into a tight line. What is she doing here? I haven’t seen this woman in over nine years and there hasn’t been a single day in all those years that I’ve found myself missing her. “Hello, Davina,” she says, and a sickening smile spreads across her red-painted lips. She pushes Sydney out of the way to finally walk through the door.
“Stai scherzando. Cazzo.” I sigh. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“Nina?” Sydney asks, an unsure look in her eye.
“It’s fine, Syd,” I say, waving her off. “She won’t be any trouble, will you, Brina? ”
“Cross my heart,” Brina says, one of her bony fingers making an X over her heart. She falls into the chair from across my desk, resting her oversized red YSL bag on her knees. It’s from the new collection later this year. How did she get one of those? She can’t afford one—she doesn’t get that much money from the estate. I would know, I’m in charge of the damn thing. Maybe she’s dating someone. In that case…good for her. I might still have my investigator Ed look into it, because if it’s one of her former boyfriends from when Daddy was still alive—
“So, Davina…How are you?”
I roll my eyes. “Cut the act. What are you doing here?”
“Act?” She places a perfectly manicured hand over her heart. “Davina, I don’t know what you mean. I’ve only come here out of concern for my daughter .”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I say, lifting my glasses from my nose and folding my hands over the papers on my desk. “Why are you so concerned?”
“Why, Nicholas, of course.” Brina’s face pulls into a solemn expression, and my heart drops at the mention of my husband’s name. She sighs. “It’s so terrible. I can’t believe he’d just up and leave.”
“He didn’t up and leave, Brina. Chi te l'ha detto?” I ask.
She stares at me blankly. Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot she likes to pretend she can’t understand Italian.
Rolling my eyes, I repeat the question. “Who told you about Nick?” It’s probably those gossipmongers at the private club she frequents. “ Questo non ti riguarda. ” This doesn’t concern her. Nothing about our lives should concern her.
Brina reaches across the desk to cover my hands. “Oh, you know, I heard through the grapevine he left you and Elena. That is my granddaughter’s name, isn’t it?”
How does she know so much about me and my family? Kai wouldn’t tell her, and as far as I know, he hasn’t spoken to her since Daddy’s death, either. When the truth came out about our mother and my ex-boyfriend sleeping together—yeah, you heard me, my mother was having an affair with my ex-boyfriend —it was the final straw for my brother. Not to mention the way she conducted herself during the reading of our father’s will, plus finding out she had been having multiple affairs for practically their entire marriage.
Was I surprised? No, not really, but it was a tough pill for my brother to swallow.
Kai was our mother’s pride and joy. Brina loved him in a way I had never known. We never got along, I was the child she never wanted but got anyway, and she always reminded me. Daddy used to say the reason she and I butted heads was because we were so much alike, but I resented that. I still do. I don’t want anything to do with her and she doesn’t want anything to do with me—we like it that way. Since the truth about her and Lee came out after our summer trip to Haven ten years ago, I haven’t seen or spoken to my mother, even concerning matters of the estate and her monthly stipend. The family attorney plays middleman so I don’t have to deal with her.
“My daughter is none of your concern,” I snap, ripping my hands away from her.
“You cannot keep my grandchild away from me, Davina.”
Her statement is almost laughable. “I can’t keep her from you? I am her mother—”
“And I’m your mother!”
This time, I do laugh. She cannot be serious. Is she trying to guilt me by pulling the “I’m your mother” card?
“I think you’re confusing me with your other children, Kai and Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth is not my child.”
“Well, you sure treated her more like a daughter than you ever did me.” I rub the crease between my brows. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have far more important things to worry about than whatever this is. If you thought using my husband was your chance to weasel your way back into my life or the life of my daughter, you are sadly mistaken.”
“And what will you tell her when she asks why she doesn’t have grandparents, hmm? That day will come, especially when she realizes all her friends have something she doesn’t. Something you can’t buy her. This isn’t some family vacation where you pay someone to pretend to be your boyfriend. Are you sure your dear Nicholas wasn’t still pretending all this time? Maybe that’s why he left you.”
My jaw tightens, and without a second thought, I reach across my desk and smack her.
Her blue eyes burn when she looks back at me, fingers grazing across the reddened skin.
Shaking my head, the words come out in a low hiss. “ Come osi? ” How dare she come into my office and speak so terribly of my husband?
“Speak English, Davina. You know I cannot—”
“Stop pretending like you don’t understand me!” I slam my hand down on the desk. “I know damn well you can. You understood Daddy perfectly for however many fucking years you held him hostage.”
Brina’s face pulls into a straight line.
Rising from my chair, I brace myself against the desk and tower over her. “How dare you speak ill of my husband? You walk in here pretending like you care about him. About me and Elena. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and whoever your latest fuck is. Why are you here, Brina? Run out of money for the month, or are you so bored you have to show up here and fuck with my life some more?”
Brina rubs her cheek gently before she scoffs, looking around my office before her gaze lands back on me. “Your father would be disappointed to see how this place has turned out. To see you at the helm. This was never meant to be yours , Davina.”
She stands from the chair, looping her arm through her bag strap, letting it hang from the crook of her elbow. Rolling her shoulders, she lifts her chin and purses her lips, looking me up and down with disdain.
“Alaric Villa is rolling over in his grave at what you’ve done to this company—to his empire. How you have taken what he worked so hard to build and destroyed it piece by piece.”
Every word she utters hits me harder than the last, but I swallow the emotions threatening to spill over my already overflowing cup. I cannot let her know how much her words affect me. She can’t know she can still rip me to shreds with a single look. This woman…this monster who has done nothing but pick me apart and try to ruin any ounce of confidence I’ve had my entire life.
“I will not stand by and watch you continue to ruin Alaric Villa’s legacy.”
“è una minaccia o una promessa?” I narrow my gaze. Is that a threat or a promise? “Because if you’re going to make threats, you better come prepared to back them up. And if it’s a promise—”
“Ti prometto che acquisirò la proprietà di questa azienda prima che tutto sia finito,” she says.
I promise you I will have control of this company before everything is said and done.
Her words draw the corners of my mouth up. I knew she faked not understanding for all those years. There was no way she was married to Daddy for so long and not picked up something.
“I’d like to see you try, puttana,” I say, leaning further over my desk.
The fire in her gaze burns hotter than before, and she swings her palm toward my cheek, but I catch it. “You dare call me a whore ? You watch your mouth, you little bitch!”
“Vattene via dal mio ufficio, cazzo.” The words come out in a low hiss as I shove her hand from me. “Get out before I call security.”
“What the fuck is going on in here?” My brother’s voice echoes around us. He storms into my office, not even bothering to close the door behind him. “Mother, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, Kai, darling! I was coming to—”
“To start shit with me,” I finish for her. “We haven’t spoken in almost ten years, but she shows up now, pretending to care that my husband is gone.”
Kai glares at her. “You’re about ten months too late.”
“Ten months?” Brina’s head whips around to me, this time a look of what I think might be genuine concern in her eyes. That’s a first. “He’s been gone ten months? But I thought—”
“Get the fuck out,” I say, and when she doesn’t move an inch, I repeat the sentiment in a less-than-friendly way.
“Tell Ophelia I look forward to seeing her,” Brina says when she passes by my brother, whose gaze narrows even further.
Kai slams the office door behind her but stands with his back to me for a moment longer than I feel he should. What did she mean by she looked forward to seeing Ophelia? Had he been in contact with her? After everything she has done…he wouldn’t crawl back to her, would he?
“Nina—”
“Stai parlando con lei?” I cut him off before he can begin peddling whatever lie he’s about to spew. I watch his throat bob with a hard swallow and it’s all the confirmation I need, but I want to hear him say it. To admit he’s going to let that bitch back into his life, and ultimately into mine. I repeat myself, “Are you speaking to her?”
“Nin, I…I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. She…she came by not long ago and asked to talk. She apologized for everything.”
“Oh, I’m sure she did. You know what, Kai? Vaffanculo. Fuck you. I have worked my ass off for this company. And for you. So you can come and go as you please, playing pretend CEO when you feel like it. I’m the one who made this company into what it is, non tu. ” I roll my shoulders and straighten my back. “Not you, Kai. Me. I’m the one who sacrificed my family so you could have yours! You, this company—you’re the fucking reason my husband went missing. Tu sei la ragione per cui se n'è andato! You and this company are the reason he’s gone. And I will not let his death be in fucking vain. I will not stand by and watch as that gold-digging puttana weasels her way back into our lives and this company because that is all she wants.”
“She wants to know her grandchildren, Nina.”
“If you believe that…you’re dumber than I thought.” I scoff. “Now, get the fuck out of my office.”
“But Nina—”
“Esci!” I slam the palm of my hand on my desk, breathing out an exasperated huff.
Kai stands there a moment longer with a pleading look in his eye, one I’ve seen many times over our lives. The same one that used to appear when Brina and I would get into one of our arguments and he’d stand there, idly, trying to decide what to do. And ultimately, he always chose to side with her, because it was easier than ending up on her shit list, where I held permanent residence.