12. Addie
Chapter twelve
Addie
I still can’t believe I agreed to any of this, but here I am back at the subsidiary company the next morning.
“Ugh,” I exclaim as I park my car and unbuckle my seatbelt.
As if being around Hayden Cohen wasn’t already going to be tough enough. Now, I have to actively pretend to be in a loving, faithful relationship with him.
“That means no side pieces,” I reminded him before we signed the bogus but significant, at least for our purposes, contract yesterday.
In response, that devastating yet cocky grin spread across his face as his green eyes dazzled in the reflection of the lights above our heads.
Who the hell looks that good under fluorescents?
“Same goes for you,” he said after lifting his pen from the paper.
I gave him a funny face. “Yeah, okay.”
“I’m serious.”
“There are greater chances of pigs flying,” I reminded him.
“If you say so.”
Then, I was growing tired of the shenanigans, so I bent down and wrote my signature. He soon followed suit.
“Okay. You’re all set,” Steven announced after giving both of us copies.
Mine is still chilling face down on the passenger seat next to me. I snarl at it before finally getting out, swinging my knockoff Louis Vuitton bag over my shoulder, pushing my sunglasses into my hair, and heading inside.
But as soon as I pass the threshold of the doorway, the familiar smell of Chanel No. 5 wafts into my nose.
Oh, no.
“Adriana! My darling!” the monster herself screeches after appearing from out of nowhere.
“Mother,” I say through gritted teeth.
“How lovely to see you.” She takes me by the forearms and aggressively kisses both of my cheeks.
“Uh-huh.” I’d say likewise, but that would be a lie.
The longer I stay in there, the more I realize the small, yet, impactful changes she’s made in a short amount of time.
For one thing, the calming Nicaraguan folk music has been replaced by generic elevator tunes and the air reeks of burnt coffee and donuts.
“Mother,” I repeat. “What have you done?”
“What do you mean?” She plays dumb and waves her skinny, ringed fingers around as if nothing is different.
I have to laugh. “The music, the food—” Then, I see that she’s even covered up the flag with some generic ocean tapestry. “No! Absolutely not!” That’s the last straw, and I pull it off after stomping over there.
“Adriana! Stop that!”
“Oh? I’m just getting started!” I then rifle behind the desk until I find an AUX chord, attach my phone, and pull up my Spotify playlist titled, “Abuelo Sal.”
“Ah!” she screams and covers her ears.
My eyes practically roll back in my head, as the music, with its rhythmic guitar playing and soft singing, is objectively easy to listen to.
“Give me that!” She comes up from behind me and tries to disconnect everything.
“No!” I turn to face her and hold it behind my back.
“I’ll have you know this is still my business!”
“It is not!” My throat feels dry, and I feel tears creeping up in my eyes, but I choke them back. I’ll be damned if I ever let her see me cry. That’s a promise I made to myself when I was a little girl.
“Is that so?” As she stares back at me, I see a fire ignite in her dark eyes.
“Yes.”
She folds her arms and pops her hip. “Oh, okay. And your title would be?”
“Well—” My brain is scrambling as I try to think of one.
She just chuckles. “Exactly. Earth to Addie, but I’m still in charge of the parent company. And that means that I could cut access for you anytime I want.”
Before I can say anything else, Hayden, looking gorgeous in a gray suit, white undershirt, and deep purple tie, comes walking in.
Removing his sunglasses as if he’s in Baywatch or something—complete with the beaming sunlight behind him—he asks, “What seems to be the trouble here, ladies?”
Not even my heartless mother is free from his charm, and she simply just looks at him before I notice her swallow hard.
“She’s trying to change everything,” I explain.
The sound of my voice seems to make her come to her senses again, and after blinking hard a few times, she remarks, “Which I have the ability to do as I see fit.”
“You do not!” I growl.
Hayden then pulls out his phone, clicks a few buttons, and then says, “Steven? Hi. We have a situation. We need you to get down here right away.”
When he’s finished, I encourage him, “Tell her! She doesn’t.”
He comes over next to me and stiffens his shoulders. “I guess I need to remind you, Rosalinda, that I’m a partner in this company. And not just a part-time one until someone better,” he pauses and winks at me, “comes along and fulfills the conditions Salvador laid out for her to inherit what’s rightfully hers.”
His confidence in me does make me feel good. But that doesn’t mean that I need him to fight my battles. And then there’s also the little detail about her knowing exactly who Luna’s real father is.
“Hayden.”
I try to stop him, but he continues, “No, I really think you should leave, Rosa. Before I have to forcibly remove you from the property. We have a lot to get done here, and we don’t need your nonsense and venom muddying the waters.”
She scoffs. While she may have been under his spell at first, now, she seems to see him as part of my team. Which means one thing. He’s also an enemy.
“Well, isn’t that just precious.” She sneers. “Even after all of these years, he still shows up just at the right time to be your knight in shining armor.”
“No, she doesn’t need me. Addie is perfectly capable of fighting her own battles.”
My mother laughs mockingly again. “Yeah, okay.”
Hayden widens his stance, grabs his hands together, and says again, “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
She holds her ground and gives him an evil look before inevitably giving up and throwing her hands in the air.
“Fine. I’ll go. But don’t come crawling to me when this one,” she looks at me, “can’t hold her own. You need another, stronger Flores to work with.”
My teeth grind together so hard that I’m afraid they might break.
“I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Now, come on.” With his long, strong arms, he ushers her out.
Ugh. I hate that after all these years, she can still rattle me like that. But once she’s gone, I feel I have no choice but to unleash my anger out on Hayden.
“ Whew. Okay, now that she’s gone—” He looks down and readjusts his cuff links.
“I didn’t need you to do that.”
The small patch of skin above the bridge of his nose and in between his eyebrows wrinkles as he glares back up at me. “I know.”
I double down. “No, I’m serious. I had everything under control until you came waltzing in.”
“I—” he splutters. “I have no doubt about that, Addie. But I was here, so there’s no reason why I couldn’t help you get her out of your hair.”
Ugh. There’s a wave of emotions going through my brain, and I feel a bit faint. So, I stabilize myself against the desk.
“You okay?”
“Yes,” I answer with bite. “I’m fine. It’s just—it’s just a lot.”
“Trust me. If anyone knows how difficult Rosa Flores can be, it’s me.”
And you don’t even know the half of it.
“Just try to remind yourself that whenever she acts up, she’s doing it because she’s losing power.”
Of course, I know that’s accurate, but it doesn’t help matters that much. At the end of the day, she’s still my mother, and she still chooses to treat me that way. As I alluded to, she’s always treated me like I was on an opposing team against her.
In fact, I can’t really remember a time in which I didn’t feel like that.
“Anyway, this whole ordeal certainly proved that we need more security. I’ll make some calls—”
In combination with my frustrations about my mother, his words make a loud shrieking sound hum in my ears.
“Hayden, please!” I demand, hoping to drown out the sound with my own voice. “Just please, give it a rest. I can take care of myself!”
He already pulled his phone out of his hands, and hesitates before putting it back in his pocket. Then, he holds his arms out as if I’m a cop who demanded him to do so. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I was trying to help. That’s what comes with being a part of a partnership.”
“I—”
“Besides,” he adds more curtly, “It isn’t all about you, Addie.”
For whatever reason, that cuts deep, and my heart feels like it falls into my kneecaps.
But after sniffling and licking my lips, I retort, “I know that.”
“Do you?”
Another pang in my chest.
“Yes.”
He dips his head and scratches his neck. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Ugh. “You know what? Screw you, Hayden. This was all a mistake.” Part of me already knew that, but this only proved everything.
I go to storm off, but he stops me.
“Not so fast, Flores.”
My mouth goes taut, but I spin back on my heel to face him.
“Don’t forget the contract we both signed. We have to pretend to be a fake couple, remember? That means we’re in this together, I’m afraid.”
I’m stewing in anger.
“Oh, shoot.” He takes out the device and dials someone else up. “Scratch that, Steven. Sorry. It’s all under control. We’ll meet you later. Bye.”
“We?”
“Yeah. We’ve got our first meeting with Randall O’Brien. Remember? He’s—”
“The landowner’s son-in-law.”
He clicks his tongue and holds his mouth open. Like it’s the most shocking thing in the world that I remembered that.
“I’m a good listener,” I remind him.
“I guess so.”
But back to the issue at hand. “I just—” I run my fingers through my dark hair. “I just don’t need any favors from you, okay? In terms of my mother, I mean.”
His focus is back on his screen, but he responds, “I know that. But if we’re going to pull this off—the fake couple thing, I mean—we should at least be real friends, don’t you think?”
Hayden Cohen? My friend. What an interesting proposition.
“Just think about it, what if we could go back to how things were? Do you even remember that?”
I rub at my upper arm and admit, “Of course, I do.”
He makes eye contact again and shakes his head. “Gun to my head, I would’ve said you were the person who knew me best in those days.”
Same.
“Anyway. We should probably get going.”
Then, instead of the innocent eighteen-year-olds we once were, we’re grown-ups in our thirties again.
“Right.”
He’s clearly in business mode again, and he gestures with his head for me to follow him out into the parking lot.
“Wait! I drove myself.”
“That’s okay. I’ll drop you off later.”
Without another word, he starts the car and drives us to the location. And I’m left with nothing to do but sit on the front seat of his ginormous G-Wagon.
He may be a few feet away, but he feels light years away as he disappears into his gadget.