THREE #3
Ever since Jio’s funeral, people had been crawling out of corners that she didn’t even know existed.
Men swearing their loyalty. Women claiming to have loved Jio.
Old business associates wanting their deals honored and new niggas wanting territory that didn’t belong to them.
Flowers arrived daily from those who knew the real.
Nina wasn’t his widow, at least not legally anyway.
The reality of it all made her jaw tighten.
After all those years filled with love and chaos, they never married.
He’d tried a few times, but declined profusely without hesitation.
He knew that they couldn’t become one for real.
Even now and especially with this girl having the balls to claim him to her face, she still didn’t regret her decision.
Marriage was replaced on her bucket list with multi-millionaire until she became a billionaire, which happened a while back.
But somehow, even in death, that fact haunted her in ways she hated admitting out loud.
“I grew up in the art world,” Carrington said after a moment. “My mother was a dealer. She was in all the Art circles. You know the ones with collectors, museums, private auctions…”
Nina listened quietly.
“We sold many pieces to Jio over the years.”
The information caught her attention because suddenly certain things made sense.
The Basquiats.
The rare photography.
The sculptures.
The Guntenburg.
Jio always brought pieces home like they magically appeared out of thin air, but that’d always been him, so she never thought too deeply into it. When Nina did have a few questions, he’d usually shrug and say something vague about Davie finding them and for her to focus on her growing collection.
She assumed most of it came through underground collectors. She picked at the burn on her wrist under the table for being na?ve over the years.
“You sold him the Guntenburg.” She figured it out finally.
Carrington nodded.
“It was one of my mother’s favorites.”
Nina leaned back slowly in her chair.
Interesting… very interesting, she thought.
Immediately the purpose of this meeting became obvious.
“So you came here to ask me what exactly?”
Carrington held her gaze now since she wasn’t dancing around it anymore.
“When Jio transitioned,” she said carefully, “You removed several pieces from his house.”
Nina blinked slowly because she just knew that this wasn’t about what she thought it was.
“And?”
“One of them was the Guntenburg.”
A beat passed and then another followed by a chuckle that slipped from her lips. “Pardon my noise.” She was genuinely amused.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Carrington didn’t smile.
“Jio promised me I could have his art collection in the event of his death.”
Her statement made Nina laugh harder.
She finally set her coffee down carefully before peering directly at her.
“Is that in his will?”
Carrington’s jaw tightened. “How would I know? We haven’t gotten that far. He literally just died and you already took everything you wanted.”
Nina shook her head before correcting her. “That’s not what happened, and clearly, you’re unaware of the reading of the will, which will be taking place soon.”
She wasn’t sharing any details.
“So tell me what happened? Because all I know is that the housekeepers said Ms. Marcelle had everything picked up the day after the funeral. So to me, it looks like you heard me speak at the funeral, you saw HIS children, and you got mad and took the art.”
Nina ignored the children comment and she couldn’t wait to fire them house keeper bitches. She never liked them to begin with.
“Who made this spaghetti?” Nina asked while staring at an open Tupperware bowl.
“Adolfa did the other day. You can have the rest.”
“Since when did she start cooking for you?”
“She don’t. She brought it from home.”
Nina rolled her eyes and threw the shit in the trash. Jio looked up from the blunt he was rolling.
“I would’ve finished that.”
“Going forward, the only spaghetti you eat is me and your mama’s.”
Jio shook his head. “You’re fuckin’ crazy.”
“You can think what you want. I do love the story that you came up with though. It’s cute. Real cute. Is there anything else you would like to discuss? We’re approaching the ten-minute mark.”
Carrington leaned forward, her composure was cracking by the second. Nina was sure she was about to meet the real her momentarily.
“He told me personally that I get the art and I want it. ALL.”
“Oh, well if he told you personally,” Nina deadpanned, “That changes everything.”
“Wait—”
“No, seriously,” Nina continued smoothly. “Did he also promise you the penthouse? One of the Maybachs maybe?”
Carrington stared at her coldly now. “I’m not the woman you think I am. I loved him for real.”
Nina tilted her head. “If that’s what you have to tell yourself, then okay, sweetheart.”
The tension shifted abruptly.
“You think you know everything about him? Because I promise you that you don’t.”
“No,” Nina said honestly. “I know enough and what I don’t know… he purposely hid from me.”
Carrington looked away first, revealing to Nina that her words had hurt. She probably genuinely loved Jio and that was good for her.
However, she didn’t truly understand the depth of what she and Jio had been to each other. It was decades of history and memories that she and her little time with him could never ever amount to.
Jio may have slept with her. They could’ve kicked it and he may have tricked off on the young hoe. Those things came to no surprise because that was typical Jio. But at the end of the day, she wasn’t Nina Marcelle and she’d never compare.
Nina was home and everybody knew that.
“You can have everything else,” Carrington said finally, regaining some composure. “I only want the Guntenburg.”
Nina contemplated her words before speaking.
“I’ll think about giving you something but it won’t be that one.
Now, this is me being nice because I don’t owe you anything.
Jio was smart enough to know that if…well, once I did find out about you, that I wouldn’t be a kind woman, so it surprises me that he didn’t do a better job of protecting assets that he wanted you to have.
I am certain of what I’m getting, although I need nothing, and do you know how I know these things? ”
Carrington had nothing to say.
Nina tapped the table. “Oh! Because before he lost his voice, we worked on his will...with our lawyer. The lawyer that we share...because we’re a family,” Nina said with a tight smile on her face.
“And that’s what a man does when he’s the head of the household. He makes the woman AKA his partner aware of what will happen when he’s no longer around.”
Carrington’s face hardened as Nina stood smoothly from the table.
“So I said all of that to say, they’re all mine now and you’ll get what I give you,” she said calmly. “But thanks for stopping by and please don’t ever show up at my office again. Have a good day.”
She started toward the door.
“I came here being nice.”
Nina paused and slowly looked over her shoulder.
“You do not want to play with me,” Little Miss Carrington let her know.
The room fell completely silent.
Her expression unreadable. “Is that a threat?”
Carrington stood this time. “Call it whatever you want,” she said quietly. “But that Guntenburg is mine.”
Nina stared at her until she could tell she was growing uncomfortable and then she smiled. Jio used to give people that same Cheshire cat look right before they figured out they had completely underestimated who they were dealing with.
“Good day, little girl,” Nina winked.