Gotti (In Love With A Made Man #3)

Prologue

“Are we… talking about it or no?” Dr. Berry's words stretched out of her mouth slowly. Nina Marcelle was her biggest client. Did Nina know that? No, but she carried herself like she attracted other clients of her caliber. It wasn’t often that a therapist had a billionaire on her couch on a weekly basis.

In these days and times, people preferred virtual sessions, but not this chick.

Dr. Berry traveled across town to meet with Nina.

She was heavily compensated for her time because it wasn’t guaranteed that Nina would be available to start when she arrived.

She was a boss and sometimes meetings ran over and shit.

Nina respected her therapist and considered the inconvenience that she caused by asking her to leave the comfort of her office or home, depending on where she worked for the day.

So, Dr. Berry had her own office at Marcelle but not with the one person who’d held her hand through every other death.

Whether he was at her side or nearby in the tuck, she hadn’t been through much alone.

Nina depended on Jio for EVERYTHING. He was her physician.

Her other therapist. Her minister. Her personal chef.

Her stylist. Her masseuse. Her butler. He ran her bath water.

Took her braids out. Shaved her legs. Got her water in the middle of the night.

Picked up her meds from the pharmacy. He made her dentist appointments because she would cancel them if her assistant made them on days when her anxiety wouldn’t let her sit back and have her mouth wide open for hours.

Nina hated the dentist but Jio was big on oral hygiene.

It was the little things that trumped her mind.

Moving on was going to be difficult. She didn’t even want to try.

She remained unsuccessful over the years in attempting to meet someone better, but there wasn’t a man on this green earth who would love her like Jiorgio Gotti III.

“It’s time to pour that energy back into you.”

Self-love was hit or miss if you asked her, and quite frankly, she wasn’t trying to hear that today. The truth of the matter was that she wanted her nigga back.

His last breath should’ve been hers too. She didn’t foresee a future without him, but she would try her best.

“How?” The steps to get through grief seemed impossible.

“Where are you mentally? What’s going through your head, Ms. Marcelle?

Talk to me please,” she pleaded with one of her favorite patients.

Although she would never admit that to anyone.

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together, fighting to keep from losing her damn mind inside the very building that bore her family’s last name for all of New York City to see.

Nina Marcelle was a big deal and whoever felt otherwise was a hater.

What would the blogs say if she crashed out? How would Javon feel if he had to turn around and bury his mama too?

This was therapy. Nina had to remind herself that it was the one place that she could be honest, raw, and downright vulnerable. She didn’t have to look, sound, or appear to be perfect. She could slouch her shoulders, curse as much as a sailor and ugly cry if she wanted.

She’d seen her at her highest and now… at her lowest.

They’d been through some shit together and Dr. Berry had more faith in her being resilient than anyone.

Dr. Berry left her chair and came to sit next to her. Before she reached out, she asked for permission. “Can I touch you?”

Nina was hot and cold. She never knew what side she would get from her.

A slow head nod granted Dr. Berry access into her personal space.

She took her hand and squeezed it, knowing that physical support was needed.

She scooted closer to her and wrapped her arm around Nina’s waist.

“Take a deep breath… inhale….” She instructed and did it with her to let her know that she wasn’t alone.

Nina’s body shivered but she was able to inhale every single thing that she’d been feeling.

Dr. Berry spoke softly, “We’re taking our power back. We’re grabbing peace again. We’re returning to ourselves slowlyyyyy but surely….” She stretched her words.

Nina’s eyes misted as she listened to her therapist coach her back to earth.

“Now we’re going to exhale to make space for all the new things that God wants to bring into your world. Okay?”

Nina nodded like a little schoolgirl.

“Five, four, three, two…..”

Nina blew out a breath of despair and finished counting. “One.”

Her shoulders began to relax and her jaw unclenched itself.

Dr. Berry continued to rub Nina’s back and squeeze her at her side. This was out of her norm but she knew that vulnerability wasn’t a trait that she possessed. Nina Marcelle was ice cold baby.

“Tell me something good,” Dr. Berry suggested.

“Like what?” She didn’t have anything positive to say these days.

“What’s your favorite memory of you and Jio? Sometimes, we have to trick the brain. Maybe we should spend this session remembering the good times and not focusing on pain, sorrow… your heartbreak and the immense amount of grief that you’re feeling.”

Nina sort of liked the way that sounded.

“Yeah, maybe so.”

“So let’s forget the last few days, mainly his death. The funeral. All of that. Take me back to how things were before his illness took over. Y’all were in a pretty good space, right?”

She shrugged. Nina and Jio were forever up and down. They argued more than they made love, but it always made the sex sweeter, so she didn’t complain.

“We were good,” she concluded.

“What’s the last date y’all went on? Tell me about that. I want to know.”

Dr. Berry went back to her seat and got comfortable.

She would never disclose the fact that she thoroughly enjoyed Nina’s way of telling a story.

Maybe it was because she was an avid reader.

In her spare time, which wasn’t often, she enjoyed reading to the kids at the Arts Center that she opened in honor of her best friend, Ephrem, who passed away many years ago.

Nina wiped her face. “This is the most I’ve cried in a long time.” Dr. Berry noticed that she didn’t have many lashes attached to her eyelids.

“You’re cleansing your soul and that’s okay. It’s needed.”

She was a G. All this crying was slowing her down.

“I’ll share a memory with you, but before we go there, I have to tell you about my results.”

Dr. Berry wasn’t going to ask, but she was glad that she brought it up.

“Oh, yes when did they come back?”

“The day of the wake. I was late getting there and Javon chewed me out in front of his uncle. I just stared at him…. he’s been rude to me lately but I’m giving my baby grace.”

Nina pinched the bridge of her nose. Life was really trying to get the best of her.

“Is he still seeing his therapist?”

Nina nodded. “He’s intentional and I love that about him. Between the breakup and Jio… he better not be skipping his sessions.”

His childhood wasn’t as perfect as people probably assumed it was. Javon survived a lot of shit. He’d been caught in the middle of one too many of his daddy’s battles.

“I hope you’re taking your own advice.”

Nina rolled her eyes. “I’ll do better.”

Dr. Berry grabbed her notepad to jot a thought down before it slipped her mind. Nina wondered what it was.

“Okay, so you got the results the day of the wake…”

Before she could get the rest of the sentence out, someone was knocking on the door.

Nina’s administrative team consisted of her assistant, the scheduler, whose only role was to schedule meetings, the travel coordinator, who booked flights and hotels, and lastly, her assistant had an assistant. She was the definition of a boss for real.

If someone was interrupting her, it had to be an emergency.

“Come in,” she said dryly.

It was her assistant, Daiya. “It’s important.”

“On a scale of 1-10?” Nina challenged her.

“A thousand.”

Dr. Berry’s eyes widened as Nina hopped to her feet.

“I’ll call you,” she told her on her way out the door.

“I can stay if you need me to… should I?” She directed the latter to Daiya.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she followed Nina down the hallway.

“Is Javon okay?”

Her only son… if something happened to her baby… on God, she was going right along with him.

Daiya shook her head. “It’s not him.”

“Okay, so what’s up? You’re acting weird.” Nina didn’t have the patience for this today.

Daiya pulled her into an empty office and shut the door.

“There’s a lady here asking to speak with you, so Michelle came and got me.

I was wondering how she even made it to this floor, but that’s neither here nor there.

She looked important… that’s what Nance said, so I checked the camera and called Sam to see if she had a meeting on the books that didn’t get synchronized to my cal─”

“Who is it?” Daiya knew that Nina didn’t do small talk and all this beating around the bush shit got on her nerves.

“She said that she’s Mr. Gotti’s girlfriend… and she would like to speak with you.”