Chapter Forty-One - Michaela
Chapter Forty-One
MICHAELA
“SURE, COME ON IN,” Nina says when I pass her to enter the penthouse. She’s still dressed in her gown, which means they haven’t been home long. She yawns rubbing her eyes, “I wasn’t expecting you ’til Tuesday.”
“We need to talk now .” I’ve spent the past hour trying to figure out how I missed the memo about this whole thing being a sham to help Finn keep his inheritance. I planned on talking to her at the office before we meet with Kai, but I can’t wait. I need to know the truth. Now.
“Oh, hey, Mic,” Nick walks down the hallway. “I was about to order pizza. Want some?”
“No,” I say sharply turning back to Nina, “we need to talk.”
“Whatever it is can wait until Tuesday. We had a great night, let’s not ruin it with—”
“This is important.”
Nina sighs and I wonder if she already knows what this is about. I watch her face transform from Nina to Davina in a matter of seconds. Her lips press into a firm line, and her shoulders straighten slightly. She turns to Nick and tells him not to wait for her before leading me to the office.
Nina leans back in her chair. She doesn’t say anything, only watches as I pace the length of her desk. Back and forth. Back and forth. Repeatedly. Trying to compose my thoughts. I have to do this; I have to know how much she knew and why she didn’t tell me.
“Did you know?”
She doesn’t react, “I’m going to need a little more information.”
My heart drops. “You did,” I scoff. “How could you do this to me, Nina?”
“What exactly did I do to you, Michaela? From where I’m sitting, I only offered you an opportunity to try something new. Get out of the rut you had put yourself in.”
“I wasn’t in a rut! I had life shit going on.”
“Shit you chose not to tell any of us. You chose not to tell me ! I’m supposedly your best friend, but you still hid it from me. So, from my standpoint, it was either give you a change of pace or fire you.” I swallow the lump in my throat under her burning gaze. “I chose the former because I didn’t want to fire you. You left me no choice. And it’s not my fault you decided—”
“But, you fucking knew! You knew about the wager with Oliver, and you didn’t tell me.”
Nina straightens in her chair, “It wasn’t my place, Michaela. I cannot gossip to you about confidential business matters.”
“That’s not a confidential business matter, Nina!”
“Yes, it is!” Her words echo in the space around us, the first time she’s raised her voice since we stepped into her office. She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, the light reflecting off the emerald on her finger. “I’m sorry, I am, but it wasn’t my place to out his business. I knew how you felt about him, and I didn’t want to give you any ammunition, especially something he told me in confidence.”
“When you knew we were sleeping together—”
“I didn’t, though!”
“Oh, come on, Nina.”
“I had my suspicions, but you were a married woman. I didn’t want to assume. Then, Josh told Nick about walking in on you and… Michaela, I didn’t think it mattered. Why does it matter what got him here? All that should matter is he’s here!”
“It matters, Nina. He lied to me. He didn’t want to help kids, he only wanted to keep his money.”
“You’re wrong,” she says matter-of-factly. “When Finn decided to move forward with a nonprofit, he knew it was a risk. Oliver isn’t exactly the type to care about things like this, but Finn did it anyway. He knew he might not earn the money back and did it anyway.”
Nina doesn’t understand. She can’t understand.
“I get it, you feel betrayed, but—”
“You don’t get it!” Her eyebrow raises. “You’re Davina fucking Villa. You don’t have to worry about things like this happening to you. You get everything handed to you on a silver platter.”
“Are you forgetting who I’m fucking married to? What we went through?”
“That’s not the same,” I sigh.
“No?”
“No,” I shake my head. “It’s not the same because Nick loved you!”
“Finn loves you!”
“Don’t say that.”
“He does, Michaela,” Nick’s voice interrupts us. He leans against the open doorframe freshly changed into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.
“Get out,” I hiss towards my cousin. “This is an A and B conversation, so C your way out of it.”
“Oh, very mature.”
Nina visibly rolls her eyes before walking towards the door. She places a hand on her husband’s chest and urges him out of the doorway. “Just… Give us a few more minutes. Please?”
“You may not be ready to say it, but the feeling is there,” Nick says over her shoulder.
“Nick, please, you’re not helping.”
This time, he finally gives in when Nina urges him away. She closes the door turning back to me with a softer expression than before. I freeze when she steps forward and gathers me in her arms. I’m not expecting it, Nina isn’t a big hugger, but it’s comforting, and I feel myself relax. She squeezes me gently, and I hug her back taking a deep breath of her warm magnolia-sandalwood scent.
“Michaela,” she pulls away and wipes a tear I hadn’t realized fell down my cheek. “I wish I could say I’m sorry for not telling you, but I’m can’t. His private matters are his own; the only reason he told me was out of desperation. He knew I’d never take him seriously unless I knew why he was doing it. I promise you, in the end, this meant more to him than getting his inheritance back. You mean more to him than getting his inheritance back.”
“I don’t know why I thought someone like Finn and I could make it work. We were doomed from the start.”
“You’re being a little dramatic.”
“Says you.” I roll my eyes and fall into one of the blue toile armchairs on this side of her desk. “What am I supposed to do, Nin?”
She shrugs, falling into the other chair. “Talking to him seems like a good place to start.”
“I’m not ready yet.”
“Then take a few days — nothing wrong with that.”
I rub my eyes, a wave of exhaustion falling over me as the adrenaline begins to subside. All I want now is to go back home and crawl in bed next to Finn. But, I know I shouldn’t because I’m not over this and I don’t want to cause more problems with my conflicting feelings. Then I remember who I’m sitting next to. “How did you do it?”
Nina looks at me, confused, “Do what?”
“How did you decide you could be with Nick again after…everything? He lied and—”
“Oh,” Nina says. She wets her lips and laughs softly. “Well, I guess, I always knew his secrets had something to do with Brina. I couldn’t blame him for not—”
“What about Rosecliffe?”
“It’s not his fault I didn’t recognize him, right?” Nina folds her hands over her stomach. “I knew I loved him, and I knew the only reason he hid certain things from me was to protect me. He tried to tell me, I just— I didn’t let him. It was never the right time to have those conversations. As upset as I was after everything, I still wanted him. I was so thankful he was the one who found me when Daddy died…and despite our argument, he was the only one I wanted there. My heart already belonged to him, and as if I needed any more confirmation, when JJ tried to weasel his way back into my life all I could think about was how I wished Nick was there.”
My shoulders rise and fall with a sigh.
“It’s okay to want him, Michaela. And, it’s okay to be upset, but don’t hold on to that. Don’t lose something good because of a misunderstanding. We’re not kids anymore. Talk to him. Take a few days and then talk to him.”
I find myself nodding without thinking about it — Nina’s right. I’ll take a few days to think about things, and then…then, I’ll talk to him.