Chapter 44
Carmello
Now
As soon as Olivia came to tell me my father was here, that tightness that had been easing over time crossed my chest again. Seconds before, I was still reeling from being with her. Now we’re sitting at a booth across from my father staring at my mother’s will.
I see Olivia’s hands shake slightly as she picks it up to examine it again.
But a closer inspection won’t change what my father has already proven.
My mother didn’t follow proper protocol.
What I failed to notice in this very dense, monotonously written will and testament was that one of her witnesses was named as a beneficiary.
Which means they have an interest in my mother’s estate.
Even though the gift Celia Rodriguez gave this stranger-to-me witness was something small, the entire will is invalid because of that.
Which means my mother’s previous will is the one that counts. And Olivia Jones isn’t on it.
I am the sole owner of this restaurant.
“Don’t worry,” my father says, “even my lawyer missed it.”
Olivia must not like his light tone because she lifts her chin and puts the will on the table.
I clear my throat. “Pa, how did you catch this? I thought you were letting me handle it.”
He shifts in his seat, folds his fingers together on the table. “I was,” he says. “Until I received an email from your mother two days ago. Something she scheduled to send me before she died, the same way she scheduled the email for you containing this…fake will.”
“Wait,” Olivia says. “Fake? Do you mean you think she knew including a witness in her will would make it invalid?”
My father’s not a villain, but he’s protective of those he loves, and I know my mom is still on his list. “Celia was a perfectionist when it came to the accounts,” he says, and he should know.
They shared so much with each other toward the end.
“I’d say she knew exactly what she was doing.
And the email she sent me is the only proof I need. ”
“What did it say?” I ask.
“She gave me the password to her personal email address and told me she needed me to help her with something.” His eyes flick to Olivia’s face, then back to mine.
“She said she did what she thought was right for you, and now she needed me to do what I think is right. That was my only instruction. When I signed into her account, there was an email there and the name on the address looked familiar. That’s when I realized I saw it on the will.
The email was from the witness. And you know your mother.
She liked her riddles. So I decided to search through the will myself one more time.
And there it was. Celia wanted me to find her… mistake.”
I haven’t been able to get my heart to stop racing. Celia Rodriguez. Tricks and games.
Olivia’s shoulders slump, and I know she’s fighting to keep from crying in front of my father. “Well, then.” She sighs, but her voice is steady despite whatever she’s feeling inside.
I’ve only had two sessions with Issac’s therapist. She said it’s too early for her to feel certain enough to diagnose me with OCD, but it has been nice to talk to someone that’s trained to listen to my fears.
And she said something about Olivia after I mentioned the fire that made me smile.
Sometimes the things we learn in survival mode can be useful even after we’ve healed.
It sounds to me like your girlfriend has the strength of someone whose parents taught her to pivot.
Olivia doesn’t sound like she knows how to pivot right now though. She fidgets with her fingers. “I guess…this was all…I don’t know what the hell it was, actually.”
I cover her hand with mine, and my father’s eyes dart down to our fingers. His jaw clenches. “Before you make any reckless decisions with your heart, Carmello, I want you to think hard on what this restaurant can mean for your future, for your son’s future.”
I will admit, those words send a new wave of fear at me, but I take a deep breath and say, “I understand, Pa, but could you please give us some time alone to discuss this?”
He heaves out a breath. “Fine, but did Olivia tell you she’s going to Tokyo for a year? How excited she is about leaving?”
Olivia stiffens beside me, and I narrow my eyes at my dad.
“She’s not going anymore,” I say. “But how did you even hear about that?”
“Like I said, your mom was a perfectionist, Carmello. That personal account was free of spam. It only contained emails from two people. The one from the witness and dozens from Olivia.” He shifts his gaze to my girlfriend, an apologetic look on his face.
“I only read this one.” He takes a folded paper from his jacket and pushes it toward us, then stands and says to Olivia, “I just want my son to know what he’s getting himself into with you before he makes any decisions. ”
“Pa, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, but he’s already turning his back on me.
When my father leaves, staff members start to come in for their shifts and instantly realize they walked in on something serious.
But Olivia wastes no time; she shudders out a breath and doesn’t so much as glance at me before she’s heading for the door too.
I’m finally fast enough. I snatch the folded paper off the table, so the staff doesn’t snoop and go after her.
When I catch up, I tell her to wait and reach for her hand.
She turns around, and I try not to focus on the fact that she’s crying now.
Instead, I focus on what I can control: my own feelings.
“So, you’re just going to walk out of here without us having a conversation?”
“What kind of conversation should we have right now, Carmello? The restaurant is yours, and I need to get my mind right.”
“It’s yours too,” I say. “We’ve done all this together. And…”
“That,” Olivia says, scrunching up her nose.
“That’s why I need some space to think and why you should take some space too.
You’re so quick to try to solve everything because you think I’m going to leave if you don’t.
Like your father said, you don’t even have all the facts.
” Olivia nods to the paper in my hand. “Go on, read it. And read the rest of my emails too.”
I crumple the paper up and cup her face with my other hand. “Hey. That’s not necessary. He’s overprotective, but he crossed the line and invaded your privacy by reading them. I’m sorry.”
Olivia puts one hand over mine and looks me dead in the eyes. Then, her words steal air straight from my lungs. “Carmello, I haven’t told my client that I’m not going to Tokyo yet. I still have another week before I can’t contractually cancel on her anymore.”
A beat of silence. Two. I take a step back, letting my hands fall to my sides. “Were you…waiting so you could have some sort of escape hatch in case you changed your mind about us?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been planning to tell her, I have…but something keeps stopping me from sending the message.”
My mind tries to slip to the past, to dark thoughts and how horrible it felt when she left the first time, but I force myself to remain in the present.
“I know how happy you are with me,” I say, the confidence coming from how connected we’ve felt these past few weeks. “I feel it. So, what is this about, O?”
She gives me a small smile and then she starts to sob. “I’m glad you know.” A breath. One more. “And I’m happy here too, but Mello…it’s like your heart and mine are linked and I can feel how scared you are to trust that part completely.”
I reach for her face again, gently stroking her jaw with my thumb.
“Why do you say that, babe? Please don’t run scared because you’re assuming something about me or because you’re worried this isn’t going to work between us for things that may not even come to pass in the future.
You can have the shares you think you lost. You don’t have to pivot. I’m in this. Have confidence in me.”
“I don’t want to break up, Carmello,” she says.
“But it’s hard to have confidence in us.
One moment you want kids, the next you don’t care.
I love how attentive you are, but sometimes I feel like you’re quick to compromise your own comfort.
You tell me you might have OCD, but you avoid conversations about it, and I feel like that’s because you don’t want me to fully see you because you think there might be something in you that I don’t like.
An excuse for me not to commit all the way.
And I…I’ve been avoiding this feeling that maybe we’re moving too fast, that maybe I jumped into this because I lost a home a long time ago and I find a steadiness in you that I crave.
My parents told me I’m my own home but I’ve been thinking home can be a place too.
And now I find out that your mom might not have had the confidence in me that I thought she did.
Maybe she didn’t believe I could build a home here.
And maybe I need to tell you why I left the way I did a decade ago, not for you, but because I want you to see me fully.
I’m not perfect, I’m just a person, and I don’t want to be the bad guy and hurt you again in the future if I can’t show you who I am.
” I open my mouth to respond but she breaks away from me.
“No, Carmello. You’re going to stand there and listen to what I remember from the day I left. ”
She releases a breath, then she begins.