14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Clara

Lunch with Luca was next on my calendar. My brother hadn't informed me which restaurant we'd be going to, so when it was time to go, I knocked on his office door, my stomach growling. Hopefully he'd made reservations at Green Station. I dreamed of their salads on particularly sad, lonely nights.

This past week had been full of those. I'd heard nothing from Jake, not even a "fuck off, loser," and I would not be the one to break the silence. We were very obviously done, but the least he owed me was an explanation.

I wasn't holding my breath on getting one. In fact, I was actively working on forgetting him entirely.

"Come in," Luca called.

I swung the door open and couldn't quite comprehend the scene in front of me. I blinked a few times, and even still, it didn't make sense.

Sitting on the floor atop a checkered picnic blanket was my brother and his wife, Saoirse, with Nellie between them, munching on a baby carrot.

She waved. "Hi, Mommy."

I closed the door behind me, frowning at the grinning trio. "Hi, honey. I didn't expect to see you here," I managed to squeeze out through raw panic.

"We helped her escape from behind bars," Luca explained.

Saoirse lightly slapped his knee. "Also known as signing her out of preschool."

They were both on my official approved pickup list at Nellie's day care, but I never imagined they'd use that permission to do…this. The only times they'd picked her up was when I was running late at a meeting—when I'd asked them to.

Luca wiggled his fingers. "Surprise!"

When I didn't move, Saoirse rushed out, "Don't worry. I'll take her right back after lunch."

My sister-in-law truly was wonderful. Tall and honey blonde, she was so gorgeous. At first glance, a lot of people were intimidated or expected her to be a bitch. The fact was, she was more down to earth than anyone I knew and would give the shirt off her back to a stranger. I reminded myself she was an incredible aunt and I trusted her with Nellie.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to tamp down the whirling, whipping emotions cycloning in my chest.

Luca's brow dropped. He must've seen something in my face I didn't want him to.

"Hey," he said gently. "We just wanted to surprise you. I'm sorry if it was an overstep."

I shook my head, willing myself to snap out of my frozen state. "No. It's a nice surprise. Just…" My eyes locked with his, and if my next words were desperate, I couldn't help it. "Promise never to leave this building with her without asking me first."

He instantly became solemn and nodded. "Of course, Clara."

"I promise too," Saoirse said with as much gravity.

"I promise too, Mommy," Nellie declared. "Sit with me please."

When she said "please," it sounded like "peas" and never failed to make me smile. Today was no exception.

"All right, all right." I kicked off my heels and dropped to the blanket, kissing the top of my baby girl's head. "What are we eating for lunch?"

Once we were all done eating and Nellie was busy listening to her aunt Saoirse tell her about the horses on her family's ranch, Luca leaned closer to me.

"I wasn't thinking," he uttered.

I shook my head. "It's been three years. I should be over it."

"No, you shouldn't be. I should have thought it through. You know no one else can take her out of that day care, right? Saoirse had to give a drop of blood and a chunk of her hair before they'd even let her through the first door."

I snorted. "Hyperbole."

"A slight exaggeration. My point is she's safe. I'd never take her from you, and if I did, you know I'd be giving her back within twelve hours. What am I going to do with a three-year-old?"

That finally broke me out of my sour mood, and I laughed. "I'm pleased to know the one thing keeping you from absconding with my daughter is having no idea what to do with her."

"Mommy's laughing," Nellie observed.

My stomach sank. I sometimes forgot how much my daughter noticed these days. I couldn't always hide when I was worried or panicked, but I would much rather she saw me laughing.

"That's because Uncle Luca is really silly."

She smiled, and even with grape jelly smeared around her mouth, it melted me.

"I like silly Uncle Luca. Can I ride a horse?"

I swung my gaze to Saoirse. "That's on you, Aunt Sershie. I know nothing about horses."

Saoirse held up four fingers and wiggled them. "When you turn four, we'll go to the ranch and put you on the sweetest horse we have. How does that sound?"

Nellie nodded hard. "Okay. I can ride a sweet horse."

"Yep." Saoirse smoothed a hand over Nellie's unruly hair. "A sweet horse for a sweet girl."

"I think Mommy needs to get on a horse too," Luca chided. He knew my aversion to them. Their mouths had always given me the creeps, and I loved animals.

It was the teeth. They were just so damn big and blunt. Absolutely horrifying. "I'm not a horse girl. They're just so…large."

Nellie bounced on her knees. "Mommy, please. You can ride a sweet horse too."

I shot daggers at my brother. He might've been a married man in his thirties, but he still liked to wind me up like only a little brother could.

"We'll see," I hedged, unable to fully deny her since she'd said, "peas."

Saoirse saved the day. "Actually, I bet your mom would love to watch you, Nell-Belle. She can't do that when she's riding, can she?"

Nellie took that logic in and finally relented. She'd be okay with me watching her ride a sweet horse with Aunt Sershie. Luca was lucky he'd married such a gem. Otherwise, I might've gone to the board to oust him and stage a hostile takeover just to spite him.

The four of us had a nice lunch together—seeing my daughter and sister-in-law in the middle of my workday really had been a treat—but I didn't truly exhale until Nellie was back where she belonged. Most people might not have understood, but I felt more at ease witnessing her day care's security measures. No one could waltz in, claim to be her grandmother, and scoop her up.

On the elevator ride back to the executive floor, my fingers twitched at my side. The week I'd gone back to work after having Nellie, Miller's mother had shown up at her day care and demanded entry, which, for some inexplicable reason, she'd been given. Had I not been watching the parent cameras at that exact moment, I shuddered to think what would have happened. As it was, sprinting two blocks to her day care had taken years off my life. Mrs. Fairfield was not a stable person, and what little sense she'd had left after her only son was sent to prison.

My reaction had been swift and extreme, but if I couldn't use my wealth and power to keep my daughter safe, what good was it? That was why I'd overseen the construction of the Rossi day care center. Now, I was assured Nellie was in the safest place she could've been, and the rest of the Rossi employees were able to take advantage of a top-of-the-line facility as well.

A win-win, and any whispers of me having lost it after everything with Miller had been squashed.

I returned to my office, annoyed at myself for still being so on edge. If I were honest, I'd been tense ever since I'd run out of Jake's house.

So, maybe I wasn't doing such a great job of pretending he didn't exist, but I'd never had a vivid imagination. I'd always been one to deal in facts. My kindergarten teacher had had to call my mother. Informing her that while the rest of the class had done the assignment of creating their own colorful monster out of paper plates, feathers, and tissue paper, I'd read a book. What she didn't know was that I'd been told I wasn't allowed to draw Mrs. Payton, our mean old neighbor, and she had been the only monster I could think up.

I hadn't gotten in trouble, though. My mother had kissed my cheek and said, "It takes all kinds of people to make the world go 'round. Some of us make up monsters, some of us see them in the real world."

If only I'd seen my husband for what he was.

My assistant, Thomas, poked his head into my office, and I raised a brow. "Do you have the Salt Lake City numbers?" I asked.

"I don't." He slumped in my doorway, dramatic as always. Over the five years he'd been working with me, he'd gotten comfortable enough to let his true personality show the last four. "I've been hassling Greg Thorne's admin for days. She's a real cunt. She won't put me through to him, and I have a feeling she's not passing along my messages either."

I rolled my eyes. "Greg should have fired her years ago." Then I wagged a finger at him. "Not that I condone you calling a woman a cunt."

"She deserves it." Thomas flipped his flop of blond hair off his forehead.

"True, but let's keep the cunt talk to a minimum at the office."

He cocked his head. "You've now said it more than I have."

Resting my chin on my woven fingers, I smirked. "Whose name is on the building?"

He huffed. "Rub it in."

I laughed and glanced at my computer screen then back to my assistant. "I need the Salt Lake City numbers. Get Samantha on the phone for me, please?"

Straightening, he tapped the doorframe. "On it, boss."

Just like that, I returned to what I understood best: facts and figures. Men and monsters were still a mystery to me, and since my imagination was far too underdeveloped to figure them out, they'd likely remain that way.