Never the Same

Chapter 1

"Nadia," Luca says through gritted teeth, "I've told you twice already to not talk to her, so stop it. Cut the chit-chat and get to why you've turned up now."

Nadia's shoulders rise and fall before her head rolls to the side and her gaze finally lands on Luca. She flutters her lashes a few times before looking around the room. She chuckles then gracefully takes a seat on one of the chairs opposite me. She makes a show of crossing one leg over the other and then rests her arms on the armrests of the chair.

"My dear sweet Luca," she starts. She runs her fingers over the arm of the chair, her deep red painted nails scratching into the soft material. "It's not very business-like of you to not formally introduce me to your current partner."

I finally peel my eyes away from Nadia and look up at Luca. His eyes have gone dark and his jaw sets. His grip on my shoulder slackens before his hand moves back up to rest on the back of the chair.

He doesn't want to do this and I don't blame him. Nadia is playing a game here and it's falling on her terms. Luca doesn't seem to know what to do and judging by the way his body has gone tense next to me, I know he's trying to protect me for what's about to happen which is something no one can predict.

"Fine," Luca finally says. "Kaylee, this is Nadia." I look back at Nadia who waves at me with a self-satisfied look on her face."Louisa's biological mother. Nadia, this is my fiancée Kaylee."

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" Nadia smirks, sitting up straighter.

"What do you want?" Luca asks again.

"You may be wondering as to why I'm here," Nadia starts which generates a roll of the eyes from both Carlo and Jones, "and the explanation is simple, really." She bats her lashes at me a couple of times before looking up at Luca. "I want access to my daughter."

My eyes widen and it's the same expression both Carlo and Jones have on their faces.

It's a joke.

It's got to be.

She can't be serious. She gave away all rights she had to Louisa over to Luca when she left. There's no way in hell she can be serious.

"Your daughter? Are you fucking kidding me?" Luca shouts. "She isn't your daughter anymore, Nadia! You gave up all your rights to her when you up sticks and left!"

I watch Luca as he moves away from my side and begins to pace back and forth. His hands are balled into fists and he's vigorously shaking his head, repeating the phrase 'No fucking chance. Not a chance in Hell' over and over again.

After all the things we've gone through recently from someone trying to pit Luca and Fredrick against each other by trying to buy out their airline, to me being watched by Terrence, then someone following Luca's dad, and the break-in at Luca's flat – this takes all those stresses to an entire new level.

I don't see why Nadia has come back at this point in time or why she has come back all together. Luca went through the proper court proceedings to get full custody of his daughter and Nadia willingly gave up custody of their daughter without any questions asked. She even went through a medical to see if she was suffering from postnatal depression or something else.

She wasn't.

She was as healthy as someone could be after giving birth.

To this day, I still can't wrap my head around how someone could give up their baby – a mother especially – after taking care of her for little over a month. It still baffles me like nothing else ever has before.

"I'm her biological mother, Luca." Nadia reminds him calmly. "You can't keep me from her."

Luca stops pacing and comes back to the desk. "I damn well can when I have full custody and you said you wanted nothing to do with her."