Being sat sitting in front of both Nick and Jane Madden as they stare intensely down at you is very unsettling. It's almost like you're a kid again who has gotten into trouble and you're getting a telling off for whatever it is you've done. In this case, it's not something that either Luca or I have done but something that someone else has done.
Nick is standing with his arms folded over his chest whereas Jane is standing with her hands on her hips, her dark red lips pursed. They're both waiting for Luca and I to say something, anything, but we don't know what to say.
What can you say in this situation? How can you explain why someone you've been looking for has suddenly shown up out of the blue? How can you explain that that said someone is now demanding their parental rights back? How can you put into words how messed up things have become in such a short period of time when things were making a turn for the best?
Simply put . . . you can't.
No one can.
"What did she say to you exactly?" Nick has repeatedly asked us this exact question since we left Luca's office nearly an hour ago. It was the first thing he asked as soon as he found out about Nadia being back and the very first thing he asked as soon as we stepped into his home office. "I need to know her exact words if we are to get ahead of whatever it is she may be planning."
"She basically said that she wanted access to Louisa," Luca says after a loud sigh.
"Not happening," Jane says defiantly. "I hope you told her that."
"Of course I did." Luca snaps. "I'm not letting her anywhere near my daughter. I don't give a fuck who her so-called husband is. She won't get close enough to even get a glimpse of her."
"Hold on a second." Nick raises a finger and frowns. "Husband? She has a husband now? Since when?"
"No idea but that's what she said." Luca pinches the edge of the armrest of the charcoal coloured chair he's sitting on next to me, then taps it a few times before scoffing. "She even said he was more than ready to go head-to-head with me for not only my daughter but for my business, too."
"Did she mention what part of your business?"
"No."
"Your airline company," Jane states. Everyone looks at her. "It's your airline company. That's what her so-called husband is after."
"We don't know that for sure, Jane." Nick responds.
"Just think about it. What part of Luca's company has been targeted with takeover offers recently? What brings in the most income to his company every year? What would destroy his company more if he lost it?"
"I can think of a lot more than just the different sectors of his company that would break him if he lost them," Nick calmly answers.
"I'm not talking about his personal life."
"But I am."
"His personal life isn't plastered over the news every day. The things he does for work are."
"Now that he confessed his love for Kaylee to the world and spoke openly about her to a magazine, it's always going to be written about in the news. It's how whoever trashed his apartment got information and photos of the two of them."
"That can easily be concealed. He did it once before and he will do it again."
"But that won't matter now that everyone knows who Kaylee is." Jane groans loudly and looks away from her husband. "It also won't matter now that they're engaged. Something that is a happy moment for both of their families and a moment that should be celebrated regardless of other circumstances."
Jane shakes her head and throws her arms up in defeat before turning on the spot and walking off to the opposite end of the room. She stops at the windows that looks back onto the main house and places both hands back on her hips, her shoulders rising and falling as she calms herself down.
"We could go on and on with conspiracy theories as to why she chose this exact moment to come back," Luca speaks up. "We could drive ourselves insane trying to find the reason but it will get us nowhere. It will only get us playing right into her hands and that's what she will be wanting."
"We need to be smart and work closely with each other to be miles ahead of her before she makes another unexpected move," Nick adds.
"How can we when we don't know what her next move will be?" Jane asks. She turns and stares at her husband who stares back at her. "I'm not saying any of us are dumb, we're far from it, but between all of us here, none of us will ever get close enough to her to figure out what her intentions are."
"Which brings up the question as to where she'll turn up next where one of us are present."
"My meeting with my boss next week," I tell them.
Their gazes turn to me and I press my lips firmly together.
"She has recruited my company to be her event planners for future events," I explain.
Jane walks back to the desk and folds her arms over her chest. She stares down at me with narrowed eyes. "Since when?"
"Since she hired us to plan her wedding in less than two weeks."
"Which you say you had no idea who the client was," Luca mutters.
I stare at Luca with a frown. "I didn't know. No one did other than my boss."
"How could you not know that you were working for her?" He snaps.
My mouth falls open in shock. "How can you even ask me that? I never met her. I didn't even know her name. It was my boss who met with her. She worked closely with her and gave her everything all of us worked hard on. None of us even asked who it was we were working so damn hard for."
"Just like none of you knew that you were working for me when I gave my work to your company to do." Luca clasps his hands together and rests them on his lap before looking at me.
"That's because we were technically working for Cheryl! She was the one who came into the office. She was the one people seen attending the meetings. Not once did you, your name or your company name ever come up."
"Don't turn this on me," he warns.
"I'm not turning it onto you. I'm turning it back to you because you turned it onto me. I'm not to blame for this and neither are you."
"Really? Because from where I'm sitting it was your company that planned her whole wedding which has most likely seen her marry one of my main competitors. One of which seems to have it in for both Fredrick and I because-"
Luca stops talking abruptly and looks past me like something just clicked together in his head. His eyes narrow then he looks up at his dad.
"The Bailey's," Luca breathes. He gets to his feet and rests a hand on the dark oak desk. "We bought the airline from them before it went bust."
Nick tilts his head to the side then nods at Luca's assumption. "And there's only one male sibling amongst them who never wanted to sell the airline to you and Fredrick in the first place."
"Exactly. He hates Fredrick and I with a passion. He would do anything to see us fall."
"Even marry the mother of your child to get at you."
"Please tell me that the both of you aren't thinking it's them. Especially the boy," Jane interjects.
"We're not saying it is for definite but we also can't rule them out," Nick clarifies.
Luca stands up straight. "There's only one way to know for sure, though."
"Luca, please don't do what I think you're going to do." Jane begs.
"What? Accept an invite to an art gallery opening of one of my closest friends that just so happens to be in business with the Bailey's? Mother, I am merely going to support my friend and if any of them are there, so be it."
Luca holds his hand out for me to take. I place my hand in his and get to my feet.
"Luca, I know you and I know this won't end well for anyone involved," Jane warns. She steps to her son and places her hands on his chest. "Think about your next move carefully. Don't give Nadia any fuel for the fire she is lighting."
With his free hand, Luca covers one of her hands and squeezes it. "I know what I'm doing. Trust me."
"Jane, he's merely going to see if he's right and if he is, we know what our next step will have to be." Nick assures while sitting down behind his desk. "He will just have to work fast so we can be ahead of the game."
Jane looks to Nick then to Luca before her eyes settle on me.
"Don't let him do anything stupid," she all but whispers, her eyes glazing over with unshed tears.
"I won't," I reply.
She flashes me a brief smile as a way of thanking me without saying the actual words. She steps away from Luca and we walk in the direction of the stairs to the ground floor and out of the building.
"Your mum is worried." My grip on Luca's hand loosens but I don't let go. "Your dad seems to understand what it is you're going to do."
"My mother needn't be worried. I know what I'm doing and so does my father."
"I have to admit this and it pains me to admit it," I start. We stop walking across the finely slabbed courtyard. I let go of Luca's hand and he moves to stand in front of me, a puzzled look on his face. "The thing Nadia said about you having someone follow me . . . I . . . It brought back memories of those times and how crazy I felt thinking someone may have been after me."
"I didn't do it to scare you or to make you think someone was after you," he defends weakly. "I did it for peace of mind. To see if I had a chance to get back together with you when I ended things with Nadia."
"Luca, we've been over this. You shouldn't have done that."
"But I did and you're right, we have been over this. So why are we revisiting this?"
His tone of voice is laced with boredom, almost like he's sick and tired of going over things that have been laid to rest. I don't blame him. Even I'm sick and tired of going over things that have already been brought up and dealt with but they're still things that have to be dealt with completely. Not just swept under a rug for another day.
"Because you had me thinking I was losing the plot!" I scream while recoiling from him.
He reaches a hand out to me but I step further away before he gets a chance to touch me.
"No!" I hold a finger up at him. "You don't get to make me look at you while you come out with some lame excuse as to why you did it because we've been over this. We've been over your whole 'I waited for you' speech and now I've found out you had me followed!"
"Kaylee, don't do this." He closes the gap between us and before I have a chance to sidestep him, his hands cup my face and he tilts my face up to look at him. "I'm begging you."
"You had me followed, Luca. I can't just let that go."
I put my hands on his arms and gently push him away from me. He's reluctant to let me go but does so anyway. I walk around him and walk towards the door leading into the main house, my head lowered and gaze focused on the ground.
"You're letting her win by doing this," Luca calls.
I run a finger over my bottom lip, stop walking, and shake my head. "No, I'm not."
"You are."
I turn and look at him. He's turned on the spot and is staring at me.
"You were fine with the fact that I waited for you and now she's mentioned that I sent a private investigator out to look for you, you're shutting me out."
"I was never fine with you waiting for me, Luca." I admit. "I dealt with it because the love I have for you is still as strong as it was even back then. I never thought I'd see you again, let alone become engaged to you."
"Did you even contemplate looking for me?" He takes a single step closer to me. "If you loved me that much, did the thought ever cross your mind to look for me?"
"And where would that have gotten us? As far as I was concerned, you didn't love me anymore. We were done and as you told me before, it wouldn't have been fair on trying to continue the relationship being that far apart."
"You knew me better than anyone else. You still do know me better than anyone else. It would have gotten us to a stage of marriage long before now. It would have gotten us a child of two of our own by now. We wouldn't be standing here having a stupid fucking argument about something the mother of my child said to try and divide us!"
"But that was my choice and I made it because I had to forget about you instead of dwindling over the past and the what could have been scenarios."
Luca says nothing. Instead, he grins and shakes his head.
I frown.
"You know, I said this would happen." He starts. He looks up to the sky and holds his arms out to the side. "And I was fucking right!"
"Luca, wha-" I begin.
"This!" He yells, looking back at me and pointing to us both. "This is what I said would happen as soon as Nadia turned up. I knew she'd say something that would have you rethinking every fucking thing that's ever happened in your life after we split up. It's got you rethinking us."
"Luca, I'm not rethinking anything. Especially not about us."
Luca shrugs. "Then why are we even having this conversation?"
"We're having this conversation because you did something years ago that made me feel like I was losing the plot." I explain calmly, trying to reign in the escalating change in emotions between us.
He's starting to lose the plot and it's drawing a lot of unwanted attention from not only his mum and dad who are now looking out at us from the office but from the neighbours who are almost hanging out the windows to see what's happening.
"Luca, ple-" I start to plead before he cuts me off.
"And who told you about that? Hmm? Who brought it to light?" He rambles.
"Nadia did and I'm glad she did so because now we've spoken about it and she can't use it against us like you seem to think is going to happen."
"This is only the beginning of what she'll do. Trust me. Everything you can think of that someone would do to get between two people who are in a relationship, she'll do it. She'll do anything to get her way. Even more so with a rival of mine by her side."
"But you have good lawyers and people around you who love and care for you deeply." I step cautiously towards him. "They know the truth and that's all that matters."
"Are you kidding me? The truth won't help us in this situation."
"Then let the lawyers do what they're paid to do. Don't give Nadia what she clearly wants which, as of right now, is to get between us." I stop in front of him and grip the lapels of his jacket with both hands. "She's not getting in my head but she is with yours. Don't let her get in your head, Luca. Don't let her win."
"I won't," he affirms. "She won't win. Not by a long shot."
"Good," I nod in agreement. "Now you really need to get over your sudden outburst before your mum comes down and starts to talk to us about our 'problems'."
I mention up to the window of the office where Jane and Nick are clearly watching over us. Luca follows my gaze then nods. He puts an arm over my shoulders, tenderly pulling at me so I let him go and move to walk next to him.
"I know and you're right. I'm sorry." He holds the back door open for me to step into the house then follows me in. "I knew she would have changed from what I knew her to be but to this extent . . . I didn't think she'd bowl that low below the belt."
We walk up the stairs to the living room and stop at the top of them as Louisa comes into view. She's sitting with a middle-aged, blonde haired woman on the couch reading a book, and Xavier sitting on the chair by the window on his phone.
"You need to remember that Louisa is technically the one in the middle between the two of you," I point out.
Luca sighs heavily. "I know but it's more like two in the middle."
"Two?"
"You and Louisa."
"I can take care of myself."
"Not with Nadia around."
"Luca . . ."
"Which is why I will accept the invitation to the gallery opening I mentioned in my father's office. Fredrick and Jade will be there, too, so it's not going to be too bad."
"Luca, I know you're planning something but please be careful about how you execute it. You don't know how much information she has that can be used against any one of us."
"All I'm going to do is add some ice cold water to the fire she's started and put it out." He smiles as he looks at Louisa. "For now."
I look at Louisa then back to Luca.
This isn't going to be over anytime soon. It's just the beginning of a long line of things to come.