I feel uncomfortable under Luca's gaze. He's been staring at me since I came home and sat down at the island in the kitchen. His stare only intensified when I told him the details that Jones left out. The uneasy feeling running through my entire body has me feeling like I'm about to be interrogated for what I did, not knowing for sure if I did the right or wrong thing. I can't tell if Luca's angry at what happened or grateful that Nadia has finally seen that it's more than just himself she's messing with now.
Either way, I wish he would say something to me instead of standing across from me looking with no expression showing on his face as to how he's feeling.
"Aren't you going to say something?" I glance at Nick and Jane for some help but they're busy making dinner to take notice of how still and quiet Luca is. I know they can hear our conversation and are choosing not to get involved – yet. "I mean, the things she said-"
"If I could get away with it, I would personally kill her." Luca finally says, cutting me off. His hands grip the edge of the worktop and he shakes his head before pushing away from the island. He groans in frustration. "She's deluded. She's actually that fucking gullible!"
"Luca, language." Nick reminds with a nod of the head upstairs to where Louisa is doing her homework.
"What else can I say when my ex is a deluded bitch?" Luca fires back at his dad without realising how angry he's becoming. "She's duped herself into thinking that the one meeting we had in my office went well. She thinks we're on good terms and that she's always been a part of Louisa's life when she hasn't. Everything she has told Kaylee's boss is built on lies."
"I know but you need to be wary as to how you act when it comes to this topic. Louisa may be young but she's very smart for her age like you were at that age. She'll easily pick up on everything that's happening and being said about Nadia."
"You can't expect me to let this go easily. She's sprouting things that are untrue and damaging to my family and it's-"
"Provoking you which is exactly what she's wanting," Nick finishes. He tastes the sauce he's busy making and nods. "You need to be in a clear headspace for Monday which is why I'm advising you to spend the weekend with your family. It will give you a clearer mind and it will calm you down."
Luca folds his arms over his chest and looks down at the floor. "Are you saying that as my father or as a lawyer?"
"Both. Mainly as your father, though."
"And I'm telling you as your mother," Jane starts, moving to stand next to her son, "to take a moment to think about your responses to Nadia's lawyers when they ask you things."
"My lawyers have already told me that," Luca sighs.
"Good." She looks at me before stepping closer to Luca and lowering her voice. "On Monday morning, come to my office and I'll go through some techniques you can use to keep yourself in the right mind-set."
He looks at her and flashes her a brief smile. "Thank you."
Jane returns his smile and pulls at him to lower down so she can kiss his cheek. "I'll fit you into the diary." She turns to me. "My offer to talk to yourself still stands. I know we're talking mainly about Luca and how it's impacting him and his business but it's impacting on you, too."
"Mother, we spoke about this." Luca moves to stand next to me. "Don't bring-"
"I'm merely just mentioning it." She holds her hands up in defence. "My office door is always open to family. It's something to think about."
"Thank you, Jane. I'll keep that in mind."
I look up at Luca and he kisses my forehead, his hands running back and forth over my shoulders.
"Anyhow," Nick practically shouts, getting everyone's attention to him, "all those issues are issues for a different day." He wipes his hands with a tea towel and reaches into a nearby cupboard for plates. "Dinner is ready."
"I'll get Louisa," Jane says while leaving the kitchen.
Nick sets about setting the table in the dining room and I turn to face Luca more directly.
"Your dad's right, you know." I place my hands on his waist. "You need to take time for yourself this weekend before everything officially kicks off."
"I know which is why I was thinking that we could do something together as a family. Just you, me and Louisa. Maybe something public."
"That would be rubbed in Nadia's face when she sees us out and about acting like a proper family," I point out with a smirk playing on my lips. "It is tempting but I think it would be best to do something more private. Away from prying eyes."
"That would be best. Plus, it's something we haven't actually done just the three of us." He validates. "And it will give us the chance to tell Louisa that we're getting married."
"I'd be careful with that one, Kaylee." Jane advises, coming back into the kitchen. She comes to a stop next to me and leans in close, her eyes narrowing up at her son. "She may start asking for a brother or sister as soon as she knows you aren't going anywhere."
"Mother." Luca's voice says as a warning but it's laced with a hint of a groan.
Jane pulls back and begins to move the food to the dining table. "I'm just stating the truth. Our little princess up there has been an only child all her life and now she knows her daddy has found his queen, she will start asking for siblings."
"I think what your mother is trying to say is that she wants an excuse to buy baby clothes again," Nick adds with a grin.
Luca moans and his forehead falls against mine. "Kill me now. Seriously. Kill me now."
I laugh.
On the outside, I'm laughing at Luca's reaction. He wants more children, something we only spoke of recently and that's still so fresh in my mind, so it shouldn't come as a shock to him that his own mum wants to be a grandmother again. However, on the inside, I'm freaking out because it's an even bigger step for us to take than getting engaged. Something that has clearly slipped Jane's mind but I'll let her have her little outburst of hope because Luca and I know where we stand on the matter.
"It would be nice to have a little one running around here again," Jane continues.
"It would," Nick agrees.
Luca shakes his head.
I move my hands to his face. "Deep breaths now, Luca. Deep breaths"
"Or two. Maybe even three or four." Jane continues. "Not all at the one time, though."
"Mother, please." Luca pulls back and looks at his mum. "We only just got engaged. Can't you at least wait until we get married before you start asking for more grandkids?"
Jane shrugs. "I could but when is it you're thinking of getting married? I mean, it's no offence to either of you, but we're all getting old here. I'm sure Stan and Yvette would like to run around after their grandkids while they're still young enough to do so."
"Mother!"
I place a hand on Luca's back and get to my feet. "I'm sure it will happen when it's supposed to happen. There's no rush."
Jane gapes at me like she's about to call me out on my words but doesn't. She glances at Luca then back to me, closing her mouth and nodding with a slight shrug.
"Hmm, fair enough." Jane finishes before disappearing into the dining room.
Louisa comes down the stairs and smiles at us before skipping her way into the dining room.
Luca sighs with content and looks back at me. "You have to tell me how you did that to my mother."
"Didn't you know that your mum and I have an understanding with each other?" I grin.
I move around him and walk towards the dining room.
"That's a load of crap but I'll let you off with it." He follows me closely. "I'm too hungry to get into another conversation as heavy as the ones we've just had."
There's no time for a proper breakfast the next morning. We're up and dressed, and out the door before nine. We're on the road heading out of the city before we know it, Carlo driving in the car in front of us and Jones following in the car behind. The radio's on but turned down low and Louisa is content in the back seat with a pair of headphones on listening to her own music as she reads a book.
"Another escape from the city?" I ponder with a raised brow, knowing all too well that I'm right.
"I just want this weekend to consist of the three of us enjoying time as a family. I don't know when we'll be able to do this again so I'm going to take advantage of it while I can. While wecan." He stops talking to follow Carlo's lead and overtake a vehicle. "Carlo and Jones will be staying close by with their own families so they'll be on standby if we need them."
I frown. "What do you mean when you say 'while we can'?"
Luca looks at me briefly and inhales deeply. "I've arranged for you to fly back to London for the next week."
"No." I shake my head defiantly. "Nope. Not going to happen. I told you I would be by your side through all of this and I meant it."
"It's not that I don't want you there but I think it would be best for you to go home this week and spend it with your family. Spend time with your-"
"No, Luca!" I yell. "This is you trying to push me away and it's not happening."
"Kaylee, please. This is for your safety as well as mine."
"Nope. Not happening."
"Kaylee, do you really think I want you to go back to London?" He looks at me then back to the road. His hands grip the steering wheel tightly. "I need you now more than ever."
"And that's why I'm not going anywhere," I uphold.
"But you going back to see your family will get you in a better headspace for when you come back. You'll need to be in a better headspace for when you come back."
"Headspace for what?"
"For when you get called to speak in court," he answers quickly. He glances at me. "You'll be called as a key witness that's going to be in Nadia's favour."
"I-" I swallow hard and look down at my fingers as they continue to run back and forth over my wool-blended coat. "C-Can she do that?"
He nods.
"But why? What have I got to say that's part of this whole thing?"
I can't believe what I'm hearing. I wasn't a physical part of his relationship with Nadia. Heck, I wasn't even aware of his relationship with Nadia when they were together. I only became aware of it when he came back into my life. Sure, Luca told me that I wasn't far from his thoughts when he was with Nadia but knowing him for as long as I have, I know he would never have acted on any of his thoughts.
Not truly, anyway.
"Because I publicly declared that I always loved you, Nadia is using that as leverage against me and saying that I made her have Louisa."
"But you didn't." I look at Louisa in the backseat and lower my voice. "You said she wasn't planned."
"I know that but the way she's spun it will have the courts thinking otherwise."
I slump back in the seat and shake my head. "What a load of shit!"
"Now you're being dragged into this because she says she has text messages that state that you and I staged our separation. Apparently, they are from the time that I was with Nadia but I know there's no such thing."
"All of that is nothing but lies. She's clearly made all of this up!"
"You know she has. I know she has. My lawyers know she has. Both of our families know she has but it makes no difference."
"Has she found anything else I should know about? Anything I need to prepare myself for?"
His eyes move frantically across the road and the buildings that line either side of it. There is something and he's nervous to even say the words. He swallows hard. "I may have kept the mobile phone I had back then that contains all the text messages and voice mails you sent me."
"But she hasn't got that, right? Please tell me you have it somewhere that only you have access to and somewhere she would never think to look for it."
"I do," he responds quickly. "Or . . . I did."
"What?" I shriek. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
"I'm telling you about it now," he feebly explains.
"I should have known about it before now."
"And I agree if I didn't just find out about it yesterday."
"Explain."
He takes a deep breath and flexes his grip on the steering wheel.
"I had it stored in my safe that's behind a false panel in my bedroom. I keep all important documents in there but no one knows the code for it."
"Then how is it missing?"
"When I went back to my apartment yesterday to sign everything off for us to move back in, I went into the safe to put something in it my lawyers gave to me. It's not something that can be missed because it sits inside the wooden box I made at high school."
"The one you designated to store all momentous items in for safe keeping," I interject.
"Yes," he confirms. He adjusts his sitting position before going on. "Anyway, it sits at the back of the safe and I didn't think anything of it but something told me to take a look inside of it. Even when I pulled it out of the safe, I had an awful feeling inside that as soon as I opened it, something would be missing. I didn't know what it would be but I just knew something wouldn't be there.
"So, I opened it and the phone is always the first thing you see when you look into it but it wasn't there. There was no sign of it sitting in the safe itself or the charger that's stored next to the box. It was gone and I went into a panic. I started rummaging through everything in the safe and the bedroom. I checked everywhere in my home for it but I couldn't find a thing."
"But it doesn't answer the previous question I had as to how it actually went missing."
"I didn't think Nadia knew about the code. She was never around to see me enter the code but I do remember there being one time that she caught me locking the safe but said nothing about it."
"Doesn't prove she knew what was in there, though." I don't know why I'm defending someone like Nadia over this. I wouldn't put it past her to do something like this if I'm honest. "Unless, the code you have for it is easy to guess."
"It . . . sort of . . . may be." He draws out.
"Which is?" I press, wanting to know but not wanting to know at the same time.
"I'm sure you can guess it."
I roll my eyes. "I know it's not going to be your birthday."
"Nope."
He glances at me then looks back at the road.
"Mine?"
He presses his lips firmly together and nods.
I reach out and smack him hard on the arm. "Why the fuck would you do that?"
"Kaylee, language."
I glance to the backseat and catch Louisa looking at me. She smiles at me then goes back to reading her book. I look back at him and scowl. "I'm sorry but you are such a prick. How stupid could you have been? You don't use your exes date of birth as your safe code. That's just asking for trouble."
"I'm sorry but I wasn't ready to let you go. I wasn't ready for things to be different back then. I spent way too long trying to get over you and every time I thought I was over you, something popped up that reminded me of you."
"And that would be the code to get into your safe," I snidely interrupt.
"I know it was a stupid thing to do but it did the job of keeping people from getting into the safe. No one would have guessed that I would have had my ex-girlfriend's birthday as my code."
"No but I can see why it's no surprise that Nadia got that phone. She's done her research on me and put two and two together to get something she knew would go in her favour. You've just handed her the holy grail of this entire thing. You've given her the fuel to destroy you and your company in the one fucking go and when that happens, you only have yourself to blame."
He doesn't respond to my hurtful words because he knows I'm right. He knows that when he loses everything after the court hearing, he will only have himself to blame. He will be his own downfall and it will have everyone around him turn on his without a second thought.
He will go on a downward spiral and won't know where the bottom is until he gets there because all the bad things will keep coming from all directions. He won't know which battle to fight because they'll soon merge into one. It will all get too much to handle and he'll break. He'll be at his weakest and that's when Nadia will rub it in his face because it's what she'll be waiting in the wings to do.
She'll pounce like she did when he was at his happiest. She'll offer him a deal that he won't be able to refuse and he'll accept it because he'll see it as his only way to get out of the rut he's gotten himself into. He'll repeat all his past mistakes which means there will be no more us because Nadia will be the overall winner.
I turn my attention to look out the window and wipe my eyes at the tears that start to fall. Just thinking of what may happen . . . what most likely will happen . . . the fear that creeps over you when you think of it . . . you can't help but cry at the thought.
I reach out and turn the volume of the radio up so it can drown out the bad thoughts that don't stop coming into my head. I need something to overpower the fear and music is the only thing that will do that.
The rest of the drive passes in a blur before I take note of Luca pulling the car off the main road and onto the driveway of his Hamptons home. He doesn't say anything until we've come to a complete stop and gotten in the house. He settles a sleeping Louisa down on the couch in the living room, placing a thick-knitted blanket over her, before joining me in kitchen as I stand looking out of the bi-fold patio doors.
"I think it's best I go back home," I sigh, folding my arms over my chest. "Not because you've already arranged it and because you want me to get into the right mind-set." I look at him. "But because I can't be around all these secrets that are surfacing. I need time to be normal."
"Nothing will ever be-" I glare at him before he has a chance to finish what it is he was going to say. He nods his head and slips his hands into his jeans pockets. "Fair enough. I'll drive you to the airport first thing in the morning."
"Monday night," I correct.
"Monday?"
I nod. "I'm going to go to work on Monday and tell my boss that I can't work on Nadia's event anymore. I'll tell her it's too close for comfort because of the trial – which I will tell her all about – and that I should distance myself from everything connected to her."
"I see." He looks at the floor, inhaling quietly. "I understand and I respect your decision."
"Good." I turn and look at him. "We should enjoy this weekend before all hell starts breaking loose next week."