"Are you and my daddy getting married?" Louisa asks out loud during dinner on Sunday night.
After spending the rest of Saturday relaxing and most of today doing much of the same, this is the conversation some would say that Luca and I were avoiding. It hasn't been much of the avoiding as much as it's been that we haven't found the right moment to bring it up with Louisa. We've just been enjoying time together as a family which is something we haven't properly done.
It's been nice getting to know Louisa considering how much she already seems to know about me. I've found out that despite her sweet tooth, she's only allowed to have sweets on special occasions because it makes her way too hyper. Her favourite ice-cream flavour is strawberry and she loves strawberry Twizzlers – both of which she gets from her grandparents when she stays with them. She admitted to me that her dad doesn't know but Luca told me he knows but keeps up the pretence for his daughter's sake.
I also found out that she loves travelling to Britain when she gets to go with her dad. She loves the friends she's made there and how the life she has over there isn't as strict as the one she has here. She's more free to be a child over there because she can go out and play in the garden like she can here, but it's something she can't do when they live in an apartment overlooking the city.
With the way she spoke about her life here, I'm not surprised to hear her speak of her fondness of getting to escape the craziness for something that's peaceful yet fun at the same time.
I glance at Luca to find him staring at me, his fork stopped midway to his mouth. He blinks a few times but says nothing.
"We . . . uh . . . Luca?" I stutter. I clear my throat and raise my brows quickly, looking for him to answer the question how it should be answered.
He licks his lips and places his fork down on his plate.
"Louisa," he starts, dabbing his mouth with his napkin, "Kaylee and I will be getting married. We just don't know when, yet."
"Did you use that ring you've had for a long long time?"
My head falls to the side and I frown at Luca. "Louisa knew about the ring?"
"Well-" Luca begins but gets cut off by Louisa.
"In the stories he tells me, he always says he has a ring for the love of his life." She explains like she's always known that her dad would end up with me. She smiles on a nod. "He says he's been waiting to give it to the most special person in his life which is you."
"Did he now?" I smirk and look at Louisa. "Have you seen the ring?"
She nods. "My gran showed it to me."
"And what did you think of it?"
"It's beautiful." She eats a mouthful of mashed potatoes and nods. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Do you think your dad has done good with the ring?"
"He has."
Luca sniggers and picks up his glass of water to take a drink.
"Do you think I've done good with asking Kaylee to marry me?" Luca queries, waiting on his daughter's response.
"Mmhm," she nods without any hesitation. "You were unhappy before."
I laugh loudly but try to cover it up with my hands covering my mouth quickly. Luca glares at me and I shrug.
"You were quite stuck up when I met you again," I admit.
"I was not!" He defends. He looks at Louisa. "And I was not miserable."
"You were." Louisa and I say in unison.
"How? How was I miserable?"
"You didn't go anywhere. You would only do work things with uncle Fred and auntie Jade," Louisa explains. She pushes her plate away and wipes her mouth with her napkin. "Can I be excused to go and play before bed?"
"Yes, you may." Luca agrees. "And remember that we leave early in the morning to get you to school."
He waits for Louisa to leave the room before turning his attention back to me. "Now you."
"Hey, just be grateful that I know the truth to the lies you've been telling her about never going out," I whisper.
"I'm not talking about that," he brushes off with a shake of the head.
I raise a brow. "You mean about me saying you were stuck up?"
"Yes."
"You were, though."
"In what way was I acting like I was stuck up?"
"I think it was the whole turning up at my flat in an Audi R8 that did it," I remind. I take a drink and lean back in my seat. "Then there was the whole thing with you getting the gossip sites to not print any news about us the night we were at dinner in your hotel. Oh, and there was giving the orders out to Carlo and saying he would sort everything as well as Trent."
"But that's who I am as a person. I give out orders to people."
"Yes, now you are. You were acting so different to the person I once knew and it made you very stuck up."
"I am entitled to drive any car I wish as I have the funds in which to do so."
"But turning up at my house in an R8 would most definitely get people talking. Which it did, I may add."
"I . . . fair enough." He pushes back from the table slightly. "I do admit that I was just trying to impress you."
"But it was you. I didn't and I don't need you to impress me. All I needed then was to try and get over the shock of seeing you again after so long. Then I needed answers."
He looks down at the table and taps it a few times before making an attempt to respond to my words. "I just thought that after that amount of time I had been away for you'd need to see how much I changed in more ways than one." He alters his sitting position but still doesn't look at me. "Kaylee, when people see me, the first thing they see is a man who is well dressed and who has money. If it's a woman, they go for my looks first. They start swooning over me like a piece of meat and when you didn't do any of that-"
"You thought you needed to up your game," I finish.
"Exactly!" He confirms, finally looking at me.
"If that was the case, you should have just spoken to me like how we used to speak and how we're speaking now."
"But that's the thing; we were a couple back then and could talk to each other about anything and everything. I knew the way I left things between us would most likely still be an issue and I didn't want to come out with the things I would have come out with back then. We were different people back then. We're different people now."
"But you still should have known that you didn't need to impress me because it's me. Heck, I was more impressed with seeing you in my kitchen the morning after my drink was spiked than I was when I saw you with that R8."
"You just liked seeing my muscles," he grins.
I laugh.
"Considering the fact that I knew you when you were a scrawny git, yes."
"Touché." He gets to his feet. "I can also remember when you had bleach blonde hair."
I groan and stand up. "Uh, don't remind me."
"Not a good look for you, I must admit."
"I learned the hard way when I agreed to let Allison dye my hair. My mum went off on one when she saw what we did. Allison's mum hit the roof when she saw her bright red hair."
We begin tidying everything away.
"Just be lucky we were already dating for a year when it happened," Luca winks as I hand him the plates to put in the dishwasher.
"You just like brunettes," I tease.
"The only brunette I like is the one I'm engaged to."
I recoil with my mouth falling open, pretending to be annoyed. "Now you just 'like' me? And here I thought you loved me."
I turn and walk out of the kitchen, heading for the stairs to go up to the bedroom.
"Kaylee," Luca calls.
"Nope, don't think so," I respond as if I'm upset. "I thought we were going somewhere but not now."
I can hear footsteps move quickly, making me pick up my walking pace before running up the stairs to make my escape. I only make it to the top step before Luca's arms encircle my waist and pull me back against his chest.
"I could never love anyone like I love you," he whispers into my ear. I turn in his hold to face him. "And I hope you never forget that even with everything that's going to be happening over the coming weeks."
I place a chaste kiss on his lips and pull out of his hold. "And that's why I like teasing you when I can."
"And that is what will always keep me grounded because I know you love me," he sighs with content.
The drive back to the city doesn't seem long but that may be because my mind is focused on what's going to happen at work today. The thought of going to work and facing Nadia didn't cross my mind until I got into the car this morning. Even when Luca mentioned that his jet is waiting for me after I finished work, the thought still didn't enter my head.
Now that we're nearing Bailey Tech, the thought of facing the one person I can't be bothered with seeing is starting to get me angry. I can't stand the thought of having to be nice to the one person who doesn't deserve my niceness. The one person who has everyone wrapped around her stupid lies and who has everyone doing anything she tells them to do. The one and only person that I have had no choice but to be nice to for the sake of my boss and my job.
"Just remember that Jones will be standing right outside the meeting room if you need him," I finally hear Luca remind me for the umpteenth time since this morning. It's all he's been saying to me since we woke up but I've tuned the exact phrase out until this moment. "It shouldn't take you too long to explain the situation and to be out of there and on your way to the airport. However, if it does-"
"I've already got Chloe on standby to phone me with an emergency if I need it," I enlighten. He briefly looks at me before looking back to the road. "As long as you have everything covered encase anyone comes snooping."
"Jackie won't be the issue." I inhale deeply and run a hand over my face. "More than likely it will be Nadia who'll be the issue."
"And that's why Jones will be close by to intervene if need be."
Our conversation ends there and nothing else is said until we come to a stop at the entrance to the office building of Bailey Tech. I give Luca a quick kiss and get out the car, joining Jones who is standing only a couple of feet from me.
"Miss. Fletcher," he acknowledges with a tight nod.
"Good morning, Jones," I respond as he moves to walk only a step behind me.
"Please don't take my comment out of line but it seems that you are dressed for battle with the devil, as they would say."
I glance down at my simple attire for the day; black heeled suede over-the-knee boots covering my black denim jeans, black turtleneck top concealed under my dark blue blazer. It's not much of a battle outfit as Jones put it but it's one that I know will make me feel more at ease for what's about to happen. it's also an outfit I'll feel somewhat comfortable in for travelling.
"I was merely thinking ahead," I clarify.
"If you say so," he finishes before we enter the building.
We make it up to the thirty-third floor before we know it and walk in the direction of the meeting room we've come accustomed to going to. Jones takes up his usual place just to the left of the door outside the meeting room as I walk into the silent room.
I frown and glance around the silent and empty meeting room.
"Something wrong, Kaylee?" Nadia cheerfully asks, coming into the room behind me and bypassing me to sit a folder down on the table.
"I was . . . I was just wondering where Jackie and Oscar were." I sit my bag down on the table, keeping my distance from Nadia who is busy brushing her hands down the sides of her satin wrap dress. "I thought we were meant to start sharp this morning."
"We are," she nods. She turns to face me. "But didn't you get the email over the weekend?"
"I was busy over the weekend," I partly lie. I don't need to tell her what I was doing over the weekend that kept me away from my phone and everything work related. I could if I wanted to rub salt in her wounds but I'm not that evil. "We do have lives away from work despite what some of our clients think."
"Well, things have now changed." She smiles brightly.
She searches through her folder for something before holding a piece of paper up for me to see. I can't see it clearly meaning I need to walk closer to her to even see what it is let alone read it.
I walk close enough to her so I can see what it is she's holding out to me. "What's this for?"
"It's an email from Jackie stating that things have changed starting today." She pulls the paper back and places it back in the folder. "Both she and Oscar have had to pull back on their work as they've come down with some virus that's going about."
"Virus? What virus? What are you talking about?" I quiz.
"Oh, it's pretty bad. More than half of the staff here are off with it."
I look out of the glass door at the busy corridor. "More than half the staff? You sure about that?"
"Definitely."
"Because it would seem that the corridors out there are more or less the same packed corridors they always are."
She follows my gaze and I watch her closely, looking for a sign of her lie starting to show but nothing changes. Instead, she shrugs and goes back to looking at the items in her folder.
"That's all I've heard. I'm just relaying what I was told and what I've read. For all I know, they've closed off the other side of the floor to fumigate because of it. I don't know. My husband's one of the bosses. Not me."
"I-" I scoff and turn my back on Nadia, walking slowly back to where my bag is sitting. I know that's a blatant lie she's telling me because Jackie has never taken a day off work in all the time I've known her. She even turned up to work when she had the flu which had everyone in the office eventually calling off for two months in total because we all caught it. "You see, I've known Jackie for a long time now and I know what she's like when it comes to work. I know she's normally here first and nothing stops her from coming into work regardless of what it is."
I look over my shoulder at Nadia to find her movements stilled. Most likely because she knows that I've caught onto her lie and she's trying to work out a way in which to get out of it. Even if both Jackie and Oscar are off sick, I know who's to blame for it. I know they'll both be lying in a heap on the floor of their hotel room bathrooms vomiting away all the 'free' food Nadia put on for us over the past few days.
Something I didn't take advantage of because I found it rather suspicious that she'd get us all of our favourite foods to eat over those days.
"Really?" Nadia finally voices. She loudly clears her throat. "It must be really bad for her to take time off work, then."
"Hmm, if you say so." I reach for my bag and discreetly pull my phone out to send my sister a quick text to tell her to phone me within the next five minutes. The sooner I get out of here the better.
"Anyway," Nadia begins, her voice more high-spirited than it was seconds ago, "Jackie said in the email that it's now up to you to continue the work she was doing until both she and Oscar are fit enough to come back to work."
I've just pressed send on the text message when my phone slips from my grasp at the revelation.
Fucking hell.
I want to scream.
I knew Nadia was up to something and it all makes sense now. It makes sense how she was practically forcing all the food onto Jackie and Oscar and not me. She knew what they liked to eat and laid it out for them to indulge on until they became physically sick with it. Something she has now succeeded on.
She's been playing both my boss and one of my close friends so she can get them out the way. She knows that with them out the way, I'm the only person left she'll be speaking to on a daily basis. This is all adding up to be more evidence for her to use in court against Luca because it'll look like we've been happily spending time together.
What a conniving little bitch.
Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do other than play along and hope I always have the better hand.
"I see." I pick my phone up from the floor and place it back in my bag. "Maybe if they didn't eat so much over the past couple of days, they wouldn't be paying the price for it now."
Nadia hums in agreement and I turn instantly to look at her. She standing with a smug look on her face and it's making my blood boil. I want to wipe that look clean off her face but there's nothing I can actually do until Chloe phones me with a made up emergency.
"Nadia, do you by chance have the checklist Jackie was working from?" I calmly ask. "I need to see if she's got anything outstanding that I should be doing."
"I should have," she answers. "Give me a moment."
She shuffles through the papers in the folder before stopping at the sound of my phone going off in my bag. Her gaze turns to me, her eyes going dark as she stares intensely.
"Excuse me," I say.
I reach back into my bag for my phone and answer it, glancing quickly at the screen to make sure it is, in fact, Chloe who's phoning me.
"Hello," I answer.
"Kaylee," Chloe says quickly, panic in her voice. "Kaylee, you need to come home."
"Chloe, what are you talking about? I'm working." I glance at Nadia and find her still staring at me, listening in on my conversation like I knew she would. "I can't just pack up my things and return home." I take a couple of steps away from the table. "I'm sure whatever it is can wait until-"
"But it can't wait," she cuts me off. "It's dad."
My body goes still and my grip on my phone tightens.
I knew I said to Chloe to make some cover story up that will get me out of work for the next few days, but did she really need to make it about our dad?
"Wh-what's happened?" I stutter.
"I don't know. Mum just phoned me to say to come home and wait with gran and grandpa. She said she's taken dad to the hospital because he's taken a turn."
I reach my free hand out to grip the nearest chair and lean against it. "D-Did she say anything else?"
"No, but you need to come home."
"I-I will but it's going to be tomorrow morning at the earliest before I get home. It's at least a seven-hour flight to get home not including time difference and that's if I can get booked on the next flight out."
"Can't Luca lend you one of his planes?"
"I-I could ask but I don't know if he or any of his family need them."
"Just . . . please, Kaylee. You need to be here."
"Okay. Okay. I'll be home as soon as I can. Tell mum I'll be home soon."
"I will. Bye, Kaylee."
"Bye."
I hang up and gather all my belongings together. "I'm sorry, Nadia, but I need to go."
"Oh, but we were just getting started," she says with a pout and walking to me.
"Well, my dad has taken a turn and I need to be there for him."
"But you can't leave. You're under contract to be here until my daughter's birthday party is over. You can't just walk out in the middle of a job. In the middle of a contract."
I scowl and my grip on the handles of my bag tighten. "And I don't give a fuck, Nadia. My family come first and right now, my dad is in hospital and none of us know if he's going to pull through."
"Miss. Fletcher." Jones' voice overpowers as he steps into the room. "Everything okay?"
"It will be," I assure. "But I need to travel back to London. I have a family emergency."
Nadia scoffs. "Your fiancé has money, Kaylee. Get him to get your dad the best surgeons money can buy. Either way, you can't leave."
She grabs the strap of my bag and tries to pull it free from my grasp. I grip it even tighter and pull it sharply towards me, bringing Nadia closer to me so she can see my anger towards her.
"Says who? You?" I stare at her, her pale blue eyes unmoving under my gaze. "Family may not mean something to you but to me, it means everything. You may find it easy to walk away from your family but I neverwalk away from mine. If they need me, I'm there. If they're in trouble, I'm there. You're nothing but a nasty bitch who thinks everyone should bow down to your every word and forget that we have a life outside these walls."
Nadia tries to recoil but my hold on my bag keeps her standing only centimetres from me.
"You need to watch your mouth towards me, Kaylee." She warns with a smirk playing on her lips.
"And what are you going to do about it? Sue me, too? Try it. I fucking dare you because I don't give a damn what you do to me. My family are my life and I will die protecting them. You try and stop me from walking out that door and you'll soon see why I'm not someone to be messed with. Understood?"
Her eyes search my face to see if I'm bluffing but I'm not.
I've had enough of her stupid games now. I've had enough with being nice towards her for the sake of trying to keep things civil. It's about time someone actually stood up to her and because I have a witness in the room to prove how nasty her words were to me, she doesn't have a leg to stand on if she tries anything in court.
"Are we understood?" I repeat.
She nods.
"Good."
I loosen my grip on my bag and give her a good shove away from me. She stumbles back in her black strappy heels and uses the table to help keep her balanced.
"Don't ever come between me and my family again," I say to her as a final warning before Jones leads the way out the room.
I can faintly hear Nadia say something but I can't quite make it out because I'm in the corridor heading towards the lifts before I had a chance to hear what she was saying. I'm just happy I get to go home from all of this drama for a little while and have a semi-normal life once more.