Chapter1
Bounding out the door and flying down the stairs like a hound that had just sniffed blood, she came to the sharp junction in the theater and skidded to a halt. As she looked left and right, panting wildly, she bit down on her lower lip, adrenaline and fear pumping in equal measures.
‘Where did he go? Where did he go?’
She craned her neck to stare down both halls, bouncing on her toes. She couldn’t let him pass her by, she just couldn’t afford it. Just as she began to murmur to God in Italian, a dull flap followed by a low murmur reached her ears, and turning faster than whiplash could boast off, she tore down the left side of the hall and, ignoring the sign that signified that it was the male bathroom and her sense of dignity— if she had any left—she threw the door open, entered and slammed it shut behind her. Setting her eyes on her long-awaited prey, she heaved out a staggering puff of air and blurted,
“Marry me.”
A little over three months ago…
Her father died.
As she stood under the cold shards of the rain, watching her mother stare at his fresh grave without motion, barely feeling the ice under her bones, she sighed. They had been so happy…
After leaving school with honors in Business Administration, she felt like she had seen some of the worst and saddest of life and just wanted to relax. Her life had been all about school, family, making the right connections, meeting people of essence and making everything she did worthwhile. She never really had a rebellious teenage girl phase, or even a youthful… life, or whatever it was.
She was just overwhelmed. A lot.
She wanted a gap year. A year to just relax, ‘lazy away’ as her best friend Cassidy had called it and just do whatever she wanted without the pressure of responsibilities. Being a small family of three with a textile business owned by her father, Martin and uncle Roman, they didn’t have to struggle for anything more than who got the last slice of pizza at the table or who ruled the remote for the night. They weren’t rich, not by a long shot, but they were comfortable. But that comfort seemed bleak now. Everything did. Her father…
Her hero.
A sudden heart attack. That was the autopsy.
They had no history of it in their family and her father had never complained. No one had. So why?
How?!
With a sigh, she lifted her face up to the crying heavens and allowed it to wash away the tears she wished she could shed. Everything was falling apart, and she felt like a ragdoll suspended in the air through all of it. The thunder came then, emulating the chaotic yells she wished she could let loose on the world and, for a second or two, she was satisfied. After her father’s sudden heart attack two weeks ago, her mother, Ginevra, had gone into shock. She blinked, swallowed, chewed and moved upon urging, but she wasn’t really there, and so she had to be the strong one. She had to absorb all her sadness and carry a cheerful smile, ready for whenever her mother snapped out of her sorrows long enough to look at her. Expelling a sigh, she glanced over the forlorn crowd gathered in a nature-friendly cemetery in New York before approaching her mother and leading her inside. Hours later, after everybody had left, the house was plunged into absolute silence, and outside Cassidy’s constant visits, that was how it remained for a week.
Deciding that she couldn’t keep tending to her mother and allow them to go broke as her father’s impromptu burial had taken more than half of what they had, she geared herself up on a very bright Monday morning and marched to this textile company, the gap year she had wanted disintegrating to ashes right before her eyes.
She got there, but it was locked.
And all her visits from then till Friday met with the same lock.
She called, texted and even visited her Uncle Roman, but her calls never connected, messages never delivered and his house was always empty, and if not for Cassidy, she would have gone to the police. Had he gone missing?
Had he died too and nobody knew?! What would—she would die, too, if he did!
She would die!
Days slowly turned to weeks, and just as she seriously started contemplating the thought of his actual death, a call came one Saturday morning, and she almost wept.
She was dressed and on the road in record time, because outside her mom, dad and Cassidy, her Uncle Roman was the only other person who knew her like no one else and the only other family she had and she needed someone to lean on. Upon getting to the office, she found that except for she and her uncle, it was almost completely empty. Marching to him and throwing down her bag on the way, she unashamedly threw herself at him, and he let her, but gently pushed her away just minutes later, settling her on a seat, but keeping her hands in his.
“Jas, I love you, you know I do,” he began, and she nodded, earnestly feeling like a thunderstorm was coming and she hated it.
“I love you too, Uncle Roman. Always.”
At his pained smile, her heart began to race.
“Always,” he mirrored. “There is no easy way to say this, but I have to let you know that I cannot let you take over your father’s place here.”
The world seemed to freeze.
She blinked. “What?”
“I know that after your father’s death, you want to fend for yourself and your mother. I understand.” He reached out to fondly tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “You need to survive, I get it. But I can’t let you work here. Your father…” he paused briefly, nostalgia shining in his eyes, “… he was my best friend. My brother. We had a dynamic that we worked well in. Jas…” his eyes darted between hers, “… I fear that you won’t be able to match up. I mean no disrespect, my lovely girl, but women tend to break easily.”
She withdrew her hands sharply, anger sparking to life in her eyes. She was too exhausted for this s**t.
“Excuse me?!” She had to bite her lower lip to stop the onslaught of angry, heartbroken tears as she glared at her uncle.
“Jas, my love, you have to understand what I’m saying,” he pleaded further.
She flew out of her seat. “You expect me to understand that you want to leave us high and dry?!” she yelled, absolutely appalled. “Where is this even coming from?!”
She watched Roman heave a defeated sigh and rise from where he had been squatting before her. In desperation, she rushed to him and took his hands.
“Uncle Roman, what is going on? Why are you doing this?” she pleaded.
“When your father was alive, he never signed any documents making you his next of kin.”
She frowned. “Yes, he did. I have a copy of the document.”
He flexed an uninterested brow. “Well, it’s not valid.”
“Why not?”
“It just isn’t,” he bit out. “The one I have has your mother’s name on it, and you're not her. Only she can make demands, and she isn’t exactly… fine right now.”
She couldn’t believe her eyes. Nor her ears. Her gut was telling her things that threatened to drive her insane. Uncle Roman… he was conning them? He couldn’t! Yes, they weren’t actually related by blood, but she had known him all her life! He had never seemed devious! There were never any problems between him and her parents, from what she knew.
Maybe she didn’t know anything?
“Listen, Jas. I am willing to give you and your mother a monthly salary,” he began, snapping her out of her thoughts, “but your mother has to sign over complete ownership to me.”
Her jaw dropped. She shook her head in dismay. “Uncle Roman, please—”
But he was already walking away. “That is all I can do for you, Jas,” he called from over his shoulder.
“Rubbish!” she fired out. “Let me take her place till she is fine enough to come here.”
“No. Your parents and I had an agreement that you know nothing of—"
“So, tell me! I can work with it, too—”
“I cannot do that, my love,” he said and even had the gall to sound hurt. “I wish I could, but I can’t. Now, I would love to help you out the way you want,” he finally turned to face her, “but you know that there is no sentiment in business. Take what I am offering. Go home and talk to your mother.”
“Uncle Roman—”
“That is all,” he dismissed, turning away.
She ground her teeth, tears at the forefront of her eyes. “Uncle Roman, please! Please,” she begged. “Don’t make me take you to court.”
At that, he turned to face her, a certain hardness that she had never seen before entering his eyes.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Don’t make this a battle, Jas,” he warned.
“You leave me no choice,” she whispered, staring keenly at him, hoping to reach the part of him that she knew.
She needed that part of him.
He stared at her for a while, then inhaled sharply and nodded, and she was about to sigh in relief when he dropped the words,
“I will see you in court, my love.”
