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“Of course, I’m keeping my word. I’ll even help you build it,” he replies, moving his hands to form the words, and I grin.
You’re both so weird,is all I say before concentrating on packing my clothes and jewelry into a box.
Aileen neatly folds my things before placing them in my suitcase. I will be flying to Monaco tomorrow morning to drop off my things, then catch another plane to Australia in the evening. Luckily, Adrian and I both have a layover in Frankfurt, which means we will be traveling together from there on.
“Oh no, did I miss the fun part?” Nova asks once we’re all done.
She drops onto my bed, grabbing Aileen’s hand as she falls. My sister has never been one for physical touch to display affection, but it’s different with Aileen, and it makes me smile every time. Nova is so in love with her girlfriend, it’s the cutest thing in the world.
“Are you not taking your paintings?” Nova asks. I look at the art that had me in tears a few months ago.
“No, I won’t have space on the walls, and I don’t want to go through the trouble of sending a painting. It would be too expensive,” I explain, a pain shooting through my heart as I do.
Papa puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes to reassure me everything will be fine. The question from earlier is still on his face, and I finally cave.
“You’re going to get more gray hairs holding back what you want to ask me,” I say with a smile. “Not that it would be obvious, but—” Papa cuts off my teasing by tickling my sides. I jump out of his reach after letting out a horrendous squeal.
“You should show me more respect,” he says and signs with a glare I don’t buy.
You’re right. After all, you always taught me to respect my elderly,I sign back and run around the bed to get out of his reach. Nova and Aileen are crying from laughter, and I join them while my father smiles.
“It’s a good thing you’re moving out, Nevaeh. You’re too mean,” he complains but ends up grinning as he looks down at my boxes in front of him. It fades quickly as a serious expression causes his features to drop. “Your mother isn’t really at the nail salon,” he starts, and I feel my heart sink. Mama told me she couldn't help me pack because she had an appointment. “She’s at Elena’s,” Papa says, making me sigh.
“Avoiding me,” I add, and he nods. “Why are you telling me that?” I ask, unable to come up with a good enough reason why he couldn’t just leave me in the unknown. It was painful enough before, I didn’t need to know this.
“Because I need you to do something for me, and you’re not going to like it.” I raise a brow. “You two need to have dinner by yourselves tonight.”
He’s right, I don’t want to do this. Mama is only going to tell me how disappointed she is, and I’ll have to convince her what a great choice I’m making.
Since she’s even more stubborn than I am, that’s an impossible task.
“Fine, but you owe me a big bowl of gummy bears,” I reply and lift my hair up to tie it into a ponytail.
Deal,he signs, and I look at Nova and Aileen, who are already staring at me. I widen my eyes and then roll them, making them laugh. I wish they could come to dinner, too, but Papa’s right. I have to be the one to talk to Mama without any distractions or influences from other people.
Mama hasn’t said a word to me since we sat down at the dinner table. I’ve tried making conversation multiple times, but she hasn’t responded once with anything other than an “mhmm.”
“Alright, Mama, I know this is incredibly hard for you, but can you put yourself in my shoes for one minute and see how difficult it is for me? After my injury, I was lost, and now that I’m finally doing well and starting to be happy, my own mother is solely thinking about herself. Why can’t you see that this is the right thing for me to do?” I ask while she watches my mouth move with every word.
“I think you’re being selfish,” she mumbles, picking at her broccoli and avoiding my furious gaze.
“And I think you’re being selfish. So, where does that leave us?” Her blue eyes lift back up to my face before she makes my blood boil with her next question.
“It leaves us with this question: are you moving to Monaco because of Adrian Romana?”
I’m going to lose my mind before this dinner is even over. Right now, I’d actually love nothing more than to be with him, but I won’t tell her that.
It’ll only convince her that she’s right.
“Adrian didn’t even come to mind when my bosses offered me the job in Monaco. My life doesn’t revolve around men, Mama, even if it may include them.”
She scoffs at my response.
“Please, you’ve let them control your actions and decisions for years.” This makes me sigh, and not a surface-level sigh either, but a deep one that has been brewing since I first told her about my move.
“How? How have I done that?” My curiosity gets the better of me, and, for now, I let it. I’d like to hear whatever story she has come up with in her head.
“You started pursuing tennis because your father told you you’d make it far. You allowed Lincoln to control your emotions for years and only recently, it made you disrespectful toward guests in this house, young lady. Now, that Adrian guy has you moving to Monaco, doing free-lance type of work when you should be working in a team, and a lot more you probably don’t tell me about.”
