Page 16 of One Night with Cinderella

She turned and quickly walked across the wide breadth of his office.

“Monica!”

She turned, surprised by the feminine voice that called her name. A petite woman in an emerald green pantsuit was standing in the doorway of a room just off Marco Villar’s office. She clutched her purse so tightly that her brown skin thinned over her knuckles.

“Now what?” Monica asked.

Mr. Villar rose to his feet, but the woman held up her hand and shook her head as she kept her attention on Monica. “We didn’t mean to trick you or anything, Monica,” she said loudly, her voice raspy as if she lived off cigarettes. “I am Brock’s sister, Phoebe. Your aunt, if you will.”

Monica stepped back with widening eyes and released a small gasp of surprise as the woman neared her. “We look alike,” she said, her eyes missing no details of the woman, who was in her sixties or seventies.

Phoebe smiled. “Technically, you look like me,” she said.

A famous father? A look-alike aunt? An inheritance?

“Ladies, why don’t you have a seat,” Marco said, coming from behind his desk to wave them both over to his sitting area. “Help yourself to a drink from the bar and I’ll give you a moment.”

With that he left them alone.

Phoebe sat down and crossed her ankles as she patted the seat on the leather sofa beside her.

“What do you want with me?” Monica asked as she remained standing.

“I hate what my brother did to you, and had I known about you, I would have raised you myself,” she said, her eyes filling with tears as she pressed a wrinkled brown hand to her chest. “He told me on his deathbed, and it took every bit of willpower I have in this small body not to reveal to my dying brother that his treatment of you angered and disappointed me. It forever changed my view of the man I thought him to be. I swear to you. I didn’t know.”

Her anguish was clear, and Monica did not have the heart to ignore that. She took the seat beside her and let the woman reach for her hands to clasp them tightly between her own.

“When Marco told me they located you, I begged him to let me hide here so that I could see you. I didn’t know if you’d even want to meet me, once I learned of all the challenges you had to overcome in your life,” Phoebe said. “But I couldn’t let you leave and walk away from what he owes you, Monica. It is the least he could do, to give you an easier life than you’ve had these last thirty years.”

“But even in death, he won’t claim me,” she said, her voice hollow. Her heart hurting.

“That money is yours to do with as you see fit,” Phoebe said, her voice fiery and passionate. “If you sign those papers, collect that money and say to hell with all of us, I wouldn’t blame you one bit.”

“So you want me to sign the NDA, too?” she asked, easing her hands out of the woman’s grasp.

Phoebe swiped away the tears with her hands. “I didn’t know about it until Marco said it, but to get your money? Yes!” she exclaimed. “You may have to sign an NDA to get your money, but I don’t. I can speak your truth even if you can’t. Your presence will not be denied anymore. I promise you that! Hell, I would do it even if I lost the stipend he left me to maintain the beach house he purchased for me years ago in Santa Monica.”

“In California?” she asked, still trying to process the entire thing.

“And guess what?” Phoebe said, reaching again for her hands. “He named you after one of his favorite places in the world.”

“He named me?” Monica asked.

“A small gesture to appease his guilt, I guess.”

Was I so hungry for love that such a small gesture mattered that much to me?

“And my mother?” Monica asked.

“I know the story of your birth but not her name. That, he wouldn’t reveal,” Phoebe said with obvious regret. “But I’m sure there must be a way to find her. Perhaps Marco and his team could help with it.”

Was I ready to find my mother? I wasn’t sure. It could be just more sadness and disappointment.

“We’ll see. I need some time to process all of this,” Monica said.

Her aunt nodded in understanding. “I hope you’ll give me a chance to get to know you, Monica.”

“Perhaps...in time. I can’t make any promises,” she said.

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