“And I silently simmered
in the chaos of my mind and heart.”
~ Penny Reid
ETHAN
“Well, hello to you, Ethan? Or should I say, Dad?” Donatella’s cool and arrogant voice filled my ear, clearly annoyed.
“Seeing as how I am not your father, I do not think Dad would be appropriate.”
She groaned loudly. “Good to hear that your annoying voice hasn’t changed.”
“Do voices change in a week?”
“I’ve been gone for over a month, Ethan!”
“Really? I had not noticed.”
“Fuck y—ugh. I am not going to let you distract me. Let’s skip the brother-sister formalities and simply get to the part where you explain to me why I was not told that I have a niece?”
“You have niece,” I replied, walking out and entering into my personal study. I’d forgotten they were working to change it into Gigi’s bedroom, and everything but my desk was now covered to be moved.
“Oh, thanks.” I could feel her eyes roll from here. “Ethan!”
“Yes, Donatella.”
“Don’t Donatella me, this is huge.” Her voice softened. “Ethan, you are a father.”
A slight smile came to my lips without my control. “I am.”
She sighed heavily. “If anything should bring any emotion to your voice, it should be that.”
I thought there was. But like always, they missed it.
“Helen sent me a photo. She’d be cuter if she didn’t look so much like you.”
“Do they not have ophthalmologists in
Monaco? Your eyesight seems to have worsened,” I shot back. “If she looked any cuter, they’d put her in a museum.”
She gasped. “Aww…that’s more like it. Now you sound like a dad. I wish I could have seen you as you said that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dona, get off my phone—”
“Your daughter, she’s going to be the flower girl at my wedding, by the way. All these ‘noble’ children look like inbred science experiments. They are going to ruin my photos. She’s the first kid I’ve seen that actually made me smile. She needs to come here to get fitted. When can you send her?”
If my memory served me correctly, and it often did, Gabriel, her prince, told me it would take months if not a year before their actual wedding. So, flower girls would not need to be talked about now. And even if they did, Gigi would not be the same size in a year. So, all of this was just for her to say she liked Giovanna and wanted to meet her. She really was our mother’s daughter.
“Ethan?”
“Let’s have this conversation when you have an actual wedding date, Dona. And not just when you are missing home.”
“As if I would miss that place. We get the news here, too, and it looks a shitshow. What the fuck have you been doing? Or should I ask who you have been doing?”
“I am positive I never want to have my sex life be a topic of conversation with you, Dona, or anyone for that matter.”
“You do know I’m waiting for you to bring up this new woman, right? What’s her name… Piety or something?”