“Why are you surprised?”
She blinks and moves back, that irritating professional mask of hers slipping back into place. Valentina Diaz, one of very few women I know who has never once wanted me. I suppose that is why we’re still working together after so many years — because we’ve never crossed any boundaries. That’s how I always wanted it to be, yet somehow, her indifference irritates me tonight.
“I didn’t think he’d ask his son to step down as CEO, but even more so, I’m surprised you gave him a chance to save his company at all. In all the years we’ve worked together, you havenever once given anyone a second chance. You’ve always been decisive and ruthless. What was different this time?”
She stares at me pointedly. I wonder if she realizes that no one but her would ever dare demand an explanation from me — and no one but her would receive one.
I hesitate for a moment and reach for my pocket watch absentmindedly, my fingers brushing over the Windsor crest engraved on it. “Jackson was friends with my father. The decision to invest in his company was my dad’s.” Speaking about my parents hurts less than it used to, but even though it’s been over twenty years, the pain is still there. I suppose it’ll never truly fade. Some wounds never heal. This is one of them.
Valentina looks down, shielding her expression from me. “I see,” she says, her tone devoid of emotion. For a split second, I worried she’d ask me about my parents, but I should’ve known better. Valentina never intrudes. I used to think it was because she was scared she’d lose her job if she did, but I’ve come to suspect that it’s because she genuinely doesn’t care. She truly is made of ice.
“I suppose that explains why you refused to cut him loose despite their company performance declining year-on-year for five years straight.” She looks up then and smiles mischievously. “Perhaps you do have a heart buried somewhere deep within there.”
Her eyes twinkle as she presses her index finger against my chest. That heart she doesn’t think I have? It skips a fucking beat. I can’t remember the last time she smiled at me so genuinely, and I don’t recall herevertouching me in this way.
Before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve got my hand wrapped around her wrist and her palm pressed flat against my chest. Valentina’s eyes widen a fraction, but she gives me nothing. She doesn’t look as affected as I am.
“Youtellme. Do I?” Does she notice that my heart beats a little faster than it should?
“No,” she says, grinning. “I stand corrected. You’re as heartless as ever.”
The edges of my lips turn up as I loosen my hold on her wrist, letting her hand fall away.
Valentina is smiling as she reaches for my laptop on the coffee table, and I can’t tear my eyes off her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile like that when it’s just the two of us. She’s given those smiles to every single one of my brothers, but never me.
“We need to finish the restructuring plans, and don’t forget to go in for a final suit fitting for Ares and Hannah’s wedding. It’s coming up far sooner than you think.”
I lean back as I think about everything we have on our plates for the next few months. If I can pull this off, I’ll finally be able to make my father’s dreams come true. We’re so close.
Each of my siblings and I handle different areas of the Windsor conglomerate. Between us, we handle finance, media and PR, hotels, motor vehicles and tech, real estate, and some foreign holdings.
They’re all industries the Windsors have entered in the last fifty years, under my grandmother’s guidance. We’ve been tremendously successful, but it’s the Finance industry we entered first. It’s Windsor Finance, and The Windsor Bank, that we’re best known for.
The company I run is the one my father ran before me. He may no longer be here to witness the direction I’ve taken with his firm, but I still want to make him proud. The vision he didn’t have a chance to realize is the one I’ll pursue.
Valentina logs into my laptop with a swipe of her index finger, and it suddenly occurs to me how much I’ve grown to trust her over the years. She’s the only one who knows about myexpansion plans. I might not like her a whole lot, but I suspect Windsor Finance wouldn’t be what it is today without her.
When did it all change? I hated her when Grandma hired her and forced me to take her under my wing. Being employed directly by my grandmother meant I could never fire her, no matter how badly I wanted to — and I tried. I’ve tried everything to get rid of her, but I never could. At what point did I stop trying to chase her away?
“You’ll be my date to Ares’s wedding,” I inform her, my eyes roaming over her. “You know the drill. Keep every one of those fucking airheaded socialites away from me and steer me toward everyone we must network with. I’ll give you the guest list, and I expect you to knoweverythingabouteveryone. This isn’t just a wedding.”
She nods and pastes a smile on her face. “Of course. I’ll be there, and I’ll be sure to remember everything there is to know, right down to names of every pet, child, and mistress.”
I nod and lean back against the sofa, my eyes drifting over her body. When did she go from being the woman I hated more than anything to becoming the one I trust above everyone else?
Chapter Three
Valentina
“She’s a fool,” my mother mutters, her eyes glued to the television. She’s enraptured by the scene playing out in front of us, her face contorting in pain when the woman in the Telenovela we’re watching dismisses the lipstick on her husband’s shirt. “What a pitiful fool.”
Mom’s voice is tinged with a bitterness so strong I can taste it on my tongue. It envelops me and seeps in so deep that my own mood plummets. I instinctively tense, dread washing over me as I mentally prepare for the words I know will follow.
“You can’t trust men,” she says, perhaps more to herself than to me. “In the end, they’re all the same. Every single one of them will betray you eventually, trampling all over your heart and leaving you with the broken pieces of the life you thought you’d share.”
I stare at her, admiring her grit even as despair seeps in. I would be the last person to ever deny how much she’s been through, but she fails to see how much damageshe’sdoing — to herself and everyone around her. “Is that what I am to you, Mom? A broken piece? A reminder of the past?” The words I’dnormally keep buried deep within roll off my tongue before I have a chance to swallow them down.
Mom’s eyes flash as she turns to face me. “You know that isn’t what I meant. If that’s how I felt, I wouldn’t have worked three jobs all my life just so I could raise you. If I hadn’t been working this hard, I wouldn’t be in this state now,” she tells me, her gaze dropping to her legs.