“She don’t. She brought it from home.”
Nina rolled her eyes and threw the shit in the trash. Jio looked up from the blunt he was rolling.
“I would’ve finished that.”
“Going forward, the only spaghetti you eat is me and your mama’s.”
Jio shook his head. “You’re fuckin’ crazy.”
“You can think what you want. I do love the story that you came up with though. It’s cute. Real cute. Is there anything else you would like to discuss? We’re approaching the ten-minute mark.”
Carrington leaned forward, her composure was cracking by the second. Nina was sure she was about to meet the real her momentarily.
“He told me personally that I get the art and I want it. ALL.”
“Oh, well if he told you personally,” Nina deadpanned, “That changes everything.”
“Wait—”
“No, seriously,” Nina continued smoothly. “Did he also promise you the penthouse? One of the Maybachs maybe?”
Carrington stared at her coldly now. “I’m not the woman you think I am. I loved him for real.”
Nina tilted her head. “If that’s what you have to tell yourself, then okay, sweetheart.”
The tension shifted abruptly.
“You think you know everything about him? Because I promise you that you don’t.”
“No,” Nina said honestly. “I know enough and what I don’t know… hepurposelyhid from me.”
Carrington looked away first, revealing to Nina that her words had hurt. She probably genuinely loved Jio and that was good for her.
However, she didn’t truly understand the depth of what she and Jio had been to each other. It was decades of history and memories that she and her little time with him could never ever amount to.
Jio may have slept with her. They could’ve kicked it and he may have tricked off on the young hoe. Those things came to no surprise because that was typical Jio. But at the end of the day, she wasn’t Nina Marcelle and she’d never compare.
Nina was home and everybody knew that.
“You can have everything else,” Carrington said finally, regaining some composure. “I only want the Guntenburg.”
Nina contemplated her words before speaking.
“I’ll think about giving you something but it won’t be that one. Now, this is me being nice because I don’t owe you anything. Jio was smart enough to know that if…well, once I did find out about you, that I wouldn’t be a kind woman, so it surprises me that he didn’t do a better job of protecting assets that he wanted you to have. I am certain of what I’m getting, although I need nothing, and do you know how I know these things?”
Carrington had nothing to say.
Nina tapped the table. “Oh! Because before he lost his voice, we worked on his will...withourlawyer. The lawyer that we share...because we’re a family,” Nina said with a tight smile on her face.
“And that’s what a man does when he’s the head of the household. He makes the woman AKA his partner aware of what will happen when he’s no longer around.”
Carrington’s face hardened as Nina stood smoothly from the table.
“So I said all of that to say, they’re all mine now and you’ll get what I give you,” she said calmly. “But thanks for stopping by and please don’t ever show up at my office again. Have a good day.”
She started toward the door.
“I came here being nice.”
