Nina paused and slowly looked over her shoulder.
“You do not want to play with me,” Little Miss Carrington let her know.
The room fell completely silent.
Her expression unreadable. “Is that a threat?”
Carrington stood this time. “Call it whatever you want,” she said quietly. “But that Guntenburg is mine.”
Nina stared at her until she could tell she was growing uncomfortable and then she smiled. Jio used to give people that same Cheshire cat look right before they figured out they had completely underestimated who they were dealing with.
“Good day, little girl,” Nina winked.
FOUR
“SPENDING TIME WITH YOU IS NEVER A WASTE OF MINE.” LOYLE CARNER
Back Then…
Since she’d been back at work, Nina had been the first to arrive and the last to leave. She had a point to prove. To herself, but for sure to her parents, who were now expecting the worse from her. Literally, those were her sister’s words, not hers.
“Mom said she wouldn’t be surprised if you were a baby mama by the end of the year.”
Nina was speechless. “Wow.”
“I know right… she swears that Jio has brought the worst out of you and how your life is basically over.”
Nina was gonna make her mama eat every single word. She was going to outwork every employee on payroll. She planned to double the profit this year and triple it the year after.Marcelle & Co.was going up to reach levels that they didn’t even think were attainable. Nina’s life was nowhere near over. It was just getting started and she planned to work day in and day out to show them that she was appointed President and CEO for a reason.
They would never be able to throw in her face,“I told you so.”
Jio wasn’t a distraction nor was he stopping shit. Her parents turned her into a beast and didn’t even know it.
During the day, the building was full of hustle and bustle. Heels clicked across the marble floor. The phones rang off the hook and the pouring of coffee was endless. All you heard was the elevator dinging, followed by a “Welcome toMarcelle & Co.,”from the time the doors opened until the receptionist clocked out at five o’clock.
Meetings were stacked on top of meetings. Jr. and Sr. level executives walked around with a hint of arrogance, depending on who you passed by.
Once the sun began to prepare its exit, so did the employees. A lot of them had to pick up their kids from after-school care, some were gym rats and those kickboxing classes filled up pretty fast. After eight, another wave of teammates would start scrambling out the door to catch the train or a late dinner with colleagues. By ten o’clock, the last of the bunch would begin to exit. Those were mainly the ones with no spouse, no children, or a dog that were awaiting their arrival, so getting home around eleven didn’t matter.
It was now two in the morning, and Nina Marcelle was the last employee in the building, but she was the one whose last name was on their checks, so no one clocked her time.
She didn’t need them to. She owed herself the devotion to the company. She had goals to accomplish and points to prove.
The city glowed outside the windows of her corner office. New York was the greatest place in the world. She loved it here and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Even if she had to choose to move and start over, it was always New York for her. Nina twirled around her chair, high on caffeine. Her glasses sat perched low on her nose as she re-read the same contract for the third time because she was unable to process a single word. She was at work but her mind wasn’t because it kept drifting to Jio.
She’d accepted that her sister had completely gone MIA on her. Talia didn’t owe her anything. Nina could only pray that they reconnected, and in the interim, she was keeping her sister covered in prayer.
Addiction was hard to break, and no one could want it more for her than she did.
On the other hand, her man wasn’t on drugs, but clearly, he was on something because she wasn’t buying the“I’m too busy being a made man”excuse this time around. Jio and his lack of communication were beginning to be an issue. She was busy, but hell, he was busier.
They were now going days and days without talking or seeing each other. He didn’t call or respond to messages. Nina hated how much it bothered her.
She leaned back in her chair slowly and picked up her foot to massage her toes.
She was treating herself to the spa this weekend, because a mental and physical getaway was needed.
Usually, the silent treatment from Jio came as a result of some sort of chaos, but as far as she knew, which realistically meant nothing because what did she know? Jio was not an open book when it came to his family business.
