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Vanessa stared after them as they retreated, and I knew she was aching to be involved in the conversation, but that just wasn’t how things were done around here. This was a boy’s club, and we were expected to just sit and look pretty while supporting our husbands from the sidelines.
“I’m going to get some rest,” Bree said, leaving us and climbing the stairs to her old room. I wished I could go with her. My eyes were drooping. But I was the lady of the house now, I needed to take care of our guests.
It was my responsibility now.
An hour later I’d shown them to the rooms they could stay in, and we were settled in the kitchen drinking tea while the maids fussed around us.
I noticed that Vanessa was flashing annoyed looks at them so I sent them away. Granted, they could be a bit overwhelming, but they worked as if Molly was still here. Cullen had never thought to change their habits… I supposed it would be down to me to do that now.
“I would kill to know what is going on in there,” she said, her eyes twitching every time there was a movement outside the door.
“My guess is they’ll be coming up with a plan to lure my father and your brother somewhere so we can take them both out,” Ella replied.
Vanessa’s fingers tapped on the tabletop. “Ivan will die at my hand. No one else. Lex knows that.”
“What did he do to you, Vanessa? If you don’t mind me asking?” I was too nosey for my own good.
She sighed, leaning back in her chair. “Well for a start I guess it doesn’t make much sense to use that name anymore. If we’re going to kill him, there’s not much point in me hiding. You can call me Valentina.”
Ella pulled a face. “Too confusing.”
Vanessa… Valentina, poked her tongue out at her, cracking the first smile I’d seen on Ella’s face since this all kicked off.
“My brother is a monster. When I wouldn’t marry the man he wanted me to, he sent me to a torture camp and then when I escaped, locked me in a burning house.” She said it with such coldness that it took me a second to absorb the horror of what she’d been through.
“Dick is going down,” Ella said, wriggling in her chair. Valentina smiled back at her, and I knew it must have been a bit of an ongoing joke between them.
“But we’ve been hiding out because Sarah is really Ivan’s daughter. His wife trusted Lex to keep her safe.”
“Sarah is Ivan’s kid?” I gasped… I guessed that made sense why she was so nervous. Her dad was a psycho.
“Only in blood,” Valentina answered. “Lex is her father. I’m her mother. She knows that.”
“I see.”
“We thought he might come after her, so we’ve hidden well… he seems to be more interested in expanding his business than finding her, though.”
“I mean, she’s better off with you, but I still don’t understand how someone could leave their kid.” Ella had a disgusted look on her face. I knew she’d adopted Avery, so she was likely a little sensitive about the topic.
“Do you plan on having kids?” Vanessa asked.
My stomach twisted.
“I honestly don’t know. At first, I thought no, you obviously know how I lost my parents and what happened to Aidan’s mom and sister… but then I think about a little mini Aidan and my heart just melts.”
Both women smiled at me.
“But now I’m back to being afraid again. I really can’t lose anyone else.” My voice cracked at the end.
“Perhaps this is the push he needs to get out,” Ella said softly. I frowned at her… I’d never once considered that Aidan might want to give up on the business. It was worth millions, but it had taken everything from him, and Aidan didn’t really care about the money and the power the way Cullen had.
Maybe…
Voices pouring from the living room distracted me from my thoughts, and Aidan appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. He looked exhausted, emotionally and physically as he approached us and dropped into the chair next to me.
“Is everything okay?” It seemed like a pretty stupid thing to ask, of course nothing was okay, but I didn’t know what else to say.
“We’re going to have a big funeral and see if they show up. Hopefully they’ll be trying to taunt us and we can take them out.”
