AllFreeNovel
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“Perfect as always.Sleeping like the little angel she is...” I look at the half-open bedroom door without really looking for anything, just enjoying the feeling of knowing that my daughter is well, healthy and resting.These certainties make it all worth it.
I lay my head back against the headrest and close my eyes as I keep my arm outstretched, the camera pointed at my face.
“You look terrible...” she says, tilting her head to the side, letting me see that she is inside her closet.And another closet, this one, stuffed with suits and ties, assaults my thoughts.
Shoo, you bastard!
“I’m terrible...” I admit, honestly.
“Sis, why don’t you come back to Rio?”
“You know very well why, Grazi...”
“No one who doesn’t matter would need to know, Antonella. You would have me and maybe even Danilo...”
“Will you ever going to give up talking about Danilo at some point?”
“You know I don’t agree with that...”
“It would be hard not to know, since you’ve spent the last five years repeating the same thing like a parrot, Grazi...” It’s her turn to sigh and close her eyes.
“I hate seeing you two alone, I hate that you have to work yourself to death when...”
“It was my choice, Grazi...”
“Choice is a very romantic way of looking at things, Antonella! Come back! You know that if it were up to me, I would still be there with you! You know that...”
“I do! And that just makes me love you more.Everything you’ve done for Bella and I, Grazi...If it weren’t for you coming to my rescue that night, I don’t know where the two of us would be.For five years, you were my entire support network.But you also have your life, sis... It would be fair to you!”
“It’s not fair to you. You didn’t make Bella yourself...”
“It doesn’t matter, she’s mine… and only mine.Maybe someday I’ll find someone to share her with, but I’m not ghost hunting, Grazi...Five years is too long to go back...”
My friend sighs, unconvinced, but content.Every fortnight we have this conversation.She tries to convince me to go back to Rio, and I say no.She tells me it’s not fair that I raise Bella alone and with so much difficulty when she has a father who is alive and healthy, and I say it doesn’t matter.She says she would be here, and I say it wouldn’t be fair to her. And it really wouldn’t be.
Five years ago, when I made the hardest and most important decision of my life, Graziella saved me.But she can’t save me forever, not from the consequences of my own actions and choices.
“What about you? How are things going at the company?”
“Well... You know. I’m just an intern, so I have a lot to do and little to think about...”
“You are the heiress of the company, Grazi. One day, all of that will be yours.”
“Yeah, but until Mr. Martins says I’m ready for it, there’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge.And no one knows I’m my father’s daughter, so I’m just another on the boss-hating intern statistics!”
I laugh, because I know well the kind of hatred that Graziella feels for her boss!
“Grazi, have you ever imagined the day this man finds out that you’re actually his boss?My God, the fanfic is ready!” I manage not to laugh too loudly because of Bella, but God!If there was a book with a story like that, I swear I would read it.
“Oh, but you have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to rub that in his face, my friend! Good God! Every single day, at least forty times.I wanted to see the jerk face he would make!”
“And what would you say, Grazi?Shut up and stop doing your job because I’m the daughter of the owner of all this?!”
“No! I... I...”
“Grazi” I interrupt her. “I honestly think your problem can be solved in one sitting, maybe two...” I laugh again.
“Ugh, shut up Antonella! I would never sit on that bastard!”
