“What kind of decision?”
“I’m thinking about bringing her closer. The girl is alone.”
I still don’t want to tell her about my plans. It’s the way I’ve figured out to both right a wrong and, depending on who Olívia Freitas truly is, allow her to be around my Nina.
“Be careful, son. Appearances can be deceiving. Your grandmother had a saying:when a man feels overly protective of a woman, he’s the one who needs to be protected.”
“Why are you so reluctant about this, when you’ve always welcomed those who needed us?”
“Because I don’t want you to be disappointed thinking you’re doing something good for our Nina when, in the end, it might be even more harmful.”
“I’ve thought about that. At first, I’ll offer her a job at our headquarters. That way, I can keep an eye on her.”
“All right. I’m sure you won’t change your mind, no matter what I say.”
“Who do I take after, being so stubborn?”
“Your father, of course.” She smiles as she says this and looks lovingly at her husband. I hold my father’s hand, which at the moment is cold and inert.
I look at the man who, along with Mrs. Isabel Caldwell-Oviedo, also known as my mother, is my anchor. He’s sleeping, so I can assess him without him noticing. I try to act normally, but every time I see Dad incapacitated on a bed, I feel a lump of iron in my stomach.
Stewart Caldwell-Oviedo has always been an active person, full of life, the master of the world. When he had the first stroke, it was a shock to the family, but my mother worked tirelessly on his recovery.
I, on the other hand, didn’t have time to grieve. I needed to take care of the business. In my head, I thought it would be temporary.
After ten years, I don’t have time for anything else. I work like crazy, and since Nina was born, all my free time is dedicated to her.
“I’m going to give it a try, Mom.”
“But you won’t tell her anything?”
“Not for now. I’ll approach her with a job offer. From there, we’ll see what happens.”
“You’ll need to tell the truth eventually. Regardless of whether she’s a good person or not, the girl has the right to know everything.”
“And she will, but first I need to decide if she can be near Nina or if she’ll only receive financial compensation. Olívia is the only maternal link to my daughter. I think they both deserve a chance.”
“So, Princess Nina, are you satisfied with your day so far?”
She looks at me with that drooly smile, and I feel my heart warm as it always does. Of course, I knew I would have children one day, but I never imagined that when my daughter was born, she would steal my breath away so quickly.
Since my father had the first stroke, I haven’t been able to take a break from work. Not only because our hotel chain is huge, but also because of the responsibility of keeping the family on track.
My parents are the kind of couple who are still in love even after many years together, and Mom was devastated when Dad had to be hospitalized, along with the long recovery that followed.
As for me, I had the task of taking care of my four younger siblings: Joaquín, Rafe, Gael, and especially Martina, the youngest, who will end up giving me gray hairs before I turn forty. She was only eleven when my father got sick.
I’m not complaining. Family has always come first for me, but I confess that when I found out Layla was pregnant, after the initial shock passed, I saw it as another responsibility to add to my list, which was already not short.
But during the pregnancy, when she clearly rejected the baby growing inside her body, a bond formed between me and my daughter. I felt the need to protect her and ensure that she developed healthily, and that was one of the scariest situations I’ve ever been in.
How do you protect someone without having direct access to them? How would I take care of the wellbeing of my girl when she was housed in another person’s body and depended on that same person to have a healthy life and eat and sleep well?
I had no idea, so I acted the only way I thought possible: I negotiated, as I do with everything in my life.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO of Caldwell-Oviedo almost ten years ago, it’s that money is one of the biggest motivators for people.
“Grrrrrr . . .”
