Chapter 5

Donna

It was a difficult but necessary goodbye. Jess was in tears when I got on the plane with Dominic, my heart was broken too, and luckily my son was asleep. Jess is his godmother and the two are inseparable, I don’t even want to think about how hard it will be when he looks for her and doesn’t find her there.

(...)

After 15 hours of flight, we finally arrived and there was already a woman at the airport waiting for us, holding a sign that said “Donna.”

"Good evening, it’s me!" I said, approaching the woman who greeted me.

She is Japanese, no smiles or over-the-top welcomes. She just welcomed me, introduced herself as Ella, and took me to the taxi.

"Miss, today you will sleep in a hotel with your son, but your house will be ready tomorrow. We have already arranged everything for your son, school, nanny, and everything he will need to live here, as well as for you." I must be dreaming, not even when I worked in New York could I afford a nanny, many times I had to leave work early because Jess had a last-minute commitment and she was the one who took turns with me.

The streets here are very different from NY, since it’s nighttime, the lights are striking and more beautiful, without a doubt more organized, which left me surprised by everything I was seeing. After dropping us off at the hotel, Makima said goodbye and left, informing us she would be back early tomorrow to take us to where our house will be. Dominic arrived tired, ate, and soon after fell asleep. I, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep due to anxiety and called Jess as soon as I got out of the shower.

“Hi, friend, did you arrive safely? I couldn’t stop thinking about you all day. Is everything okay over there?”

“Jess, my God, I’ve never slept in such a fancy place” I expressed my admiration for the place, I had never even dreamed of being somewhere like this in my life. “There’s even a chandelier on the ceiling. This must cost a fortune.”

“I told you that you would find someone who values your work, you are very hardworking and I’m very happy for you. But tell me, have you met your boss yet? Is he nice?”

“No. I just arrived, Dom fell asleep and I called you right away. I think tomorrow I will get to know the company where I will work. I’m so happy, my friend, thank you for believing in me and never letting me give up on my dreams.”

“You deserve everything you’re experiencing. And you can be sure this is just the beginning, I just don’t know how I’m going to deal with the longing I’ll feel for you here with me.” I was also feeling it a lot, I had never been away from her for so long. Jess is the only family I have and the one I can count on at any moment. “You won’t believe who called me this afternoon and said he’s in town!”

“You’re not going to tell me it’s…” She smiled on the other end, confirming my guess that never fails. “My God, and what did he say? Did you meet? You’re not going to let pride get in the way this time, are you?”

“No. Not this time. Matthew is a nice guy, for a long time we were just friends, but the last time we saw each other I felt something for him. I let myself get carried away and it almost destroyed our friendship. I didn’t know he felt the same. He asked me out tonight and guess what?”

“You’re not going to do what I wouldn’t do, you deserve to be happy. You deserve a good guy, even though I’m not that close to him, it’s clear that he really likes you and you deserve someone who loves you.”

“Speaking of love, he just arrived.”

“Then go, enjoy the night and tell me everything later.” We said goodbye and she hung up, but I could still hear Matthew’s voice.

Mikhail

I was in my office when Cristina came in holding two glasses and a bottle of champagne.

"Time to celebrate, my love." She sat on my lap and wrapped her arm around my neck, then poured the drinks.

"Cristina, you know I don’t drink when I’m working and now it’s better if you leave. I’m going to finish here and then I’ll go home too, but first I need to finish these documents and review some things." I said without arrogance, but already running out of patience.

"I’m already tired of your refusals, Mikhail." Furious, she stood up, swiping the glasses and knocking them to the floor. Her spoiled child behavior was irritating me a lot, I’m checking exports and she simply thinks this is useless. " You never care about me. My achievements are never something that makes you happy, sometimes I think I deserve someone who loves me for who I am, not for what I have."

For what she has? If we stop to evaluate, my fortune is more than triple hers, just because she is the daughter of a judge doesn’t make me “poor” compared to her. But I tried for the thousandth time to have a civilized conversation with her, like two adults.

"My love, your achievements are important to me and deserve the best celebrations, but this is not the place and this is not the time either. As for your fortune, you know, we shouldn’t talk about that, because no one else knows that I am as rich as you." My eyes are heavy from exhaustion and lack of sleep, I haven’t slept for almost three days and I still have to deal with Cristina and her trivialities. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish this today. I’ll be home before eleven, I promise."

Sulking, she left, throwing the bottle of champagne onto my desk, soaking the papers that were on it, my phone, and luckily it didn’t hit the computer, or I would have to reorganize the entire file again.

"Good evening, I would like to inform you that Miss Donna is already staying with her son. Tomorrow I will take her to her house, but she did not inform that she would bring her son, however I told her everything was already prepared to receive the child as well." Ella entered my office and after delivering the news, noticed the mess, shook her head and continued: "I hope she doesn’t kill you one day, your wife is completely crazy. Good luck to you."

I thanked Ella and realized that I had no way to back out of this marriage that was already so far along, all I could do was accept it and wait for a miracle to happen.