Drowning

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mariana stayed with me as long as she could until she had a meeting but she had to leave by mid-morning. I decided to not go to work and told Alice to send me everything I needed to do for the day and to cancel all meetings until Monday. I would go to the office, I need to go to the office is more accurate, but I can't. The cut is clear on my face, and I can't really put any makeup on it. And I was going to the gym but Lidia started screaming at me that I couldn't because if I sweat it would get infected, so now I'm stuck in my apartment.

Regardless of all the pushing I did to Alice to send me more work, she refused. Claiming that I need my rest, but she doesn't understand that I dont get sleep either way. I need a distraction from my thoughts, from yesterday, from everything. I talked to Fernando, my PI to see if he had any updates, he didn't, but instead I gave him a new task, I need to find more things about this case, and bury it. Maybe that way I can forget about my family, no matter how horrible that sounds, and maybe not have to face Aiden again. I still can't get my head wrapped about what he said last night, first about me parading myself around and then him telling me he was jealous. I didn't know if I wanted to kick his ass or kiss him so I did neither and kept looking ahead. I do think I made the right decision but I don't know if I'm going to keep that opinion in the long run. I don't like to be in this situation, I've never been more conflicted about someone. But I think I'm going to do what Mariana said, just proceed with caution and see if the other shoe drops.

I try to forget about the haunting green eyes, and the insulting mouth by doing what I always do when I'm trying not to think about something, read a book. As soon as I hit the couch and open the book I'm starting to read, the doorbell rings. I stand up to get it but they continue to knock.

"Have you heard about something called patience," I say as soon as the doors open. And it's Damon.

"You were taking too long," passing right beside me.

"I didn't say come in," Rolling my eyes and closing the door.

"I brought things to make Martinis," he says from the kitchen, "figured you needed something cold," Clearly Mariana told him what happened already. I don't mind, I was gonna tell him anyway.

"God, bless your heart," I say sitting at the counter as he takes out ingredients from the bag. He looks at my face examining it for a minute.

"It's not as bad as everyone says it is," he said, starting to make the drinks. It's really not that bad, it's just the cut that you can notice. But even though it doesn't look bad, I was right yesterday, it hurts like a bitch. But I don't tell him that.

"Everyone is exaggerating it,"

"Now, did you get a taxi home?" A taxi? Who says taxis anymore? That makes me laugh a little.

"No, Aiden gave me a ride,"

"Aiden?" he says smirking.

"Get your head out of the gutter is not like that, and he's the guy I was dancing with," that only makes his smirk wider.

"I told you he likes you," and that only makes me groan, that's not what I need to think about right now. "Tell me what have you been up to,"I tell him, trying to change the subject and thankfully he takes the bait and starts talking about all the travel and work.

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I spent the rest of my Thursday with Damon, before everyone else joined us to have our weekly dinner. The rest of the weekend I spent alone, reading books, working a bit and going to the gym, which I had to sneak out to since no one let me go. I don't care what they said I needed to go to the gym. Today I'm finally going to the office, and Fernando called to give me an update on the latest task I set him up to, so instead of going to the office with Mariana and Luke I decided to drive myself to an unexpected surprise visit to the person I want to see the least right now, the Millers.

I walked through the building never stopping once so that no one could recognize me or stop me from going to see my beloved grandfather. As soon as I got to his office door, I could feel the tremor in my hand but I fist my hand to stop it and step inside, not thinking about it twice.

"Valentina," my grandfather says unsurprisingly, "what are you doing here?"

I walk towards his desk and stand next to the chairs but do not sit, "I came to tell you to dismiss the lawsuit," I say putting my bag in one of the chairs and standing threateningly.

He leans back on his chair clearly amused, "And why would I do that?" He asks, just the question I've been waiting for.

"Well you see grandpa," I say the last word mockingly, "not only have I the possibility of taking you to court for assault, but I have been doing some research, and I found something quite interesting," I say starting to pace around a malicious tone in my voice.

"How does going to jail for tax evasion sound?" I say and look at his face completely drop, which only makes me smirk harder. "I found that someone has been devient and desperate enough to grossly put a ridiculous small amount of money in your taxes. And I'm guessing you're paying off a whole lot of people because those numbers, boy, I don't even know how you managed it." As soon as I told Fernando to look into my father, I knew this lawsuit deal would probably end. This man is anything but moral, and I was certain he had something bad enough to make him leave me alone. Which like I presumed he had, and it didn't even take Fernando long to find. Really the only thing impressive about his ridiculous idea of tax evasion is how long he has been doing it for and hasten been caught.

The only reason I really didn't do this before is because I wanted to take him out clean. But for a minute I forgot that when you play with rats you've got to think like one.

"So, this is how it's going to go," I say, putting my hands on his desk and leaning forward so that he can see how serious I am. The look on his face is the best thing I've ever seen. He looks so stunned, "You are going to call your little lawyer, tell him you're dropping all charges against my company and me, or I'm going to take you to court for assault and call the feds on you for tax evasion, which will probably give you six years in jail to the least. But that's not gonna happen because if you do decide to go that route I will look for the judge that's going to go the hardest on you and the best legal team in the country and drag your family name and legacy across the mud." I say standing straight again and the only thing I see him do is gulp, "You have three days, if by Thursday I don't have the papers of dismissal of the lawsuit expect the police at your house," and with that I walk towards the door.

"Nice seeing you again," Turning to him with a big fake smile, "grandpa," I say in a disgusted voice and slam the door behind me. All those days free of doing nothing I decided I would get control back in my life. I decided I'm going to get rid of the toxicity in my life that is the Millers, find my sister and get some peace with what happened years ago, and finally see if I get some god-damn sleep.