Condemned to an unhappy marriage by her father Emerald Davidson finds herself in quite the shitty situation, only to find help from someone who's no better. She trades one deal for another, but is oblivious to what that other deal is exactly until i...
Life doesn't come with a manual, it comes with a mother.
- Author Unknown
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Daniel Riva's POV
"I cannot believe you. I thought I raised you to be more wise than this."
My mother's eyes practically rolled out of her head as she uncrossed her legs and put her high-heeled feet firmly on the ground before her. A pair of glasses was balancing dangerously on the tip of her nose, her eyebrows lowering as she took me in from behind my desk.
"Che cosa?"
I granted her a puzzled and annoyed look as I took my suit jacket off and tossed it on the couch. I had only been out of my office for an hour - just long enough to poor the both of us a glass of wine and persuade Emerald to go back to bed - and already she had her nose in my finances. It was about time I made it clear those weren't her business anymore.
"More wise than what?"
She had to be just a little bit more precise about what she was pissed off about at the moment. My head was throbbing and most of my limbs felt like they had already decided to go to sleep. To make matters worse the wound in my abdomen had started bleeding again when I had pulled Emerald on my lap. I had managed to keep it hidden behind my jacket long enough for the girl not to notice, but looking down now I realized it had definitely stained my dress shirt. Great.
My mother's eyes shot to the blots of red on the wrinkled white too, but they didn't linger there long enough for me to think that that was what she was talking about. God knew the woman wasn't particularly concerned with my health. Nope, there was something else haunting her mind.
"I just talked to Valentina." She started. "The poor thing was beyond comforting."
Ah.
A loud sigh left my lips as I tousled a hand through my hair. I couldn't help but feel a surge of annoyance at the fact she had run straight to my mother out of all people. The two had a soft spot for each other, Valentina being a permanent member of my mother's household back in Italy, but I hadn't expected the two to pair up here as well. As if my life didn't suck enough already at the moment as it was.
"What about her?"
There was no doubt in my mind I had misbehaved - her way of breaking the news about my grandmother perhaps hadn't been great, but my response hadn't been awesome either. However, she knew perfectly well how things were. To drop a bomb on me like that and then start bothering me about our future marriage again was just rude. Valentina knew how much I cared about Nonna, the least she could have done was give me more time.
How much I had cared. I still couldn't believe the sweet elderly lady was gone.
"What is about her, is that you told her your marriage plans are on hold?"
