Page 31 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

“You want to fight over dinner?” Kayla asked, twirling her pen in her fingers.

“I mean, it’s always very entertaining. You’re not sick, are you? Cause I've never seen you give up your territory in the kitchen so easily.”

Kayla just rubbed her neck with a sigh. “I’m not sick.”

“But something’s up. Come on. Out with it.”

Kayla kept her mouth shut even though she knew Liz was going to hound her into talking about it sooner or later. She already felt like such a burden on her mom. She didn’t want to let her money troubles bleed onto her as well.

But unfortunately for Kayla, Liz was far too perceptive and just as stubborn as her daughter. She appeared at Kayla’s shoulder, a bag of lettuce in hand and peered over her shoulder.

“A budget?” she asked. “You’re not worried about money, are you? What did I tell you when you moved back here, huh? Once my kid, always my kid. If you need money, you come to me. There’s no reason to stress yourself out over a bunch of numbers, Kayla. It’s not good for you, and it’s not good for that little passenger you’re hauling around.”

Liz put the lettuce down on the table with a definitive slap, and Kayla couldn’t help but smile. She had always enjoyed her mother’s rather aggressive pep talks. Kayla sighed and pushed her budget away, knowing she was about to have an offloading session with her mom right now, whether she felt like it or not. She should never have acted so blasé about pre-made lasagna. It had been the first giveaway that something was wrong.

“It’s not the money, exactly.”

“What is it then?” said Liz, perching on the chair beside her and pushing her glasses up her nose in preparation. Whether she meant it to make Kayla smile or not, the result was the same. Kayla’s anxiousness was already starting to melt around Liz’s intense and prim concern.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to move on with, well, everything until I let Elio know what’s happening and…” She trailed off, her dread about the whole thing making a swift return. But she didn’t exactly need to finish her sentence. Liz knew. She knew how important this was to her, for Elio to know. The last thing she wanted was to feel like this pregnancy, her baby, was just some dirty secret.

“I wasn’t going to bring it up right this second,” Liz said. “But seeing as you’re not in an argumentative mood, I better take the opportunity while I’ve got it.” With that, she stood up and went back to the counter, rummaging through her purse.

“What are you talking about?” Kayla asked. “What harebrained scheme have you cooked up now?”

Liz didn’t say anything. She plopped a thick envelope down on the table in front of Kayla. Dreading what she was about to find and already half knowing, Kayla opened it. A bundle of cash was in there, crisp new notes straight from the teller. Kayla felt the world slow down a little, and Liz took the opportunity to talk before Kayla tried to shove the cash back at her.

“I’m not taking it back,” Liz said, knowing exactly what was going through Kayla’s mind. “And I’m not silly. I know how to look up the price of a plane ticket. So that is for you, to go and find this gentleman and give yourself some peace of mind.”

She nodded and folded her hands on the table in front of her, waiting for Kayla to start rebutting.

“That’s for your retirement…” was all she managed to sputter.

“And what’s a couple grand going to get me in retirement? Huh? A few weeks of groceries, some gas in the car? Maybe make a dent in an electric bill, big deal. And I’ll be sitting there in my retirement, with my groceries and working lights, hating myself because all I can think about is the time when my daughter needed to do what she felt was right and go see her kid’s father on the other side of the world. You think I care more about some money than the future of my grandkid? For your future? Money comes and goes — who cares? I could win the lottery tomorrow and this conversation will mean nothing. But flying across the world to do the right thing by this man, that’s not something you get another chance at.”

With that, Liz slapped the stack of bills where they sat on the table and shoved them further towards Kayla’s grasp. Kayla didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing at all. Instead, she stood up and wrapped her arms around her mom and held tight.

“I’m too hormonal for this, you know,” Kayla said, trying to blink away her tears before they fell onto her mom’s neck, and failing miserably.

“Yeah, I know. But I figured I’d use that to my advantage. May as well use mom guilt for the powers of good, you know?” Liz pulled back and wiped her thumbs under Kayla’s eyes, then kissed her on the forehead.

Kayla felt… a lot of things. All of the thoughts were too loud, too much, and too big to process properly right now. Gratitude was definitely a front-runner, as well as a bit of residual reluctance to take her mom’s money, but she’d already lost that battle. Mostly, she felt reinvigorated. It might go terribly, flying to Italy to see Elio in person. In fact, statistically, it was more likely to go very, very badly than anything else. But she was doing the right thing, and at least she could live out the rest of her life with a clear conscience. Not only that, but having her mom dry her tears and hug it all better, still protecting and caring for her at thirty-two… It made Kayla excited for her own baby in a way that she hadn’t been yet. Excited not just to see her baby newly born and tiny, but also fully grown, an adult in the world that she could have conversations with, that even when her child was thirty-two, she would still be there to look out for them, to give them money from her retirement fund and send them halfway across the world.

She’d find a way to repay Liz somehow. But for now, she just relaxed into her mom’s hug and felt truly hopeful for the first time in months.

CHAPTER 13

ELIO

Elio was back on the beach, walking again. If he wasn’t in his office, he was out here pacing back and forth, his footsteps erased by the waves by the time he made the return lap.

He’d always loved solitude, but this… this was starting to feel like something unhealthy, and that took a lot for him to admit. To admit that he felt like he was behind bars, that he was trapped, that watching Gianna and Isabella leave each evening and make their way back to the mainland made him jealous and anxious and restless… He’d tried to ignore the feelings for as long as possible for the sake of his sanity, but it was no longer possible.

And as for Noel Preston and his campaign to tear down Elio… it was only getting worse, according to what Marc had told him. It wasn’t just a lawsuit at this point; it was a full-blown smear campaign that had been launched against him. After some digging, Marc had learned that nearly everyone who had been at the Oro launch party had been contacted by Preston personally and asked if they had any grievances against Elio. Were they worried that they might have choked themselves or gotten food poisoning? Did they think Elio’s wine was really up to FDA standards? Food production was a safety issue at the end of the day; could Elio Morelli be trusted? What corners could he be cutting that no one knew about if something like this could happen to poor, innocent Noel Preston?

It might be lies. It might be slander. It might all be vapid. But at the end of the day, all of these actions could be enough to plant seeds in people’s heads… and if anyone else got the idea to throw a lawsuit at Elio while he was down and out, then it would be the perfect opportunity for that to start snowballing into a very bad situation.

Any news from his legal team only seemed to be bad news. Elio dreaded seeing the familiar number or email address pop up on a screen, knowing that he would only be in a worse mood after hearing what needed to be said. Unfortunately, it all boiled down to the same strategy that they’d had from the start; better to be stuck on Malbia, where there was at least a little freedom, than stuck in an apartment in New York.

---