Page 58 of Born a Queen

When she was done cleaning up, she left the kitchen to survey the different areas of the house that were under construction. To avoid disrupting the household too much, Daniela and Raina agreed to section the renovations. At the moment, Daniela and her team of carpenters, painters, electricians and plumbers were working on the second floor, making their way through the guest rooms.

Raina wasn't planning to do much to the guestrooms, just update some of the styles and colours and add a few modern touches here and there. Nothing major. As she surveyed each room, she was impressed to see how far the team had come. She was pleased with the progress.

A frown marred her features as she made her way down the long marble hallway. Where was Daniela? The other woman had said that she would be here today, matching paint samples and upholstery samples in the various rooms. Raina wanted to meet with her, see if they could come up with a few ideas for the master bedroom. Raina had pretty much given the other woman run of the house, except a few rooms.

Finally, Raina pushed open the last door that she had left to check on the second floor, Mateo's bedroom.

"What are you doing in here?" Raina asked sharply, finding Daniela crouched next to the desk in Mateo's room, one of the drawers open.

Ever the picture of sophisticated coolness, Daniela didn't jump at the sound of Raina's voice. She gracefully stood from her crouch and turned to face Raina. As always, her smile was professional, polite and distant. There was no warmth to this woman.

"I needed to get measurements in here, it's the only room we didn't discuss," Daniela said in her husky voice. She waved a hand behind her indicating the desk. "A vintage piece, very nice. Do you know where it came from?"

"No, I don’t." Raina stood next to the open door and looked pointedly out to the hallway. "I believe I mentioned that I would need to speak to Mateo before we proceeded with renovations in this room."

Daniela walked gracefully toward Raina, an expression of self-condemnation and guilt on her face. Raina called bullshit. Every expression this woman had was carefully arranged.

As Daniela went to slip by Raina, she said, "Forgive me. I was so eager to continue with the work that I completely forgot what you told me about this particular room. I’ll try harder to remember your instructions in the future."

Clever.

Daniela was placing herself firmly in the inferior position, the employee. She was doing and saying all the right things. Except for rifling through Mateo’s room. And Raina didn't believe the woman's excuse for one moment. Daniela had been in there looking for something.

As the two women walked down the hall side by side, Daniela casually asked, "Where did you meet your fiancé? You’re American, correct? And he’s from somewhere else?"

Raina glanced at Daniela, trying to determine if the other woman was attempting to get information from her or if she was genuinely curious. Raina told herself to stop looking for a conspiracy where there was none. Daniela's probably met a lot of different people in her job, and Raina had to admit that she and Mateo made an interesting couple.

"My parents introduced us." Raina attempted to keep the bitchiness she was feeling from her tone. "Mateo did some work with my stepfather. We met two years ago and then reconnected recently.”

"Oh, what a lovely story!" Daniela exclaimed. "I adore hearing about second chance love."

Now Raina knew for sure something fishy was going on with the other woman. Daniela looked and acted as though she was carved from an iceberg and now she was gushing about second chance love stories? Raina wasn't buying it.

"Sure," Raina said sarcastically. "We’re a match made in heaven. If you'll excuse me, I have some work to do in my office. When you get those samples ready for me, bring them down and I'll have a look."

Raina walked away from Daniela without another word. She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to get to the bottom of it.

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