Page 66 of Begin Again
March 2029
“PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE coming to your niece’s birthday.” Eileen doesn’t waste time getting straight to the point when I answer the FaceTime call. I can’t remember the last time she called me out of the blue like this.
I was disappointed I didn’t hear from her when everything went down with Brina last month, but I wasn’t completely shocked, either. We’re both busy. Not long after Nick went missing, Eileen opened a salon on the Upper East Side, and when she’s not with her girls, she’s behind the chair or handling the business. On the screen, the streets of Manhattan pass behind her, either on her way to the salon or to pick up Ophelia from school. Judging from the lack of Fallon on her hip, I’d guess it’s the salon.
“Hello to you too, Lina,” I say, sitting back in my chair at the DV Designs Denver office. I have two hours before I need to leave so I’m back in Haven to pick Elena up from school. Beau offered, knowing I had a lot to do today, and while I appreciated the offer, she and I were going to have some uninterrupted mommy-daughter time this weekend. That included a movie marathon tonight, a trip to the neighbors’ for horseback riding lessons tomorrow, and a spa day on Sunday.
“Nina, I’m serious.” Eileen pauses at a crosswalk, glancing both ways before she jaywalks. “Ophelia wants you and Elena here next weekend. And, personally, I don’t want to be the one to tell her you’re not coming because you and Kai aren’t getting along.”
“You and I aren’t exactly on the best terms, either.” I stare her straight in the eye. She blinks away, closing her eyes with a deep sigh. “Why didn’t you tell me, Lina?”
“It wasn’t my place, Nin. Your mother is a…touchy subject. For both of you.”
That’s an understatement.
“I can’t say I was happy about his decision to let her meet the girls, but—”
“But you let it happen.”
Eileen sighs. “Despite everything, she is your mother, and if Kai wants to have a relationship with her—”
“He can,” I say, and it seems to surprise her. Her brows raise and her steps halt in the middle of the sidewalk. “If Kai wants to have a relationship with her—and only God knows why—he can. That doesn’t mean I must subject myself to the same fate.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means that as long as I know she’s going to be somewhere, I’m not coming, and neither is my daughter.”
Eileen is still skeptical. “You’re being surprisingly…calm about this.”
“Lina, I know Brina Villa won’t be able to keep the ruse up for the rest of her life. The mask will come off eventually and she’ll remind my brother why he stopped talking to her in the first place.”
“I don’t like it when you say things like that,” she says with a deep sigh. With her eyes still closed, she circles back to the reason for her call. “Can we expect you next Saturday or not?”
“Will Brina be there?”
“I don’t…I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Well, then you have your answer.”
“Nina, please don’t separate the girls! They’re going to be heartbroken if we—”
“I’ve made up my mind, Eileen. As long as Brina is there, we won’t be.” There’s a knock on the open office door, and I’m surprised to see my brother standing there. “What are you doing here?”
“I forgot to tell you,” his wife says over the phone. “Your brother is in town.”
I hang up the phone without saying goodbye as he walks inside, closing the door. Kai and I haven’t talked outside of an occasional text or email, keeping it strictly business after our argument last month. I think this is the longest Kai and I have gone without talking since Daddy died. As much as it hurts to think we’ve taken five hundred steps back from where we’ve come, erasing all the work put into our relationship, I don’t know any other way to get my point across.
“Can we talk?” Kai asks. Hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dress pants, my brother stands in the middle of the room, looking like a scolded toddler.
“I guess that depends on you.”
“I’m not sorry for talking to her, Nina, but I am sorry for hurting you and lying about it. I should’ve told you.”
“And you think it would’ve made it any better?”
“No, but maybe you wouldn’t have been so angry.”
I laugh in disbelief, letting my tongue run across the back of my teeth. He thinks I wouldn’t have been so angry. No matter when he told me, my reaction would have remained the same.
