°Sweet Dreams° (1)✔️

23. Guardian Angel.

Nico

"Your brother will be arriving soon." Father added sugar cubes into his mint tea.

Carina sat across from me while Father sat at the head of the vast mahogany table.

"Vincent has been going behind your back and conducting his own business. His choice of career is petty and useless to the family heritage." I tapped my fingers on my teacup to settle my annoyance. "He is an imbecile and not my brother."

"Oh, come on now Nico," Father breathed. "If Vincent wants to make silly movies about love and happiness then we'll let him. You two already know what I want from him."

Carina never looked up as she stirred her tea and went to sniff it before tasting some.

"Do you hear me girl? You like playing for both sides and I don't want any confusion in allegiance."

The question was more of a demand that Carina knew there was only one answer to.

He was satisfied when he saw the slight nod of her head and went on to drink his tea.

I was 28 years old while Carina was two years younger than me. Out of all of my parents' children, she was the only one who had such a light shade of hair. Brown.

It was cut just below her ears which made her look much older than she actually was.

She got the color from our mother along with her brown eyes.

Dad treated her just as different as she looked.

"Vincent's bringing someone, you know?" I asked behind my cup. "What if it's that hothead from before?"

He sat his cup down and pulled a cigar from the box in front of him.

"I paid Claire good money to keep our family's dynasty out of her mouth. She was no longer welcomed into this house nor country the last time she disrespected me." He inhaled the smoke of his cigar. "Vincent did say this person was vital to his experiment. Maybe you can show me how you can take the lead Nico and get me that serum."

"Why won't you let me take the lead?" Carina finally blurted out. "My sales in Chicago have been nothing less than superb for years and I have the right to compete to be the head-"

"You don't have the right to do anything!" Father banged his hand on the table which caused both our cups to jump. But Carina didn't even flinch. "This is still my company and I'd be damned if I allowed someone who isn't fully committed to her own family to take over. A fool would only allow a duck to run his kingdom, and you should know by now that I am no fool."

Carina sucked in her cheeks and looked down at the shiny yet tiny ring that encircled her left fourth finger.

Father didn't trust Carina because he knew she could run the business better than either him or I ever could.

And he has all the reason not to trust her.

Her husband was a mechanic in Chicago who lived off no more than $36,000 a year. Father most likely thought that she would take all that money to fund her marriage and take care of her daughter.

Along with my father, I believe that she might take the entire company and we won't have anything left. She was a hard worker and she's been that way for years.

That hard work was going to land her a lifetime of hell from our Father.

"I'm going to a meeting right now, but when I come back we will discuss our plans, Nico." Our eyes followed him as the ignited cigar hung from his lips and he exited the dining room.