With These Four Rings - Book Five: Wedding Bonus (Billionaire Brides of Granite Falls 5) (9 page)

Michelle shook her head in slow motion, wishing that was all it was. “No, not this time. She’s gone, Felicia.”

“Oh, poor Sarah. What happened?”

“She apparently died in her sleep. Either from cardiac arrest or a brain aneurysm. We won’t know for sure until the autopsy.”

Felicia pulled her into her arms. “She’s in a better place. You know that, don’t you? She was having more bad than good days lately, even with the new medication. At least now she’s at peace. Her mind is at rest.”

Michelle sniffled. “I know. It’s just unfair that when Precious was getting to know her grandmother, she ups and dies. Sarah was the last tie to her mother.” She pushed out of Felicia’s embrace and wiped her hands down her face. “She will miss her a lot.”

“She will be devastated, but she has you and her father, Philippe and me, her siblings, and the extended support of the Fontaine, Andretti, and Andreas families. She has a lot more people in her corner than she had when her mother died.”

“Precious has experienced more deaths than any little girl should have to. Seven years ago, it was her mother, then five years ago it was Danielle, another grandmother whom she loved, and now Sarah.”

Felicia glanced off across the green lawn, her eyes glowing with apparent memories—both good and bad.

Michelle leaned her head on Felicia’s shoulder. “You still miss her, don’t you? You still miss Danielle,” she said of Felicia’s best friend who was once married to Philippe, until she lost her battle with cancer.

Felicia snapped out of her daydream and patted Michelle’s hand. “I do, but let’s not go down that road. Precious should be our only focus at the moment. Are you up to breaking the news to her, or do you want me to?”

Michelle could understand why talking about Danielle’s death would be bittersweet for Felicia. If Danielle hadn’t died, Felicia and Philippe wouldn’t be together. Theirs was a love that had to wait decades to be fulfilled—empathy, sympathy, and loyalty being the main reasons. As far as Michelle could tell, Philippe and Felicia were blissfully happy, but she was also certain that they both missed Danielle and the friendship they all once shared—a friendship much like the one she now shared with Kaya, Shaina, and Tashi, but even more significantly the one she shared with Yasmine, her childhood BFF. She missed Yasmine, every single day.

Michelle sighed at the intricacies of that thing called
love
, and the sacrifices, the joys, and sorrows that came along with it. But Lord,
love
was so worth it in the end.

“Michelle, you want me to tell Precious about her grandmother?” Felicia reiterated.

“No. I’ll wait for Erik. I think he should be the one to tell her. I should probably let Mrs. Hayes know, though. She was very fond of Sarah,” Michelle said, suddenly feeling the weight of planning a funeral pressing down on her. “She often visited her on her days off.”

“Fancy that. Martha and Sarah socializing. The Turners were so damned stuck-up back when the kids began dating. You should have seen the look on Cassie’s parents’ faces when they met Erik for the first time. Cassie hadn’t yet told them that he was biracial. But once they learned he was a LaCrosse, they changed their tunes real fast. I guess money and prestige were more important than color to them. Sarah was the same way with Martha when she started working for Erik and Cassie. But Martha brought her to heel.” She uttered a dry laugh. “Don’t ask me how. Martha won’t say.”

With generous affection, Michelle recalled how Mrs. Hayes had pulled strings to get her the job as Precious’ nanny—the job that had changed her life forever. She owed that woman her life, her happiness. Mrs. Hayes wasn’t keeping house anymore, but she still lived with them as a member of the family, and she insisted on cooking their meals. The children adored her and she fussed over them like a mother hen.

“Michelle.”

Michelle saw Kaya coming toward them. She was still wearing the dress she’d worn to their morning meeting with Desire. She must have come straight from Bryce’s office, Michelle thought, anxious to know how it went.

Felicia stood up. “I have to get to the café to help Philippe and Catherine with the kids. Yours included,” she said, hugging Kaya.

“How long are you planning to be there? I can come by and pick up the girls in a little while. You and Philippe will probably be ready for a break.”

Felicia waved dismissively. “Nonsense. We’ll call you. If you’re home, we’ll drop them off. If you’re here, we’ll just bring them back with us.”

“Thanks, Felicia.”

“Don’t let the news about Sarah get you down,” Felicia said to Michelle.

“Okay, Mom. See you later.”

“What did she mean about Sarah?” Kaya asked when Felicia left. “Did something happen to her?”

“She died. We just got the news.”

“Oh, that’s sad.” Kaya sat down beside her.

“It is, but at least she isn’t suffering anymore. She’s at peace. So how did your talk with Bryce go?” she asked, anxious to change the subject. She knew Kaya well enough to know that any talk of death always took her to when her sister and brother-in-law died in that tragic accident.

Kaya smiled. “He was mad at first, as we expected, but he listened as I presented my case. I talked about my experiences with my mother and how facing her freed me to go on with my life. I didn’t tell him that I spoke with you. I wanted to keep you out of it.”

“I appreciate that. The last thing I want is Bryce giving me the evil eye.”

Kaya elbowed her in the side. “He’ll never do that. He thinks very highly of you. He appreciates that you talked me out of leaving Granite Falls when he was on the fence about me and Pilar.”

“Is it enough for him to consider giving Desire a chance, though?”

Kaya stared at Michelle, her lips puckering and her eyes aglow with naughtiness.

“Oh my God,” Michelle exclaimed. “You lost your panties, didn’t you? You did it right there in his office. So did you lay it on him before, during, or after, you nasty girl?”

Kaya let her laugh fly. “I’m Mrs. Commando,” she screamed, waving her hands high above her head, and twisting her body like an ocean wave.

“Hah! I don’t believe you. Here I was thinking that seduction was the wrong approach. I guess you know your husband better than I do.”

Kaya dropped her hands on her lap. “Well, true to his nature, he did huff and puff at first, but I calmed him down enough to listen to me. And,” she added with a touch of regret, “we didn’t do it. There was no time, but he made me take my panties off just before I left—in the waiting area outside his office, of all places. He said they would help him consider,” she said without a trace of embarrassment.

“Bryce is bad. They’re all bad,” Michelle murmured, remembering how Erik had brought her to her first orgasm on a moonlit night in the parking lot of Ristorante Andreas, five years ago.

“Hopefully my panties will swing him over to our side. Desire has ideas and vision that are unimaginable. I can already see myself walking down my own aisle lined with orchids, and Bryce standing at the front under a trellis waiting for me.”

“I know. I’ve been picturing my walk toward Erik since we left the restaurant. Between the trial of the men who killed Tashi’s mother, the sibling rivalry going on in the Andretti household, and now Sarah’s death, we need something glamorous and exciting to look forward to. We need balance. Bryce is our only hope.”

Kaya pulled her smart phone from her purse. “I have to ask Desire for a little more time. I pray she understands that this isn’t an easy decision for Bryce.”

“She will. It can’t be easy for her family, either. They lost a daughter and a sister. As deranged as Victoria was, she was their family. You know, this wedding could turn out to be more than simply the four most powerful couples in town renewing their vows. It could be a symbol for healing throughout Granite Falls.”

“From your lips to God’s ears, girl.”

CHAPTER SIX

Andretti Estate – Tuesday – the next afternoon…

“What’s that one, Aria?” Shaina pointed to the floor-to ceiling LCD video wall in Massimo’s man cave. She’d returned home from an informative appointment to enjoy a picnic lunch with Aria at one of the fountains on the estate. Afterward, they’d taken a walk around the grounds before coming inside. Shaina had been quizzing Aria for the last ten minutes to build on her already large vocabulary arsenal. “What’s that animal called? Do you know?”

“El-elo-elophant, Mommy. That’s an elophant. Elophant’s big, and he has big, big ears.” Aria opened her arms wide and tugged on her ears for emphasis.

“Good girl. That’s an e
le
phant,” Shaina replied, putting emphasis on the second syllable. At fifteen months, Aria was far more advanced in her oral communication skills than most children her age. She was already stringing sentences together, especially in Italian, probably because her father had read and spoken to her in Italian while Shaina was carrying her. Shaina, herself, had picked up a lot of the language and its euphonious cadence by listening to her husband’s nightly monologues directed at their unborn child. Massimo was adamant that Aria became multilingual, so from the moment she was born, he began speaking to her in several languages, every single day.

With the Andretti curse hanging over them, neither wanted to know the sex of the child. Shaina’s throat tightened as she recalled the moment Mass had gazed into his daughter’s face for the first time. He’d been too choked to speak, so with tears running down his cheeks, he’d just stared at her for a long time, his blue eyes glowing with amazement and rapture. Once he found his voice, he cradled her close to his heart—the baby still covered in amniotic fluid, and with her umbilical cord still attached—as he murmured over and over again, “
Mio figlia. Mio figlia bella, dolce. Papà ti amo. Papà ti amo, così tanto, Aria.
”

When she was an infant, he would sit with her in his arms when he came home from the office, and tell her about his day, about the legacies of Andretti Industries and
La Banca di Bianchi
, the European chain of banks he’d founded in her grandmother’s name. And sometimes he would take her for long walks around the estate. He’d promised her that even though she was a girl, as his firstborn, it was her birthright to inherit the title of CEO for both companies, no matter how many sons he fathered after her.

Aria would stare at him intently with her big brown eyes, and make gurgling sounds and intense facial expressions as if she understood what he was saying. When she finally began to develop her language skills, Massimo’s eyes always lit up with pride and love each time Aria responded correctly to his questions. His daily one-sided conversations with her were probably the reason she began talking long before she could walk. He’d actually broken down and cried the first time Aria had reached for him and said, “Dada,” the very first word she ever spoke.

Shaina cleared away the lump that had formed in her throat. “
Cosa dice l’elefante,
Aria?” she asked. Italian was the only language Shaina had mastered so far, and with which she felt confident enough to contribute to her daughter’s multilingual abilities.

Aria wrinkled her nose and pouted her cute rosy little lips in thought. “
L’elo—L’elefante dice
,
bbbrrrrr, pppphhhhttt, errrrrrrhhhh
…” she said, with spit flying everywhere.

Shaina laughed at her baby-girl’s attempt to mimic one of the most difficult sounds in the world. She was way off, but close enough for her mama. “
Brava! Brava, la mia ragazza
!” She gave her child an affectionate squeeze, and pushed a button on the projector remote.

“
Puttycat
, Mommy. Nice
puttycat
. Bari. Bari.” Aria screamed with excitement and sat straight up on Shaina’s lap with both arms stretched toward the screen as if she wanted to hug the cat.

“Yes, that’s Jabari.” Shaina rested her chin on Aria’s head as they watched the week-old video of Mass and Aria on a blanket with Jabari outside their private camp, close to the Masai Mara National Reserve where Jabari lived. The camp was situated in the Lamai Triangle along the banks of the Mara River, and a safe distance from the mainstream safari route to allow absolute privacy. It was more like a luxurious outdoor hotel with spectacular views of the Mara River and the breathtaking landscapes of the Kenyan plains beyond it.

Sine they’d visited the motherland in April, a family visit to Africa hadn’t been on Shaina and Massimo’s agenda when they’d planned a short vacation weeks ago. Their plan was to leave Aria at home with Azi and Reese, her nanny, while they spent some quality time together on her private island in the Mediterranean. But the day before they were set to leave, Servio, Jabari’s handler called to tell Massimo that his prized leopard had wandered into lion territory, and had been attacked by the king of a pride. They’d immediately boarded the jet to Kenya with Azi in tow.

“Bari’s hurt, Mommy.”

Shaina watched Jabari struggle to get up only to plump back down in pain. “Yes, sweetie, Bari is hurt.” As Jabari attempted to get up again, with Massimo’s help this time, Shaina couldn’t help but think about the day when she entered Massimo’s master suite for the first time and almost died from fright when Jabari leaped at her. Up to this day, Shaina still couldn’t believe she hadn’t raced out of this mansion and put as much distance as possible between her and Massimo Andretti when he’d left her out in the hallway while he caged his leopard. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, she couldn’t imagine her life without Massimo, or this darling child they’d created together.