Chapter 30 - The warmth of a mother

If I had any doubt about the Morettis being richer than my own family, it was all cleared when as I saw their multi-million dollar estate and the million dollar yacht Mrs Antonia Moretti owned. I managed to keep my surprise well hidden as we arrived at the Moretti estate.

The family was already outside waiting for us. Nicholas told me he had two sisters and one younger brother and lots of cousins. And I know that they were probably curious and wanted to see the woman that had snatched up their elder brother.

We didn’t talk much throughout the ride, but I know that he was very relieved that I didn’t bring Jace along. I also managed to stay calm and rest during the drive. But when the car pulled up in the driveway and I saw all those eager faces stretching and trying to catch a glimpse of me I was gripped with anxiety.

I made it out of the car and it didn’t take seconds for them to bombard me.

“Is that her?! Oh my! she looks so pale!”

One of them exclaimed.

“Look at her eyes. Have you ever seen eyes so blue? Their kids are going to come out looking like that.”

Another said.

I flinched at the thought of that. Nicholas came to my side in an instant and held my hand, he squeezed it gently but it did little to calm my nerves.

His mother was the first to come up to me.

“Cleopatra! How are you! So wonderful of you to come.”

She said as she pulled me in for a brief hug. She kissed my cheeks and I smiled at her. She smelled of fresh roses and bubbly champagne.

“Thank you for having me Mrs Moretti.”

“I know the two of you are married now but perhaps you would plan a larger ceremony in the near future since you didn’t give us a chance to attend the first one.”

She said and I looked at Nicholas. He shrugged.

“Don’t bother her about that mother.”

He murmured and he’s mother glared at him and before she even stepped aside another Moretti was in front of me.

“I’m Nicholas’s elder sister.”

The woman said as she raised her hand to give me a small handshake. I could feel her eyes searching me, looking at me. She was tall, tall like Nicholas and they shared the same hair and eye color. They looked so alike it was uncanny. Like they were two sides of the same coin. They looked like they could have been twins. Except Nicholas was older. Almost thirty years I heard.

“My name is Isabella Moretti.”

“Cleopatra Fontana.”

I replied.

She raised her eyebrow.

“You’re still going by your last name?”

She asked, causing everyone around us to pause and listen to our conversation.

Honestly the topic of last name never came up, maybe because I didn’t intend to change it.

“Yes. I chose to keep my last name.”

I answered and she didn’t hide her distaste.

“Really?! That’s interesting… even more interesting that my brother would allow you to do that.”

“Allow me?”

I asked as I chuckled and Isabella looked amused.

She looked me up and down and then turned to her brother with a smirk on her face.

“Well it’s pretty clear who wears the pants in the marriage.”

She muttered under her breath but I caught her words.

“Isabella…”

Nicholas called her, I could hear the warning in his tone. His sister shrugged and walked away.

When the tension diffused and we started walking towards the house, I was flanked by two more Morettis. Nicholas sister and his younger brother.

A pregnant young lady in a flowing pink dress and a tall young man.

“My name is Blanca. Blanca Moretti-Jones. Don’t mind Isabella, she can be intense sometimes but she means no harm.”

I nodded as I looked at the woman’s face. She had such a warm soft face. She looked friendly.

“It’s nice to meet you Blanca.”

I murmured shyly.

“This is my baby brother Antonio.”

“I’m not a baby why do you keep saying baby brother?!”

Antonio protested.

Blanca shot him a look but she didn’t say anything else.

“Come, come meet the rest of the family, we’ve been dying to see you.”

Blanca said as she held my hand and dragged me inside.

“We were so shocked when we saw you in the papers with Nicholas. We kept calling Nicholas asking about you but he wouldn’t tell us a damn thing.”

Antonio added.

I was soon introduced to all the Morettis. Blanca’s timid husband Coy. Their two kids CJ and Arabella who had curly hair and wide smiles. With also one on the way. They looked cute together.

Nicholas’s two twin aunts who were his father’s younger sisters. Aunt Martha and Aunt Maria. They were at least fifty years old and they looked identical, they even wore the same clothes.

His several cousins from his dad and mum’s side. I counted at least ten of them in attendance with the promise of more coming. But I could only remember two names. Sylvia and Lenora. Only because they looked fashionable and they were nice enough to talk to me and show me to my room when Nicholas was occupied.

In the confines of my room I felt relieved and grateful for the momentary solitude.

I was checking out the room and thinking of unpacking when the two kids CJ and Arabella rushed into my room chasing each other.

They were around five and three years of age and they were the cutest kids I’ve ever seen. But they ran fast and they made a lot of noise.

As they started running around me, I couldn’t do much but beg them to stop so they wouldn’t fall.

“Hey! Hey! Stop!”

I exclaimed as the young boy held my legs and started laughing hysterically.

Nicholas rushed into the room in that moment.

“Oh there you are!”

“You little rascals!”

He said playfully as he picked up the nearest kid and threw her up in the air.

This was a side of Nicholas that I had not seen before.

He looked really good with kids.

As if he remembered that I was inside the room, he turned to me with an apologetic smile.

“I hope they didn’t give you too much trouble?”

He asked and I shook my head.

“No. They just got here.”

I said as I held the little boy’s hand, slowly leading him to Nicholas.

“You must need your rest. I’ll take them away.”

With that they all left the room, the door clicking softly behind them.

……..

I was still in my room when someone knocked on the door, I wondered who it was as I walked towards the door and opened it.

When I opened it it was Nicholas’s mother, Mrs Moretti.

“Mrs Moretti.”

I said as I made way for her to come in. I noticed her husband was not with her, perhaps he found the whole Moretti family to be a little too much since he wasn’t a part of them.

I wondered how the children had acted when their mother remarried, my father never mentioned remarrying or even thought about it. It might have been hard for her family to accept her new husband.

“How do you like the room? It’s the room Nicholas likes to stay in when he’s here.”

She asked and I nodded.

“It’s lovely.”

I said as I looked around, it was a beautiful room. Spacious too.

“I wanted us to talk.”

She said and I nodded.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Well I apologize if we got off to a wrong start, when you and Nicholas suggested the wedding, I felt it was best to hold it off because of the news and I didn’t want the whole negativity to affect the wedding.”

“I don’t want you to mistake my hesitation for something else.”

“And then when I saw how much Nicholas is smitten with you, I’m convinced he has made the right choice with you.”

That, that was unexpected, it warmed my heart in a way I could not explain. I smiled at her.

“And you’re my son’s wife, I want us to be close. Nicholas you see, I don’t have favorites but he’s very dear to me and what he loves I love.”

“Thank you for your kind words Mrs Moretti.”

Mrs Moretti shook her head.

“Please, I’ll very much like it if you could call me Mother.”

My head turned to her in shock.

Mother?!

“I’ve lost my mother so long ago that I didn’t think that I would ever get to use that word again…”

I laughed sadly as I tried to blink the tears that wanted to fall.

Mrs Moretti moved closer to me, her hand on my shoulder.

“Take your time. I want it to come naturally to you. Over time, I hope that you can learn to love me and see me as something more than your mother in law. I hope that we can build that sort of bond.”

I nodded.

“I’d like that very much too.”

With that, I was pulled into a hug.

And I forgot how it felt to be hugged. I forgot how my mother’s hugs used to feel like. It’s been so long since she had left us. I had started to forget everything about her. Her hugs, how her face looked, how she felt, how warm she was and now, and now with Nicholas’s mother hugging me tight I could feel it all again.

In her arms, I remembered my mother.

And the tears flowed freely.