Chapter 150 Truths Laid Bare at the Table
POV Maya:
Not again. I try to open my eyes, and the pain makes me shut them immediately. What kind of son of a bitch tractor keeps running me over? I try again, and this time I succeed. There’s an annoying ache in my back, and the reason is right beneath me.
I slept on the couch.
The good part is that I’m not naked, nor am I sleeping on my own vomit. The bad part is that I’m in the Morettis’ house after last night.
I sigh and force myself to stand up. I need a shower, a painkiller, clean clothes, and finally to sit down with the Moretti brothers and have an honest conversation.
Regardless of how it ends, I want to be sure that everything is clear between us. I’ll share my secrets and my dreams with them, the reasons that brought me here. And even if, by the end of the conversation, nothing works out in my favor, I still choose to stay and try.
I won’t run away.
I am not my parents.
...
Here we are, all sitting down for breakfast and to talk.
Last night is still a bit blurry to me. After we left the bar, I don’t remember everything I said or did. I have a few flashes—being on Luca’s lap, saying I was going to ride him, and then, moments later, being on Dominic’s lap, saying I’d do reverse cowgirl on him.
I shake my head when the image of me running my tongue over Sebastian’s abdomen invades my thoughts. The poor thing had been completely red in the face. I really am a hurricane of slutty chaos when I drink.
I steal a quick glance at Sebastian. He keeps his head down, eating his bacon and scrambled eggs. I look at the indecent twins, who are focused on their plates. Finally, I gather the courage to look at the two brutes I love to irritate, and what a surprise—to see them staring back at me with angry expressions.
None at all. That’s their default setting.
“We need to talk,” I say, and everyone stops what they’re doing and looks at me. “I want to be honest with you. I don’t like half-words. For me, the more direct, the better. So I ask that you be honest with me throughout this entire conversation.”
“Alright,” Dominic says, and I know he’ll be the brothers’ spokesperson.
“To explain why I’m living in El Soledad, I need to tell you a story.” I take a deep breath, knowing I need to open up to them like I never have with anyone—not even with Tay. “I’m an only child. I don’t have any emotional relationship with my parents. After I turned twenty-one, they made me sign some papers and disappeared into the world.”
I leave out the part where they tricked me into signing documents that made me give up all the trust funds left to me by my paternal grandmother after her death. Those papers were worth over a hundred million dollars. The only thing my parents left me from that money was ten million, which I swore I would never touch.
Money is good, but too much money makes people sick and selfish. Money poisons relationships. It brings envy to the surface. Everything becomes fake.
“Since then, it was just me, until I met Peter.” The brothers shift in their chairs, visibly uncomfortable. “He quickly became my friend, and after a while, friendship gave way to something more.”
I sigh. It’s time to share my dream with them.
“I’ve always dreamed of having a family—of being for my future children what my parents never were for me.”
“What do you mean?” Sebastian asks, and I smile sadly.
“My parents never loved me. They only had me because…” A knot forms in my throat. After discovering the truth, the way they raised me finally made sense. “It was my paternal grandmother’s wish to have a grandchild. She said she would leave her entire inheritance to that grandchild. That’s why my parents had me. But they never loved me. They never cared about me.”
I close my eyes, hating remembering this part. I always pretend this part of my story never existed. But if I want to show who I really am, I need to tell everything—even about the money my parents stole from me.
I didn’t want to tell this.
But I have to.
No half-truths. That’s what I said.
“They tricked me and made me sign papers giving up my entire inheritance.” My eyes fill with tears, and I stare at the table, unable to look at the Morettis’ faces. “They left me only a bank card with ten million dollars in the account. I swore I would never touch that money. That money is dirty. It’s money that’s never given me anything but tears and a lonely life.”
“Maya.”
I lift my head. Sebastian is offering me a glass of water, which I accept.
“I’ve always wanted a family. That’s why I never really thought about the consequences of my choices. I just didn’t want to be alone anymore. And thinking like that, I accepted Peter’s proposal when he asked me to marry him two years after we started dating.”
“You’re engaged?” Dominic blurts out, and I get irritated that he’d even consider that I cheated on my idiot ex.
“No, I’m not.” I’m a little hurt. “If I were, I wouldn’t have let you and your brothers touch me. I don’t cheat on the person I’m with, and I certainly don’t betray who I am.”
“Then what happened?” Adrian asks, and judging by his expression, he’s not at all happy to know I was once engaged.
Men.