Ann’s POV
What Isabel said to me at the party, my impulsive decision to hug Vince, and Ryan’s pre-wedding party occupied my mind.
I keep tossing and turning until it sticks 1, and I hear the door opening.
Even though it’s been over a week since I started sleeping in the master bedroom, Vince and I haven’t slept on the same bed.
I always try not to think about it, but sometimes, my mind drifts back to how he ended our conversation that night. Aside from that, I still wonder if I was right about him being scared to spend the night in the same bed with me because he has never made an attempt to.
He always disappears.
I am a heavy sleeper so I can’t say if he ever stayed back in the room with me or not.
The door fully opens, and he walks in, his eyes fixated on the tablet in his hands.
“Are you just coming back from work?” My voice makes him look up sharply, surprise flickering over his expression.
“No. Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
Suspicion jumps back into my head. Why does he sound like this isn’t the first time he has come into the room past midnight? He sounds like I am always fast asleep whenever he comes in to pick up or do something in here.
“You are avoiding me, Vince?” I try to feign annoyance to see his reaction.
“What? Of course not. We went to a party, and I had tons of work on my desk because of that.” His explanation doesn’t do anything to satisfy my curiosity.
Isabel has challenged me. I don’t plan to make Vince fall in love with me, and I don’t think he ever will, but I want her to believe he is madly in love with me, so I abruptly embraced him back at the party.
I don’t care how it looked, considering how stiff Vince was. It was a two-way thing. Getting Isabel mad and paying Vince back for always kissing me without warning.
He always catches me off-guard. Leaving me breathless and flushed at the end of the day.
“I came to pick something up. You should go back to bed. I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep,” he says, acting clueless as he strides to the drawer opposite the bed.
I watch him take out a phone, and it clicks.
That was the small phone I saw in the drawer the other day while searching for the keys to his home office. That was the exact day I found out about his real identity.
Vince never bothered to question me about anything related to that day, not even the discussion about how his home office was left wide open or about what I know of Isaac and Cater Rossi’s business.
I have also been thinking of how best to approach him about my mother. Maybe it’s because I am scared of what his response would be or because I am more frightened of what my mother would think.
I don’t even know if she wants to be rescued. The more I think about it, the more I blame myself.
I haven’t contacted her in years. I thought I was doing myself a favour by not contacting her or anyone else in that family, but now I know I can’t keep acting ignorant. She needs to be rescued.
“Vince?”
“Umm?” He whirls around to face me. “Is everything okay?”
“I can’t sleep,” I shrug and pout, hoping it will work its magic. “Should I come to help you, or would you like to keep me company until I fall asleep?”
None of my options are suitable for him, but he nods anyway and walks forward.
“You should sleep. I have tons of work to get to before morning, and you can’t help me with anything.” He sits next to me, making me sniff his woody cologne.
He smells nice. Did he shower in his office?
Feeling silly, I grin. “Are you sure you are not scared of me?”
“What?!” He exclaims in disbelief. “Of course not. Go to bed. I will join you when I am done.”
He tries to stand up, but I am quick to stop him by holding onto his shirt. He glances down at me, holding his shirt, his eyes turning soft.
“Please. Just stay back here and finish up. Maybe I will sleep off just by watching you work.” I pout again and watch him gulp, darting his eyes away.
“Ok, fine. Sleep!”
“Are you mad at me?”
“No!” His response is sharp as if he is expecting my question.
Vicente is way too serious for my liking. I have suddenly lost the strength to tease him or force him to bed.
Wearily, I slouch back onto the bed, facing him as he continues to scroll through the tablet and the small phone. His jaws are tight, and I wonder if he is angry that I insisted on having him here.
Was I being childish and immature? Maybe I should have pretended not to have seen him enter.
Why does he act all stiff when I try to act romantic with him? Should I try to make him fall for me? Does he even find me attractive enough to like?
As much as my thoughts sound fun, I don’t want to think too deeply about it. Being his Mafia Queen doesn’t make this a love match and I thought it was fine with it.
“Am I attractive?” The words come out of my mouth before I can stop it.
He looks confused for a moment before nodding and taking his attention back to the tablet.
I sigh, and his eyes drift back to me.
“Are you thinking of him?” He demands with seething jaws. It makes me want to smile, knowing he is still angry with Ryan for what he did to me.
I was taken aback a little when I realize it was their pre-wedding party, but I don’t think I am still angry with him.
Not when I am a Mafia Queen, and he is nothing but a subordinate to me and my Mafia husband.
“You didn’t tell me it was their party,” I point out, sitting up in bed.
He doesn’t react to my statement.
“I wouldn’t have gone, to be honest.”
“That was why I didn’t tell you. Besides, I wasn’t aware until we were already on our way.”
I nod in understanding. Even if he was aware, he should be there as the boss. And I needed to be there beside him as his queen.
“So do we have to go to the wedding tomorrow as well?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Good.”
“Was he good to you?” He asks after a moment of silence. I glance up to see his intense stare before nodding, my mind racing back to the moment I used to call beautiful.
“He was.”
“Did you suspect anything at all?”
“I did but I thought it was just one of my wild imaginations at work. I was a mess.” I slap a hand over my face, embarrassment taking over my face as I remember the night Vince and I met.
I was so pathetic that I asked Ryan for help just to see him.
“It wasn’t your fault. You were in love,” Vince comments, dropping his tablet and folding his arms.
I smile at his sense of understanding before asking. “Have you ever been in love?”
He shakes his head. “Never.”
“Then why did you sound that way as if you knew how I felt?” I am thinking of telling him about the conversation I had with Isabel. But something keeps poking me back from starting a conversation in that way.
He shrugs indifferently. “I was being open-minded. I don’t judge unless you betray me.”
The iciness that comes with his utterance makes me watch him with admiration. One moment he is cold and strange. The next moment, he appears to be caring and understanding.
“Love is a beautiful thing when it’s with the right person,” I comment again, hoping to keep the conversation going.
“Wasn’t it beautiful when you were with him?” I almost laugh out loud. First, he always avoids saying his name and second, he is trying to debate with me.
“It was but…”
“There are no buts…”
“It doesn’t stop me from loving someone else. I believe true love exists and I believe it will happen someday, whether I get betrayed by hundreds of men or not.”
He falls silent. Then he nods. “I like your mentality but I don’t advise you to aim too high.”
A chuckle leaves my mouth. “Men will always be men but I still want to experience that feeling of being loved. Perhaps if Ryan had a choice, he would have stuck with me, who knows?”
He looks away, obviously pissed at my statement.
“You haven’t had time to date or you just don’t do love?”
“Both.” His attention is back on me. “I don’t believe in any of those. They are abstract so they don’t exist to me.”
“But you love your mom, don’t you?” I question, wondering why I am so invested in making him believe in love. Now that I think of it, I am tempted to try making him fall for me.
He cocks his head, and his eyes darken. “What does that have to do with this?”
“That’s unconditional love, it is also a feeling. What makes that different from loving a woman you are not related to by blood or anything else is the fact that loving your mother or father is actually inevitable. You two have been bonded from infanthood so it’s natural for you to love her. If you tell me you dislike your mother, I won’t believe it so don’t bother to.”
He doesn’t say a word.
Quietly, I lay back on the bed and watch him return to work.
When a sigh leaves my mouth, our eyes lock, and he looks away immediately. After a moment of watching him work with ease without looking a tad bit sleepy or tired, I start to feel sleepy.
At this point, I doubt if Vince even sleeps at all. If he has been going to his office all night, then it means he sleeps little or doesn’t sleep at all.
Too exhausted to think about anything else, I fall into a dreamless slumber.