archesi looked up at her and narrowed his eyes in a manner that suggested she wasn’t the only one who remembered that painful day.
What followed was perhaps the most intense hour of Nora’s life, with Daniela Avelar sobbing as she held her nephew for the first time while Valerio and Duarte watched in shock. Apparently the elegant businesswoman had never been a baby person, and nor was she prone to such displays of emotion.
At one point Nora was very aware of the two men speaking in low tones in a corner of the deck. Duarte’s friend and business partner seemed to have some things he wanted to say out of earshot. She saw the man’s eyes dart to her, filled with evident mistrust, but she tried to pretend it didn’t bother her.
When Dani insisted that Nora and baby Liam come to the launch of the new headquarters that evening, she politely declined.
So far Duarte had managed to navigate their entire interaction without once mentioning their relationship status or any details of their history together. She was grateful, but one look in his eyes as he was leaving told her he wasn’t finished with their conversation from earlier.
She found herself suddenly intensely grateful that he was a hotshot CEO and his presence at the event was necessary.
When she was finally alone in her luxurious cabin, she lay down on the bed with her son by her side and blew out a long, frustrated breath.
The look on Duarte’s face when she had asked him whether he had considered her own plans had spoken volumes. He hadn’t even thought of her career dreams, her aspirations. No, he’d weighed up the situation and how it affected him and come up with the perfect solution to fulfil his duty to his son and keep her around as a handy bonus.
Was this what life would be like if she accepted Duarte’s proposal? Trailing after him from city to city and waiting around while he attended events? Or, worse, would she be forced to play the dutiful wife on his arm?
He’d said he had a home in the English countryside and he’d made it sound idyllic. But the reality was he was a global businessman; his success took him to every corner of the world and she didn’t expect that would change.
The last time Duarte had seen the Fort Lauderdale headquarters of Velamar International, the entire building had been mid-construction. Now he stepped into the glass-walled lobby and was awestruck at the level of detail everywhere he looked.
One detail caught him by surprise. The wall of the corridor that led to the common areas, where the drinks were to be served, was lined with picture frames. Upon first glance, he almost just walked by them, but something caught his eye.
He stopped and took a step back, frozen at the sight of his own blueprints and sketches for the original Sirinetta superyacht. For a moment Duarte wondered if they had been framed and put on show in memoriam—if perhaps he should avoid looking too close lest he should be met with an epithet of some sort about his tragic demise. But there was no mention of his death, only a succinct note on each frame, giving the date of his first concept and each stage on the road to production.
‘We wouldn’t be here without your brilliant mind.’ Valerio appeared by his side, sliding a glass of champagne into his hands. ‘You have always been the brains.’
‘The creative brains, perhaps.’ Duarte raised his glass in toast and gestured to the amazing building around them. ‘But you were the one to come up with this crazy venture and build it into the powerhouse it is today.’
‘I can’t take the credit for any of this particular venture. Your sister did most of the legwork.’
Valerio smiled and raised his glass to where Dani now stood, welcoming their guests into the large conference area at the end of the corridor. She walked towards them, beaming.
‘I still can’t get used to seeing you together,’ she said, and smiled as Valerio wrapped his arm around her waist and looked down at her with obvious adoration.
‘I could say the same.’ Duarte smiled too, noting their mild shock at his light words as they all began making their way towards the party.
Dani moved away to talk with some of their investors, and Duarte saw his best friend staring at him in silent question.
‘What I mean is, it’s strangely normal to see you this way. It’s like it was always going to come to this.’ He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘You make her happy.’
‘She is everything to me.’ Valerio spoke with gruff sincerity. ‘Once I accepted that, everything else just followed. I knew it might cause a strain between us, but I hoped you would understand eventually.’
‘I was a bastard when I first came home.’ Duarte shook his head. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You’re not a bastard.’ Valerio laughed as they entered the fray. ‘You’re just brutally stubborn and despise change in all its forms.’
Valerio’s words were repeated in his mind long after they had finished their private conversation and separated to move through the crowd. He did despise change; he always had. It made him irritable and hostile. And when he looked at the past few months of his life he realised it had been one brutal change after another. He’d felt completely drained of mental energy.
Except at the beach house in Paraty he hadn’t felt drained. He’d felt calmer and more at ease than he had in years. Now, surrounded by a mix of elite international business associates and clientele, he felt wound up and stifled. But he knew his role—knew what was expected of him.
He smiled and shook hands and tried to pretend he cared, when really he wasn’t sure why he’d ever cared for this world at all.
The ship was quiet when Duarte arrived back from the event. Most of the staff had finished for the day, in anticipation of an early start preparing for the glamorous party on board the next afternoon to mark the opening of their new routes.
He wandered along the rows of empty tables on the entertaining deck, surrounded by stacks of chairs and boxes of decorations. In his old life he would have stayed to the end of the party at the new headquarters and ensured there was an after party in a fancy hotel penthouse, where everyone would have gone wild and he’d have ended the night with a beautiful woman in his bed.
The thought of it now made his blood run cold. He’d barely managed to stay for a full two hours tonight—only until his disaster of a speech had been given and he’d been able to slip away.