Stay with me

94 Taming the stubborn

Niko had neither the desire nor the time to explain to his mother the common truths about love and care. And there was no point. He just looked into her eyes, making it clear with a glance that she no longer had power over him. Now he is not formal, but the real head of the Bianco family and will act as he sees fit. Signora Hortense lowered her eyes and stepped aside. Niko called the butler and asked him to set Ornella up in one of the guest rooms.

"When Signorita Ornella's things are brought, take them to her room," he ordered. "And led the maid to bring a tray of supper into my room. Also, tell Signorites Maria and Lucia that I will be waiting for them at ten in the study. Mother," he turned to Signora Hortense, "this request concerns you too. We need to seriously talk about important changes in the life of the Bianco family."

"We can talk immediately," his mother told him in response.

"Sorry, Mother," Niko replied, "but we'll talk at ten in the evening. I haven't had a crumb in my mouth today. I want to eat, shower and change."

Signora Hortense did not react in any way to the fact that her son was tired and hungry. She just pursed her lips in displeasure. It was at this moment that Niko realized that he did not and never had a mother. All his life he was not a child and a beloved son, but only an instrument in achieving the goals and ambitions of Signora Salvatore Bianco. And he also realized that the understanding of this fact caused him only annoyance. There was no resentment or pain. Hortense Salvatore-Bianco became a stranger for him.

In some incomprehensible way, Ornella felt what was happening in his soul. When they went up to the second floor, she stopped Nico and said, "It seems that we both became rootless today."

"I don't care," he said.

"I don't care," she agreed.

Hastily taking a shower and changing clothes, Niko left the bathroom. There was a tray covered with a white napkin on the table in the room. The aroma of grilled steak hit his nose. His stomach responded with a sucking pain. But before starting to eat, Niko took the phone and went to the window. Looking through the dark glass, he called Jansu. Long beep ... the second ... and then a series of short ones. She hung up. Doesn't want to talk to him. But she does not know how stubborn and persistent he can be. Niko took the phone away from his ear, quickly typed in a message, and sent it.

"I love you," flew away into the night.

He looked at the phone and imagined Jansu. So she hears a beep, looks at the screen, sees that there is a message from him, tosses the phone away, turns away, walks around the room with an independent look, then comes back, grabs it, and opens the message.

On his phone screen, the message sent to Jansu changed color. She read it! Niko mentally began counting the seconds. On the tenth, the phone vibrated with an incoming message. Niko opened it with lightning speed.

"Go to hell!" the screen glowed.

She answered! Niko's face lit up. With a sigh of relief, he sat down at the table with a contented look. It doesn't matter that she is angry and rude. The main thing is that she didn't shut herself in and did not delete him from her life.

Fifteen minutes later, Niko went downstairs to the study. The sisters and mother were already waiting for him. The first greeted him with smiles and spoke in unison, rejoicing at his return home, his mother sat in an armchair with a stone look. Niko walked over to the desk, leaned his hip against it, and spoke to his sisters, "Girls, I must inform you that I am leaving Rome."