The Billionaire and the Runaway Bride by Nadia Lee
Chapter Thirteen
Yuna
After the dinner’s over and our friends leave, I shower quickly, then go to the piano room where Ivy’s resting on a couch with a book. It’s one of her favorite rooms in the mansion, even though she’s too big to sit on the bench at the proper distance to play the Bösendorfer Tony custom-ordered for her. It has the most gorgeous tiger lily motif on the side, which is her favorite flower.
“Some Mozart for the babies?” I ask.
“Yes, please.” She closes the book.
I play Sonata Facile. Everyone loves it, and I could play it blindfolded.
“That was great,” she says when I’m finished. There’s a pause. “Sebastian and Katherine are kicking.”
“Ooh!” I rush over to the couch and place a hand over her bump.
Sure enough, there are thumps. Little feet punting against my palms.
“Oh my God, they’re so precious!” I squeal. “And strong! I can’t wait to meet them.”
“Soon,” Ivy says with a breathless laugh. “I can’t wait to pop them out. They’ve been squishing my bladder long enough.”
I let out a soft sympathetic sound. “Is it very uncomfortable?”
“Not really uncomfortable. More like annoying when I have to use the bathroom every ten minutes, especially at night.”
I look at her belly, stretched tight with twins growing inside. Ivy doesn’t walk anymore. She waddles. It can’t be fun to have to toddle to the bathroom all the time.
“They need to invent a special bed just for pregnant women,” I say. “With a toilet attached to the butt area so we can pee without having to get up at night.”
She laughs. “I can’t even imagine.”
“Just sit up and go! And maybe the deluxe model can have a ‘remain lying down and go’ feature. I feel like I should propose it to my dad and see what his engineers can come up with.”
She laughs again, tears in her eyes. “Oh my God. I’m trying to imagine his face.”
I grin. “Me too.”
But I don’t really have to imagine. He’d sigh, then ask Mr. Park to do some market research to humor me. And he’d ask why I’m spending so little time with him, because he thinks I should come by more often. I miss him. But it’s his fault I’m in America, because he asked Eugene to marry me off.
Ivy grows serious. “I know you’re doing this thing with Eugene, but you’re okay with your parents, right? No hard feelings?”
“Not really. I mean… He’s only doing this because my parents asked him to. They know they can’t make me do anything, but think Eugene can. Because he’s my brother, they have this idea that he’ll know a better way to communicate the urgency of the matter and convince me. They forget he can be impatient and ruthless when he decides to set a goal.” I sigh a little. “If they hadn’t asked, he’d still be a great brother. The guy who rented a yacht for a celebration party when I got into Curtis and other crazy stuff. Because it’s family, not a goal.”
“Hopefully, he’ll learn that he has to be more open to your needs after this,” Ivy says, patting my hand gently.
“Yeah, I hope so too. He can get a little bossy.” Which is fine with other people, just not with me. I’m his sister, not some corporate underling.
She yawns hugely, covering her mouth. “Sorry.”
“Is that my honorary nephew and niece saying they need to get some sleep?”
She smiles. “Probably.”
“Six more weeks!”
“Yup.”
She doesn’t ask, but I help her up anyway. When she’s out of the room, I close the piano and check my phone.
Nothing from Eugene or my parents. I wonder if Mom and Dad even know I’m out of the country. Ms. Kim might not have sent in her regular report on my movements. With the new assignment, she’s no longer spying for Mom.
Maybe my parents don’t care that I fled as long as they can get me married off to one of the Hundred. The idea is both depressing and infuriating, so I’m just going to pretend for the moment that my mom is worried, but hasn’t reached out yet because she’s busy.
But there is a text from Benedict. It came about an hour ago.
–Benedict: Sent an email with all the procedures and rules. The boss gets cranky when things don’t go the way he wants. And I won’t be available starting tomorrow, so you’ll have to manage as best you can. But I’m sure you’ll do fabulously. I have a feeling about you, and I’m never wrong about things like that.
If only he could bottle that “Yuna’s awesome and she knows what she’s doing” and send some to my brother!
Since I have an early morning, I go to the huge suite where Tony and Ivy are letting me stay. For privacy, it’s located on the opposite end of the house from the wing she and Tony use.
The room overlooks the garden in the back, is decorated with lots of elegant cream lace and has soft white cotton sheets on the bed. There’s a large ivory leather couch and a coffee table in the seating area, plus a vanity set up perfectly for makeup. The walk-in closet has three full-length mirrors so I can look at myself from every angle. The island in the center is empty. I’ll fill it with my jewelry and accessories later, when the rest of my things arrive.
I get the makeup off my face, smear on some toner, lotion and cream in its place and lie down on the bed.
I’m going to kill it tomorrow. Working for Declan can’t be harder than, say, sight-reading the cadenza from Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto. I can’t wait to see Eugene kneel in defeat before me. Since he’s my brother, he doesn’t have to prostrate himself. I’ll settle for kneeling.