“Hello, Kaiser?”

When Kaiser heard her soft, husky voice say his name, he felt something stir in his body. Unconsciously he relaxed as he answered her.

“Are you done with the premiere?” Kaiser asked her. it had been a couple of hours since he dropped her off, and he figured it should be coming to an end.

“Yes, how did you know? I was about to call a taxi to take me home to my apartment.” Valentina replied.

Hearing her plans to go back to her apartment, Kaiser was glad to have a valid reason to stop her.

“Stay there, I'm on my way to come get you.”

“There's no need” Valentina firmly declined, “Since Luca isn’t around, I'm clearly not needed. I planned on resting at my place for a couple of days and relaxing.”

Hearing her draw a firm line between the two of them made Kaiser chuckle. No matter the situation, her stance refused to change, and she firmly pushed him away. Still, he was determined to make her crack and at least admit that she was interested in him.

“I’ll come pick you up regardless. Luca had a fever and has been crying. He has apparently spent the day destroying his grandparents’ house because he misses you.”

“How far away are you? Is he okay?” hearing her tone change from something casual to a voice filled with urgency, he felt a cruel satisfaction as her thoughts became focused on his words.

“Say your goodbyes. When you're done, come to the back of the theater. I'm here waiting. And don’t worry, I've taken care of any paparazzi.” He cut the phone and waited for her to come out.

After a couple of minutes, he saw a girl dressed in red walk out of the building. Seeing her dressed in the clothing he bought, Kaiser couldn’t help but smile. She looked radiant, like a goddess.

She looked around in confusion before spotting him smoking a cigarette by the sports car. As she approached him, he extinguished the cigarette before opening the car door for her.

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As he started the car, Valentina hurriedly asked him, “Kaiser, what happened to Luca all of a sudden? How did he become like that? I thought you said he was feeling more stable?” Seeing her eyes full of worry for his son, his heart warmed up.

“He was, which is why he went to visit his grandparents. Everything was going fine until this morning when he couldn't see or call you. Then he apparently went on a hunger strike. Instead of my parents telling me, they hid it so he started destroying everything in their house in a fit of rage and cried all day.”

“Oh no. Should I have called him after all? “Valentina asked desponded. She hadn’t realized that Luca had formed such a dependence on her. She had assumed that since the child was happy around her, he was getting better. As Kaiser continued driving her to their destination, she turned and asked him.

“Kaiser, this may be a really personal question to ask but I’d appreciate it if you could let me know. What happened to Luca’s mom?”

From the time she had heard the children teasing Luca at Blue Robin Lounge, she had been curious as to what the story was. Although there wasn't a lot of news about Kaiser, she had found some things mentioning his son but nothing about a wife or even a girlfriend. Who was Luca’s mother and why was the child so dependent on a random girl like her?

Kaiser was silent for a couple of moments, and she thought he wouldn’t answer her.

“Is that all you want to ask?”

Valentina hesitated before firming her mind up. “Why is Luca so dependent on me? For all intents and purposes, I am a stranger and yet he seems strongly attached. What happened to the child?”

“I cannot tell you everything, however, Luca’s mother is dead. She died soon after giving birth to him.” His voice was emotionless as he responded.

“As for why he’s dependent on you? He’s not really had a motherlike figure in his life except one person from the other parent’s side who horribly betrayed and emotionally abused him when he was younger. As a result, apart from his grandmother, I’ve kept him isolated from any woman.” He gave a dark chuckle before continuing, “I’m guessing all his bottled-up feelings exploded onto you when you decided to save him which is why he’s quite clingy now. He’s just searching for someone to love him.”

Hearing the dark backstory behind Luca’s behavior, Valentina could feel her heart hurt. She could empathize with being betrayed and searching for love as an orphan. It made her want to hug him even harder the next time she saw him.

“So, you’ve heard a dark secret of the Grayson family. Honestly, his behavior will probably get worse before it gets better, and it might interfere with your life as well. So, if you want to get out now I completely understand. We can break the deal between us with no harm to both sides.”

Valentina examined Kaiser's face and seeing the sardonic smile on his face reached her hand out and punched his shoulder as hard as she could.

Naturally, it was her hand that hurt as he didn’t even flinch, and the car remained steady on the road.

“Do I seem like such a heartless bastard to you? I want Luca to get better and regain his happiness as a child. If my presence makes that possible, of course, I’ll stay for the duration of our deal.” Valentina declared.

“And after the deal?” Kaiser asked in a low voice.

“We’ll play it by ear then. Also, didn’t you already trick me into adding an extra month to it?” she glared at him.

Valentina caught sight of a sharklike grin and shivered.

“Rather than a trick, let’s call it taking advantage of an opportunity. I plan on doing more of that in the future.”

“Adding more months to my stay?”

“Yes. Unless you’ve changed your mind about becoming Luca’s stepmother?”

“No way! I’m leaving in four months guaranteed.” Valentina rolled her eyes at his continual nonsense.

“We’ll see Valentina, we’ll see.” He sounded like a devil, and she swore she could see demon wings behind him.

“Is it too late to accept your offer to leave?”

Kaiser's only response was to laugh softly.