White Lines III by Tracy Brown

Author:Tracy Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466840980
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

15

BYGONES

Gillian walked through the kitchen at Conga, the popular Cuban-style Manhattan restaurant formerly owned by her mother, Mayra. Prior to his death, Gillian’s father had signed ownership of Conga over to Frankie. But in the years since then, Gillian had persuaded Frankie to give the restaurant to her. He hadn’t required much convincing. It was clear to all who knew him that Frankie was still in love with Gillian. When she had asked for ownership of the restaurant, Frankie had happily signed the necessary paperwork. So as she strolled through the bustling kitchen on this day, she did so with the authority of its owner. Gillian directed the staff, gave her compliments to the chef, and chatted with the maître d’ to ensure that everything was being done according to her exacting standards.

Mayra scowled at her daughter, as she watched her make the rounds. This restaurant had been Mayra’s baby. It had been her idea, her vision that had brought this place to fruition. Doug Nobles had been happy to see his wife enjoying the day-to-day details of running a business. Mayra had loved the sense of power and accomplishment it had afforded her. But those days were long gone. Once Gillian got her hands on the place, Mayra had no choice but to sit back and watch the takeover. She suspected that Gillian took pleasure in snatching Mayra’s dream out from under her. Her only solace was the fact that Gillian was so busy running the illegal Nobles empire, that she seldom found the time to stop in to Conga personally. But lately even that had changed. With the family under investigation and the majority of the crew locked up, Gillian was nervous. She had been spending way more time at the restaurant lately, keeping up appearances in case anyone was snooping around. She wanted to look the part of the attentive legitimate business owner.

This forced the two women to spend time together daily. Mayra refused to allow Gillian to run her completely out of the restaurant that she had created. So she stayed on, running the day-to-day operations of the place in name only, while Gillian made all of the profits and got all of the glory. It was a setup that neither of them favored. Mayra was resentful toward her daughter for taking away her business, and ensuring that she didn’t inherit more than a small portion of Doug Nobles’ fortune. Gillian, too, was resentful. Her mother had cheated on Doug with one of his closest friends, a torrid affair that Gillian had uncovered. Mother and daughter had a lot of tension between them these days.

So Mayra was completely caught off guard when Gillian strolled over to where she sat at a corner table going over inventory lists. Gillian pulled up a chair, sat across from her mother, and clasped her hands together.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Mayra took off her glasses and set them down on the table. Meeting her daughter’s gaze, she nodded. “Okay,” she said.

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