Dumping My Cheating Ex at Christmas

Surprise

Chapter 3

Valentina’s pov

I knocked on the door of my families private cabin in the ski resort and walked right in to see the confused and then happy looks on my families face. Mum was straight over at me, gripping me so tightly in a hug I was worried I would pass out.

Thankfully, my brother and dad didn’t grip me quite as tightly. Christmas is a big deal in our family, even though me and my brother are fully grown Mamà still goes all out on it, I am just glad it was their presents I had bought before heading home yesterday.

If it hadn’t been, I would have had to buy more or come empty-handed as I wasn’t sticking around the house to pack anything up. Not with Derek and his sl.ut still naked in our bed that’s for sure, I also had his, but now my brother gets it, Derek doesn’t deserve a one of a kind designer watch.

“You are just in time for the presents, my Preciosa hija (precious daughter)” my mum says, dragging me and my bags to the large decorated tree.

Thankfully, they are all caught up with the excitement of me being here with them to ask any questions. Unfortunately, that only lasts until the presents are all opened, and then my brother starts to get curious about why I am there.

“I thought you and that fiancee of yours couldn’t come, so why are you here, and where is he?” My brother asks, not disguising his dislike for Derek.

“I no longer have a fiancee, Derek is gone and I would much rather be here with all of you than let him stop me from having a good Christmas” I reply deliberately leaving out any details.

“What did he do?” Dad asks me in a tone that tells me I should answer.

“Papi, let’s not ruin Christmas talking about him” I say, trying to get out of this conversation in any way I can.

The look on their faces tells me there is no way they are dropping it. My mum is Spanish, and she has a fiery temper, and my Italian father thinks nothing is more important than familia. I sigh, knowing they won’t drop it, and I don’t want it to hang over our day like a dark shadow.

“I caught him sleeping with a work colleague in our bed. He and her were saying some particularly nasty things about me. It turns out he only proposed to me because he found out who my family was” I admit.

“Bastardo, I will kill the son of a cagna (bit.ch)” dad says, slipping between English and Italian. He is definitely angry.

“Papi, no. He is not worth it, I walked away and gave back the ring, I just want to forget about him” I plead, not wanting my dad to get into any trouble over someone who doesn’t deserve a second thought.

I was devastated when I caught him, but I quickly changed to anger and then indifference. I thought he was different, I was going to tell him who my family was as I had started to trust him. I am glad I found out what he was like before I became his wife.

I will not waste any more tears on this man, and I will not let him get in the way of my life. Seeing him fu.cking some puttana in our home was more than enough to kill my feelings for him. Now I am just glad I had an easy escape from him, I guess I wasn’t as in love with him as I thought I was.

“if he steps out of line and tries to harass you, then he will be dealt with, capisce” dad says.

“Si papi” I agree.

With that out of the way, we start to enjoy our time together again, Derek, a distant thought in our minds. It doesn’t get brought up again. They know I am sad but that I am strong enough to get over it. It is more the fact I wasted 2 years on him that upsets me than losing him.

It is so nice to just spend time with them all, it has been so long since we had any proper time together, between all of our work schedules, and Derek making excuses on why we couldn’t go to any meet ups it has made me miss out on so much time with them.

I am glad that they aren’t meeting up with the Rossi’s as I just want it to be our family this year. We stopped spending Christmas together a few years back. Things were awkward between their son, who is my brothers best friend, and I after he realised that I had a crush on him.

My dad had been friends with Mr Rossi since University, they were both Italian and away from home and bonded over that. When they met their wives, they also became friends, and they have stayed close ever since.

Santiago was no Brad Pitt, that’s for sure. He was kinda nerdy. Tall lanky body and the worst glasses he could have bought, they didn’t suit him at all. He was intelligent, though, and I thought he was a friend and a good person, I got that wrong.

When he confronted me about my feelings, he made it more than clear they would never be reciprocated. That didn’t bother me. I knew it was a silly crush that wouldn’t go anywhere, and I was absolutely fine with that.

It was the way he looked me up and down in disgust, as if he would rather bathe his eyes in bleach than be seen dead with me.

He had a cheek, at least I could drop a bit of weight. It would be far harder to have a personality transplant. He was too busy at the time using his money and status to get girls into bed and then drop them when he was done, and from what I have heard, not much has changed.

I couldn’t even tell you if he grew out of his dorky stage as I haven’t seen him in years. We could probably pass each other in the street and not even realise who each other was.

My brother wasn’t happy at first about me avoiding any get together that Santiago would be at, he thought I was being childish about the fact he didn’t like me in the way I wanted him to. It strained our relationship for a while before I had it out with him.

I told him exactly how his friend looked at me, the tone he used, and the phrases like a chubby girl, someone like you, and interested in more than only brains were used by him. Basically, my crush was gone as soon as I realised what an arrogant a.sshole he was.

Giorgio was p.issed at himself and his friend. He admitted that it was him who brought my crush to his attention and that he also asked him to let me down gently. If that was gentle, then Santiago and I had different interpretations of the word.

I was angry at Giorgio for doing that. He could have spoken to me, and then he would have realised that it was a harmless crush, and I had absolutely no intentions of doing anything about it. I knew that I would grow out of it in time.

It took a few more months after that until Giorgio and I were back to the same relationship we had before the Santiago incident. He felt guilty for the way he had treated me and accused me of being immature about not wanting to see him.

He realised that it wasn’t because I was being turned down that I wouldn’t be near him, but more the fact that he had been hurtful and cruel unnecessarily. A person who I thought of as a friend hurt me, and I shut him out of my life as I no longer saw him in the same way.

Eventually I didn’t care if Santiago was going to be at a particular event or place, but it just seemed to work out that either him or I was busy, and we kept on missing each other. So I never had to bother being polite to my brothers best friend

The three days I had with my family were just what I had been needing, but it passed far too quickly. On he plus side, Giorgio was moving to the New York offices in the New Year, so he would be closer to me and we could travel back together.

Giorgio oversaw the advertisement side of the business so he could have his main headquarters anywhere. Most of his recent work had been based in New York of late anyway.

Santiago was in also in New York, and he wanted to be close to his friend again. I could understand it, I would hate to leave my few friends in New York as well.

Mum and dad had been discussing moving to New York as well so that they could be closer to us all. I think by summer they would be in the city as well they just needed to tie things up a bit. Most of the business was getting passed to Giorgio soon anyway.

It will be good to be able to see them more regularly again. As I left, my mum and dad made me promise to get in touch with them or Giorgio if Derek caused me any issues. They knew I had me penthouse near the office so I had accommodation sorted and I wouldn’t have to go back to his house if I didn’t want to.

I had no intentions of getting my things from him. Any important family memories were in the penthouse, and I didn’t care about the memories I had made with Derek. I was still happy for him to throw my stuff out as I had plenty of everything I needed at the penthouse