João Felipe
He had his bags ready and would travel the next day to New York. The only things that stuck with me in São Paulo in the last few days were the appointments and tests that my mother did and her health was weakened. But yesterday she went to the doctor and everything was fine with her because according to the tests, she only had mild anemia, which was already being treated.
Given this, I decided not to postpone my plans to expand our company and to move on to settle in New York.
I had already hired a team of financial analysts who were starting the preliminary phase of the project, among them, a good friend of my brother, Jack. I already knew Jack superficially, from when I lived in the United States and participated in some events related to the world of finance, and when I was already in São Paulo, I saw them talking during an event in which we participated. I found out then that they were friends, which was a very interesting coincidence.
I had received some indications from friends about Jack's ability with the stock market and intended to look for him, even before I knew about his friendship with João Pedro, and this only made me more sure that he would be the ideal person to help me in this first phase and that he would be a collaborator of great value to my growth goals.
I looked out the window of my office, in the central building of Mendes de Albuquerque in São Paulo, and it seemed that my mood matched very well with the time I did outside. It was a cloudy day, with gray skies and full of charged clouds. It seemed about to rain a lot, but soon it would be night and these clouds did not shed the rain they seemed to carry.
I was sitting in my chair and on my desk, there were several reports that I should read, analyze, and make some important observations, but I could only think of the events of the previous days when my brother and his "future wife" were increasingly happy.
I was avoiding staying at home as much as possible, even more so since Viviane had several meals in the mansion now. My father made sure that she had already begun to take her place in the family and I could only laugh at such a statement coming out of Dad's mouth. To avoid further disagreements, I did not do so in front of Mr. Rodolfo
My mother, however, must have been more and more upset about the situation, but she kept silent. I had said nothing about JP's marriage to Vivi, which I found quite odd on Mrs. Marta's part. I thought she was going to scream and rant when my brother made the announcement, or that at the very least he would demonstrate how much she was against this union, but she just excused herself and withdrew from the dining room. That is, I was the only one to make clear what I thought of this marriage and it was better to follow my mother's example and withdraw myself, not only from the living room or the mansion but from the country!
I decided to go home, I would travel the next day, and given that I was not yielding anything, sitting there in that chair, looking out the window of my office. The best thing was to go get some rest and say goodbye to my parents properly since I didn't intend to be traveling constantly from there to here and would spend at least a few months without seeing them. They always visited me in New York for the past few years, at least four to five times a year, which I considered very little and was something my mother complained about a lot.
But she didn't travel without Daddy and he had a whole schedule of appointments and work, which prevented him from always traveling, as my mother wished. Either way, I would continue to avoid my own home. I had to assume, at least to myself, that the reason that led me to keep all this estrangement, then and again now, was Vivi. In short, the bothered ones withdrew and that's exactly what I was doing again.
I got home already past nineteen o'clock, the traffic was chaotic due to a major accident involving some cars, which ended up causing me to take more than two hours to get home, a journey that I normally did in forty minutes at most.
I was leaving the garage after leaving my car when I found a couple of lovebirds coming toward me. I stopped and was waiting to talk to João Pedro, to greet him at least, since regardless of anything, we were still brothers when he passed me without even looking in my face.
"What's your problem, João Pedro? We are brothers! Are you going to go without talking to me? "
JP stopped next to me, while Viviane moved on, going to stand next to the car my brother used to use daily, keeping his head up, but not looking at me.
"No problem, Felipe. But since the last time we spoke, you made a point of expressing all your displeasure with my decisions, I thought it best not to force an approximation. "
"We're brothers, dammit! Regardless of anything, family is more important than anything. You can't just go against your whole family for one woman... " Although this is exactly my way of thinking, I did not want to start another discussion and decided to speak quietly, so as not to be heard by Viviane.
" But which "family" is against something here? Because not even Mom is taking a stand against us, João Felipe. Only you who think in such an arrogant and petty way, because Vivi has been in the family for a long time and our marriage will only be a formality. "
Just a formality? But what nonsense! I'm sure it never crossed anyone's mind that one day they would form a couple and get married! They always had a sibling relationship, and now they came with this bombshell. I couldn't accept, let alone understand, how they progressed from brother-friends to a couple in love, about to get married.