CHAPTER TWO
1989 Words
A black Rolls Royce Phantom rolled into a stop in front of our circular driveway, its shiny finish catching the sun on its surface. The front door opened and a man in a black suit with matching black sunglasses reached for the door to the backseat.
Then Lorenzo Morelli appeared.
“Ah! Welcome back, Lorenzo!” My stepmother greeted him enthusiastically, dragging her flowing dress across the steps to meet him.
He wasn’t looking at her though. He was looking up at me. When Helene noticed this, she followed his gaze with a look.
She spotted me and it took all of my self restraint not to roll my eyes at her.
“You silly girl, come here! Greet your fiancé like a proper woman!”
“Silly girl? Now she’s talking like she’s in a movie set in the 70s?” I grumbled and stuffed both my hands into my pockets, refusing to move from my spot.
“Don’t talk about my mother like that.”
That did it. I rolled my eyes. “What do you want from me, Georgina?”
She appeared beside me and gave me a taunting smile. “Oh, I don’t want anything from you. I just wanted to say goodbye.”
“Oh, really? Let’s not kid ourselves. I know you hate me.”
“Exactly. That’s why I’m here to say goodbye. I’m sure you already have enough of an idea about him. And from what I’ve seen and heard, I bet he has a temper. With your stubbornness, I’m just not sure how long you’ll last.”
“You’re hoping I’d end up dead? Real classy.”
“Oh, we’ll see.”
She turned on her heel and flicked her long hair around, making sure to hit me in the face before trodding off. I huffed behind her, deciding to just get this over with and head downstairs.
When I reached the bottom of the stone steps, Lorenzo and my stepmother all looked up at me. All my things and my untouched suitcase were already loaded up in a different car. I can’t believe that I just got here and I’m already leaving so soon.
“Come here.” Helene trapped me in a hug, running her thin fingers through my hair as though she’s some loving stepmother or something. “You know what to do, right? Just be a good little girl and I’ll make sure your dad is taken care of.”
I clenched my teeth to stop myself from crying.
I’ve already cried all night. I don’t want to have to cry in front of Lorenzo, too. That’s like showing him where to bite.
He’ll never know my weakness. Not now, not ever.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Helene chimed in and physically forced us away from each other.
I turned my gaze away, fully aware that if I looked back at the house, I might burst into tears again. Dammit. I can’t even do a proper goodbye.
“I guess this is it.”
Lorenzo’s bodyguard moved to open the door but he stopped him. Instead, he opened it himself.
What’s he playing at?
“Get in.”
Ah. There. The command. And so it begins. He tells me what to do and I oblige like an obedient dog.
I sucked a huge breath and nodded, waving casually at my stupid stepmother before getting into the car. I didn’t peel my eyes away from the car seat in front of me. If I looked away now, my tears will surely fall.
No weaknesses. Especially not to this stupid billionaire.
When Lorenzo commanded for the driver to get going, I felt the need to look back at the house. I tried so hard to fight it off. But then I caught a glimpse of him from his room’s balcony, sitting in a wheelchair, with a tired look on his face as Darlene pointed at me.
I couldn’t stop it now.
I just sobbed straight into my hands, pressing the heel of my palms against my eyes to stop my tears from falling.
Damn these stupid tears!
Lorenzo and his stupid ass can’t see me like this! If I look vulnerable, they might think they can just walk all over me and do anything they wish.
Then a hand nudged me from the side.
I sniffed and looked at it, dark spots blocking my vision. It was a box of tissue.
I glared up at Lorenzo. “I don’t need that.”
“I’m not judging. But that nose of yours looks like it’s rehearsing for a water show.”
I grabbed the box of tissue from him so fast I thought I’d hit some kind of world record. I wiped my nose with it and to my horror, he really wasn’t just joking.
“You tried so hard to stop your tears that it went the other way,” he chuckled.
“Stop joking about this!” I snapped at him and turned away, rummaging through my bag for my phone and inspecting myself in the screen.
I almost jumped when I saw what I looked like. I forgot I was wearing mascara. Now I look like a f*****g clown.
Hurriedly, I fixed myself up with the tissue Lorenzo gave me. Way to go embarrassing myself like that. We barely even left the property and I was already a hot mess.
By the time I’m done fixing my makeup, I looked up just in time to see the car taking a turn into the underground parking lot of a huge building. I barely caught the name but I’m pretty sure this is a hotel.
I followed them out of the car and into a hallway with a separate elevator, frowning all the way there.
“Are you going to give me the silent treatment all day?”
“I can make it a week if you want.”
He chuckled as the elevator doors closed, our reflections staring back at us. Our size difference was even more apparent from this angle. He was 6’1 and I’m barely even 5’4. He has broad shoulders and a big frame while I’m beside him looking like he could just chuck me into a window and then call it a day.
“What are you looking at?” he asked when he saw me eyeing him through the mirror.
“Uh… your tie?” I replied quickly.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you like my tie?”
“Well, that is a lovely tie,” I replied then took a step away from him before saying, “It’s just a shame it’s around such a worthless neck.”
His head snapped in my direction and my hand shot out at the CCTV camera in the elevator.
“You can’t kill me. There are evidences.”
“Well, then maybe I’ll wait until there’s none.”
Okay. I didn’t think about that.
When the elevator opened, we were at the topmost floor. Of course the billionaire boss owns the penthouse. What a cliché.
He led me through the corridor flanked with paintings and I stopped in front of one that I recognized. Lorenzo stopped in his tracks, too, and gazed at the portrait.
“Do you recognize that?”
“This is my mom’s.” I looked at him. “Why is this here? Did you buy this?”
He nodded. “I bought that at an auction. About ten years ago.”
I looked back at the painting again. It was of me as a kid. I had on a green dress with daisies printed into it. In my hand and on my hair were flowers. I was three in this. Barefoot while running happily across a field towards my mom who was propping up a camera.
When my mom died, she requested that a selection of her favorite paintings should be auctioned off. And then all the proceeds will be donated to a foundation of her choosing.
She was such a kind soul.
I didn’t notice I was crying until I felt Lorenzo nudge me again, another box of tissues in his hand. “Where the hell do you keep getting those?!” I snapped at him again but grabbed a bunch anyway, drying my tears off.
He just smiled crookedly at me before leading me into the huge oak door at the end of the corridor. As soon as it was opened, bright lights immediately enveloped us.
His penthouse had a complete glass wall that spanned two stories high and had a remarkable view. Maybe this was what dad should’ve done to save up on electricity.
“You wanna see something crazy?” Lorenzo offered and I turned to him.
“I think I’m already looking at it.”
“Are you trying to irritate me?”
“Nope.”
“Then, you just must have a natural talent for it, huh?”
I shrugged. “Or so I’ve been told.”
He just scoffed at me.
“Oh, what a great argument. Exhaling.”
He took a step closer to me, his face pulled into a soft taunting sneer. “You know, you’re acting quite brave for someone who’s already cried twice in the thirty minutes I’ve been with her.”
I sniffed. “That was just acting.”
He scoffed again. “You couldn’t act if your life depended on it.”
I frowned. “What’s your deal anyway, huh? Why do you want me as your wife?”
“Who said I wanted you?” He raised an eyebrow, and I faltered.
Right. He didn’t want me. It was just my stepmother who offered.
“Then why’d you accept?”
It was his turn to shrug. “I got bored.”
He got bored?! He tore up a family and made me cry a river for BORED?! What kind of stupid ass—
“And my nanna really did ask me for a grandkid so yeah.”
“Oh, let me guess. So, you could get your inheritance?”
“Psh.” He brushed me off, hands in his pockets. “I don’t need inheritance. I have an empire.”
“An empire built with the blood of your enemies?”
He paused at this and I was alarmed for a bit. Did he not know that I know he’s in the mob? His family name is all over the news. Surely, he didn’t think I’d marry someone blindly and not make my own research about it.
“What did your father tell you?”
My eyes went wide. “Nothing!” I quickly said. “I was just joking around.”
He moved closer to me and I took a step back. “What do you know?”
I shook my head feverishly. “Nothing, I swear!”
He was inches away from me now, his warmth prickling against my skin. “Tell me what you know, Adrienne.”
I opened my mouth to deny it again but I couldn’t make a single sound. He took another step and I did, too, but nearly yelped when I felt the wall behind me.
I’m trapped.
“What did your father tell you about me?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, my eyes refusing to leave his face. I’m scared that if I blink and I opened my eyes again, I’d be staring down a barrel of a gun.
Why would I even make a comment about that? Mafias don’t want people like me to know they’re mafias! That was such a stupid move.
I was about to open my mouth to confess when a low whistle sounded from behind him and we both turned to the guy.
He smirked at us. “You two aren’t even married yet but you’re already going straight to the honeymoon? Nanna would be disappointed.”
- Writer
