Revenge Is Mine

15: The Refusal

Marco Mancini

I stared at her, my brain literally stopped working for a few seconds.

Fifty-one percent?

I looked at Viviana sitting behind that desk. She looked completely calm, like she had just asked me for a cup of coffee instead of my entire life's work. I had completely underestimated her, she was not just some ordinary, rich investor looking for a place to park her cash. She was a shark.

"You are crazy," I finally said. My voice was shaking, but not from fear but pure anger.

Viviana didn't even blink. "I am making a business deal, Marco. Take it or leave it."

"You think you can just sit there and steal my company from me?" I asked, taking a step closer to her desk. I felt the heat rising in my face. "Do you have any idea what I went through to build this? Do you know how hard I worked to get to where I am? I am the CEO of Moretti Holdings, I am the one who makes the rules not you."

"You are a man begging on his knees," she reminded me without even looking up from her laptop.

"I am not giving you my company," I spat, fixing my jacket and standing up straight. "There is absolutely no way I will ever do something like that. You can keep your fifty million, I don't need it. I don't need you."

I turned around and stormed out of her office. I

ran past her receptionist and smashed my finger against the elevator button.

Two days later, I was out of time.

I sat alone in the living room of my penthouse, the only light came from the city buildings shining through the huge glass windows. I had a half-empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and a glass in the other.

I was completely ruined.

The last forty-eight hours had been a living nightmare, I tried everything. I went to three different banks, begging for a fast business loan, but without my clean financial records, they all laughed in my face. I called every single rich friend I had, asking for a personal favor. Every single one of them suddenly stopped answering my calls.

I even tried to sell my private yacht and three of my luxury sports cars but the buyers knew I was in a rush, so they offered me pennies. It wasn't even close to the millions I needed to replace the mafia's money.

Friday night was here.

How did I get to this point? I took another huge swallow of the burning whiskey. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be king but everything started falling apart the moment Viviana Marino stepped into town.

No, that wasn't true. It started falling apart the moment Alesia decided to act like a jealous crazy person and attack Viviana in her office.

"Marco?"

I slowly turned my head, Alesia was standing in the doorway of the living room. She reached out and flipped the light switch. The bright lights hurt my eyes, and I squinted at her.

She was wearing a silk slip dress, looking like she hadn't slept either. She looked at the empty bottles on the glass table and then looked at me.

"What is going on?" she asked, "Why are you sitting in the dark drinking? Did you get the money? Did the banks call you back?"

"No," I said flatly.

"What do you mean, no?" Alesia walked further into the room. "Did you call Viviana back?"

"I am not giving that b***h my company!" I suddenly yelled, slamming my glass down on the table, it hit so hard I thought the glass would shatter.

Alesia jumped, taking a step back. "Then what are we going to do, Marco? It is Friday! You said the men from Blackwood Holdings gave you until tonight! If you don't have the cash, we need to pack our bags and leave the country right now!"

"Leave the country?" I laughed. "With what money, Alesia? My accounts are frozen! My credit cards are maxed out! Where are we going to go? We are trapped!"

"Because of you!" Alesia screamed, pointing a finger right at my face. "This is your fault! I warned you! I told you not to get involved with the mafia! I told you taking dirty money was going to get us killed, but you wouldn't listen to me. You thought you were smarter than everyone else!"

"You dare blame me?" I roared. I stood up so fast the room spun for a second. I threw my whiskey glass at the wall. It smashed into pieces, splashing liquid everywhere.

"Yes, I blame you!" Alesia yelled back, her face turning red. "You ruined everything!"

"I took that money for you!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I walked right up to her, pointing a finger down at her chest. "You were the one who was always demanding more! You wanted the penthouse! You wanted the diamond necklaces! You wanted to spend a month on a yacht in Monaco! The company wasn't making enough profit to pay for your expensive lifestyle! I had to find a way to get more money to keep you happy!"

"Don't you put your weakness on me!" Alesia slapped my hand away. She looked at me with pure disgust. It was the same look Viviana gave me, and it made my blood boil. "You are not a real businessman, Marco. You are just a fake! You couldn't even manage the company after we took it. You are nothing but a weak man who stole his dead wife's money!"

Hearing her say Chiara's name, calling me weak, something inside my brain just snapped.

All the fear, all the stress, all the panic of the last three days suddenly turned into blinding, red-hot rage. I lunged forward and grabbed her.

Alesia let out a shocked scream as my hands hit her shoulders, I pushed her backward as hard as I could. She tripped over the edge of the rug and fell hard onto the sofa, before she could even try to get up, I was on top of her.

I wrapped both of my hands tightly around her neck and squeezed. "Shut up!" I screamed in her face, and spit flew from my lips. "Shut your mouth!"

Alesia's eyes went wide with pure terror. Her hands flew up, grabbing my wrists. Her nails dug deep into my skin, scratching me, trying to pull my hands away but I was so angry I didn't even feel the pain.

"Marco!" she choked out, her face was turning a pale shade of purple. Her legs kicked wildly against the sofa cushions.

"You ruined my life!" I yelled, shaking her. "You ruined the deal! You made Viviana look into the books! I am going to die tonight because of you!"

"M-Marco..." Alesia gasped, tears were streaming down the sides of her face. She stopped fighting my hands and just looked into my eyes. "Without me... without me, there is no company. You couldn't... get the company... from Chiara without me," she choked, her voice barely a whisper. She was crying hard now. "I helped you, I am on your side. Please. We need to calm down. We need to find a way forward. Just you and me."

I quickly let go of her neck and pulled my hands back like her skin was on fire. I stumbled backward, tripping over the coffee table, and fell to my knees on the floor.

I was breathing so heavily that my chest actually hurt, and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I looked at the scratch marks on my wrists where she had clawed me.

On the sofa, Alesia rolled onto her side, coughing violently. She grabbed her throat, gasping for loud, desperate breaths of air. The living room was completely silent except for the sound of our ragged breathing. I had completely lost my mind.

Suddenly the sound of hands clapping cut through the silence, and my heart completely stopped. I slowly turned my head toward the hallway that led to the front door.

A man stepped out of the shadows of the hallway and into the light of the living room, it was the same man from my office, the man who left the bullet on my desk.

He stood there, his hands casually in his pockets, looking at me and Alesia like we were a reality TV show. "What a show," he said.

I couldn't move. I was completely paralyzed on the floor. I tried to speak, to beg, to say that I just needed one more day, but my mouth wouldn't work. No words came out.

"It is Friday night, Marco," the enforcer said softly. He tilted his head, looking at the mess of broken glass on the floor, and then back at me. "The accounts are still empty. Get up, Marco, the boss wants to see you."