TAMING THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Luciana stared down at the file in her hand as she sat in the back seat of Emilia's car. Emilia had ordered her driver to make sure she got home.

A sigh left Luciana's lip as she thought back to her conversation with Emilia, after agreeing to let her work and earn her pay, Ariana reminded her mother-in-law that being Salvatore's secretary would not get her close to him, but being his PA would and that led to her accepting to work as Salvatore's assistant.

Luciana sighed again before leaning back against the seat, her mind whirling with different thoughts and questions.

How would she be able to tame such a grown-ass man? Did she make a mistake by jumping at the offer so quickly? Would she be able to pull this off? Will she even get to do anything before Salvatore throws her out of his company and home?

Somehow, she knew she didn’t think things through before agreeing to the terms of the job. How could she when the reward has to do with her life goal, with the De Rosso's power and influence in the city, it was only a matter of time before she gets vital information that would be the key to achieving her goal.

‘We are here,’ the driver’s gruff voice pulled her from her thoughts and she nodded her head.

‘Thank you for the ride,’ Luciana muttered as she got out of the car and watched it speed off almost instantly.

Her phone vibrated before the cool voice of Anna Marie filled her ear, she pulled it out and stared at Aria’s name on the screen.

‘Hello,’ she greeted, her voice dull from exertion.

‘Spill,’ Aria squealed, having not noticed the tiredness in the voice of her best friend.

‘It’s a long story, Aria, I can't start telling you everything on the phone but I promise to not leave out any detail if you come over tonight,’ Luciana quickly shut Aria up, knowing well enough that Aria would insist on getting half of the gist over the phone.

‘Deal,’ Aria squealed again. ‘And if it is indeed a long story, then I will grab a bottle of wine on my way back from work.’

‘Whatever you do is fine with me,’ with that, Luciana ends the call and trots her way into her house.

*

*

‘What the hell?’ Aria screamed as Luciana told her about Emilia’s proposal later that night.

‘You don’t have to scream that way,’ Luciana rolled her eyes at Aria’s reaction, she had expected her best friend to be surprised at the turn of events, but what she didn’t expect was the look of horror on Aria's face.

Aria went over to sit beside Luciana, she grabbed her hand and placed it on her knee before placing hers over it.

‘What do you mean I shouldn’t scream? Do you know who we are talking about? I know you didn’t bother with the news for a while now but do you understand who it is they have asked you to marry?’ Aria asked, her voice taking on a concern note which sent a shiver down Luciana’s spine.

‘We are talking about the Dravilsberg playboy, the ladies’ man, the Casanova, the flirt, the womanizer, the—’

‘I think you should stop now,’ Luciana snapped at Aria, she was starting to doubt her decision with the way Aria articulated her concern.

‘All I am telling you right now is to turn down the deal,’ Aria stated as a matter of fact. ‘You will only end up hurting yourself if you go through with it.’

‘I can’t,’ Luciana muttered.

‘What do you mean?’ Aria asked in surprise.

‘I am only letting you know as my best friend because I need some information from you and your opinion as well, but I can’t back out of the deal now since I already signed it,’ Luciana said.

‘What information do you need to know about?’ Aria asked as she stared at her best friend’s features, her mind reeling with different thoughts that she couldn’t voice even if she wanted to.

‘You’ve watched Salvatore all these years and even have a crush on him, what can you tell me about him and the kind of person he is?’ Luciana leans down to pick up the notepad and pen she had set on the table before Aria’s arrival.

As Aria opened her mouth to say something, Luciana cut her off. ‘Don’t tell me basic stuff like he is handsome, rich and all those nonsense idealized versions of him the public seems to have, I want the unusual, things that you feel are illegal to know about him.’

Aria pinched the bridge of her nose and swallowed hard. ‘One time,’ she began, staring into Luciana’s unwavering eyes. ‘There was news of Salvatore being engaged to a model, Chantelle Albergo was her name, and he seemed to love her very much at that time.

‘Everyone in the country was aware of their relationship, except you of course,’ she smiled when Luciana rolled her eyes at that. ‘Their engagement was the talk of the town. Though it was attended by the influentials of the town, everyone celebrated the union in their way, even those who had no hope of eating were fed to satisfaction this precious day.’

‘Is he that influential?’ Luciana blinked rapidly.

‘You can say he is the reason the country is boisterous and successful, it was because of him we went from a small unknown country to a fast-developing country in no time,’ Aria answered.

‘Continue,’ Luciana urged.

‘Two months after the engagement party, we heard the news of Chantelle’s pregnancy and the joy that flooded everyone’s system was so much you’d think the child was some kind of an heir that is needed to make the kingdom strong,’ Aria frowned, remembering the events as clearly as if it was being played in from of her on repeat.

‘It was another day of feasting for everyone and at one point, I thought they would everything about Salvatore a holiday,’ she paused and glanced around before getting up to walk over to the dispenser.

‘Patched throat,’ Aria raised the cup of water to her lip and took a sip from it.

‘You don’t have to make it sound like you are educating a child,’ Luciana glared holes into Aria's head causing a chuckle to fall from her friend's lip.

‘So…,’ Aria drawl, perching her butt beside Luciana once again before resuming her story. ‘I guess Salvatore must have been so elated by the news that he fixed a date for their wedding and the date was announced.

‘We all started to count down the date until two days to the wedding when the news of Salvatore’s accident hit us and as if that wasn’t enough, the family announced that the wedding had been called off without giving any reason as to why that happened.’

‘What do you think happened?’ Luciana couldn’t keep her curiosity to herself.

‘Well, there have been lots of speculations,’ Aria shrugged. ‘The one that stood out the most was that Chantelle cheated and Salvatore found out about it which resulted in his accident.

‘But no one could say for sure what happened to the couple, we just know Salvatore stopped singing and started acting out of order. He would either party hard and get drunk until he passes out on the street or there would be a scandal about him whoring around and causing bodily harm to some naive girls.’

‘What?! Luciana frowned.

‘When his family had had enough of his behaviour and the way it was ruining their reputation in other countries and also ruining the business, they made him take the position of CEO of the empire founded on his blood and sweat but that did nothing to stop him.

‘It only gave him more power,’ Aria paused and leaned closer to Luciana to whisper into her ear as if they weren’t the only ones in the room. ‘Nobody knows this, and you won’t find it in the papers, but I believe he hasn’t changed, being in that position only gave him the power to do s**t and make sure it doesn’t get to the news.’

‘How do you know that?’ Luciana whispered in return.

‘Because somehow, every negative news about him and that of his relationship with that Chantelle girl disappeared without a trace. Then they announce that he is considering doing music again which has made the people go back to acting like what happened in the past never did happen.’

Aria leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes while Luciana stared down at the notepad, her mind reeling from the information her best friend had just given her. To say it wasn’t what she expected would be an understatement.

She had expected some pointers and hints that would help her know the kind of person she was dealing with, never in a million years would she have expected to hear about his past.