Living with the Billionaire Monster

Blackmail

POV Serafina Fiore

Sitting in the back of my car, I looked at the immense castle that stood at the top of the great hill. I never thought I would come back here. In fact, I never believed he would summon me here.

The imposing bars opened for me, allowing us entry. My driver thanked the man from inside and continued driving down the road straight to the castle. He did not rush at my request, because I wanted to take my time to admire everything even to the tiniest detail.

This fortress closed its doors five years ago, and for me to be the first person who is not a member of the family or staff to cross the fence and enter the castle is undoubtedly a mystical and surreal event.

“Is this real?” I laughed at the stupid question in my head. Of course, it's real.

I saw the vines, how the line disappeared beyond the hills and I smiled, enthralled by such a beautiful spectacle. If under the light of the moon, this looked like a paradise, I didn't want to imagine myself under the rays of the sun when everything was illuminated.

I didn't remember much about what he looked like during the day, but I do remember that he ran around a lot in the middle of the vines playing hide and seek with Giovanna.

"The old days," I mused.

My driver and personal bodyguard parked the car where a tall man, dressed in a suit, told him to.

He turned off the engine and I proceeded to adjust the skirt of my loose dress.

Breathing deeply, I took my time while I waited patiently for him to go around the car and open the door for me. I thanked him with a smile and took his hand to finally walk into the castle and know once and for all why he had summoned me there.

“Good evening, Miss Fiore. Welcome to Castello Barone,” the man in the suit greeted me, shaking my hand. “I am Alessandro Ferretti,” the man who called you last night.

"My pleasure, I'm Serafina Fiore," I introduced myself to the man, somewhat nervous about all the mystery surrounding my summoning.

“The place is still as impressive as ever... although I remember it being less gloomy.”

"It's not so scary during the day," he said, looking at the castle like me. But even with the sun illuminating every corner, it remained a mysterious castle.

"I know…"

"What does he want from me?" I finally asked and decided to look him in the face. “We haven't seen each other since I was fifteen, why did he suddenly call me?”

I raised an eyebrow, looking at the man named Alessandro as I waited for a response. “I don't like mystery, detours make me desperate, dirty games too. I am astute, and I know perfectly well that, if he invited me to the castle after ten years, it is not precisely to have a glass of wine and chat about the past.”

“He will answer all your questions, Miss Fiore.”

I pursed my lips holding my jacket and nodded. I turned to my bodyguard and gave him a slight glance and he nodded. I let Alessandro guide me into the castle and the closer I got, the more my skin crawled.

The dim lights didn't help my nerves at all, and neither did the age of the structure itself.

I didn't remember everything being so dark, opaque and desolate when I was a child, much less when I became a teenager. I remembered this place being full of life, charming and even magical.

Why did he become so sad? Everything was still just as beautiful, but the lack of lighting made the interior look like Dracula's castle.

“Behind that door, the man is waiting for you,” Alessandro informed me.

“No one is going to kill me, right? I have a gun here in my bag and I'm going to shoot him if he hurts me.”

He opened his eyes wide when he heard my confession. His gaze darted to my handbag and then to my face.

“You really have a gun in there?”

"No," I lied with a nervous smile, “But my bodyguard is armed.”

“It will only be a small meeting, there will be no need for violence,” he assured, opening the door for me to go in.

I barely go in, but not because he scares me, it's just that I don't like the dark, and the room I'm entering is dimly lit, although beautiful lamps are hanging from the high ceiling.

For some reason, he likes the dark and that has me even more on edge because, for many years, I heard about the curse that came to this family, the myth of the Barone men. I thought all of these were stories and fables told to intimidate, but as I walked through this immense room without light, my pulse became uneven and terror threatened to invade me and leave me taciturn with panic.

Now that I'm an adult, I know what those myths were referring to, but still, I couldn't help but feel strange here.

Half of the living room had dim light, very opaque, too much for my taste, but, even so, it allowed me to see part of the large dining room and the paintings on the walls, as well as part of the floor.

"At least I can see where I'm stepping,” I muttered to myself.

“It's good to see you once again, Serafina.” His thick, harsh, and enigmatic voice invaded my senses.

Was I scared? Of course, I was. My pulse was racing and the hairs on the back of my neck stood. I turned towards the dark side of the room, and I saw someone who looked like he had the mouth of a wolf which could easily swallow me alive.

I tried to see more, but it felt impossible. It was as if it were intentional that half of the room was in such a condition that it affected proper sight.

“Are you Daemon?” I asked, taking a step towards the figure.

“Are you Daemon?” I asked again.

"Stay where you are," he ordered bluntly. “Take a seat at the head of the table on your side.”

“Why should I do as you say?”

“Serafina!” He said my name in a warning tone. “Take a seat. If you cooperate, we'll get this over with, and you would be able to leave… for now.”

“For now?”

“Yes for now. Now, sit in the damn chair once and for all.”

Seriously, I could tell him to go to hell right now, but just out of curiosity, to know why he asked me to come, I agreed to what he asked of me and took a seat at the other end, where I noticed the closed folder that was placed in the surface of the table next to an elegant pen waiting to be used.

"What do you want, Daemon? Why did you summon me here? What do you want from me?”

“Do you usually ask so many questions, Serafina?”

“Daemon!”

“Okay, let's get to the point. What do I want? A wife. Why did I call you here? To tell you that you will be my wife. What do I want from you? Simple, you give me an heir, and then we divorce, you go on with your life, and you leave my son with me.”

"What?!"

I opened my eyes wide, I could swear to God that I was speechless, not knowing how to react to his crazy demands.

This could not be true, this could not be happening to me. Did I seriously postpone my schedule to hear such madness?

Did he go crazy?

“I won't do anything you're asking me to do.”

I stood up ready to get out of there.

“Look at the contents of the folder before you leave, Serafina.”

I furrowed my brow at his words.

Could I trust him?

“I'm not going to look at anything, Daemon." I moved towards the door.

“Is that how you pay me?” His laughter shook me. “After what I did for you in the vines, is this how you repay me?”

I stopped dead when I heard his question. I looked back at that dark side of the room, feeling my skin crawl, and my heart pounding as uncertainty invaded me and I finally understood what he was referring to.

“I would always be grateful for that, but you have no right to hold it against me. I have a life, Daemon, one that I do not intend to pause, leave behind or give up, because of your absurd request based on something you did for me many years ago.”

“Do you think I am blackmailing you with what happened that evening?”

He laughed again, and I couldn't tell if I was going crazy, but I think I could see his shiny teeth from where I was. “You're wrong Serafina, I was just mentioning it. Now, what's inside the folder? Yes, it's blackmail, so open the damn folder now and look at its contents,” he pressed on.

The knock on the table shook me, making it more than clear to me that the man who hid in the darkness was a man who lost his patience too quickly; a time bomb that could explode at any moment if I didn't do what he asked of me.

I took a deep breath, let it out and decided to see what he so eagerly wanted to show me.

I opened the folder without lifting it from the table and the photograph that greeted me completely paralyzed me.

My pulse shut up to the point of making me feel palpitations in my heart. My body began to shake, and I felt my head begin to hurt, my body began to sweat, and my nerves began to take their toll on me.

“No…” I whispered, panicking. “f**k…”

He may have been locked up in this castle for life, but when night falls, the monster comes out and, from time to time, it walks through the city without anyone seeing him.

I looked at each photograph feeling smaller and smaller. My trembling hands passed one after the other, while my eyes began to burn and the lack of air became present.

"I won't marry you..." I whispered.

“Yes, you will, because I know everything about you. Unless you want all these photos to appear in all the media tomorrow. What will the great Nicodemo Fiore think of his perfect daughter?” he asked ironically “What will society think? Surely, this would be a huge scandal, which would completely affect the impeccable reputation of the great Fiore family, and even their businesses. It is unacceptable that her only remaining daughter should be involved in such shame, don't you think, Serafina? That's why I want to take care of you and prevent this from ever coming to light, and by marrying me you will achieve it. The deal is easy, you marry me, give me an heir and then we separate. By doing this, you will avoid embarrassment.”

"You're a blackmailing i***t," I hissed angrily. “The least you want is to take care of me, you only seek your benefit with this.”

“I lied to you? I do not think so. I told you that my blackmail was inside the folder and, as you can see with your own eyes, I have told you the truth. Now, sign the document that will be the end of the photos, and I don't have all night.”

“What?”

I tried to look for his eyes, but I only saw a glow at the very end.

“Sign the document, Serafina!”

"I heard you, Daemon!”

“It is just that…! Do you plan to do things like this, as if it’s just nothing?”

He was not asking me for a favor, or something relatively normal.

“You are ordering me to sign a marriage certificate right now. Are you crazy?”

“And what do you want? A big wedding?”

"That's not what I mean, Daemon! It's obvious that if you're blackmailing me with something like this, there won't be any of that, but you can't expect me to calmly sign something that will change my life. Are you even considering my position?”

“It is more than considered. You sign the damn paper, give me a child and leave. That's all. No one will ever know your secret, your family will not be harmed, and I will leave you alone for the rest of your life.”

“Deamon…”

"Sign the damn paper, Serafina," he bursts out, his growl echoing throughout the room.

“I can make a call right now and immediately your secret will come to light, you decide.”

I trembled from helplessness, from rage for having come here, for having allowed myself to be deceived by him and his vile blackmail.

What am I supposed to do? I can't disappoint my parents with this. I can't be the shame of the family. A lot has happened with the loss of my older sister, the blameless daughter and role model, but who did not hesitate to marry a terrible man and leave our family's legacy in question. If all this came to light, if he carried out his threat, it would be the end for me, for my family name and everything that, for years, I worked hard to build and, above all, to hide.

“And you? When will you come to light, Daemon? You are nothing more than a coward, hiding in the shadows to intimidate and inflict fear.”

“You don't want to see my face, Serafina. You don't want to see the monster that I am.”

I laughed bitterly and picked up the pen on the table.

“I don't need to see your face to know that you are a monster, Daemon, because real men don't do what you are doing with me right now; ruin me for life”

I signed the paper where my name was already written. I closed the folder, threw it on the table like a pen, and looked into the darkness in front of me.

“Congratulations, Mr. Barone, you now have a wife,” I told him in a mocking tone as I felt my heart sink even deeper.