Chapter 4

ROMAN

I would sell my soul to the devil before I would marry Mikhelly, the daughter of my mother's best friend.

She is the kind of snobbish and unscrupulous woman that I have been keeping away from for a long time, I wouldn't mind if she was a gold-digger, deep down everybody is, but the personality of this particular woman irritates me a lot.

She feigns a delicacy and fragility worthy of an Oscar award that makes my mother fall in love with her, she is the perfect candidate in her eyes, she visualizes a romance with this ideal partner bullshit.

Over my fucking dead body.

I cursed every day, my father's past generations, that led him to be so closed minded and small, now I have to pay the price for that.

Since my father passed away, I have taken control of 75% of his companies, which limits my business and prevents me from going further in my agreements, all because he believed that no man was a real man without a wife.

After his departure, it was my mother's mission not to transfer the rest of the shares until I was married to a girl she approved of, so needless to say how difficult she made my life in this regard.

She already had her choice, and now I had to choose a suitable candidate.

My mother wanted something fanciful, a story she would feel safe with, so needless to say Marianella came at the perfect time.

I had never thought about it from that angle, but my mother was also my father's secretary, so why not soften her heart with a cliché that she lived intensely?

I just need to create a great scenario and plan well how it will come out, a few public appearances, dinners and small programs at first, can put the game in my favor, the fact is that everything needs to look as natural as possible.

I'm willing to use tools that will make me the biggest scoundrel to ever set foot on this earth, but hard times call for desperate measures, I'm not going to put off my plans any longer for some family bullshit, my mother wants a dream engagement and I'm totally giving it to her.

There is a knock on the door and Dante walks through it without waiting for permission, he is abused and confident enough to think he has such morals.

“ It's done," he says, dropping the envelope with the contract on my desk, "Are you sure you want to do this?”

“ Not going down this road is out of the question “ I end the discussion “ Prepare the others for scandal control, especially in here, I will not be tolerant about it”.

“ Are you going to throw out everyone who comments on this subject?””

“ That's right”.

 “ Again I must ask, do you really not want to put the sexual implications in the clause? I don't trust…”

“ Dante, she is not a toy, she has the right to make this kind of choice without a contract”.

“ I know, but it's always good to make everything clear in such cases, things can get confusing," he says, giving me a suggestive look.

“ Marianella is an intelligent woman and completely capable of making choices on her own, she will do well in any chance”.

It's a fact that Dante has gone against this idea as much as he can, he thinks we could get someone more prepared, and by that he means a model who would give me unnecessary headaches along the way.

I don't want it to be gaudy, Marianella is elegant, simple and beautiful, she is a very pleasing figure to the eye so creating an aesthetic image of the couple was not difficult.

Besides the fact that she will probably take less of my patience than anyone else.

I am sure and certain that this will work, it has to work, it is not only my part that is at stake but hers as well.

This fell like a grape, knowing that she was considering me to go with her and family planted ideas in my head impossible to get out.

“ What's behind all this that you're not telling me? “ he presses, as if this has any effect on me.

“ As if I'm really going to tell you”.

I don't have the right, and I wouldn't put her on that show, it's like throwing a lamb to the wolves, and if anything in a few hours she will be my fiancée, which guarantees her a one-way ticket to hell for free, there will be no more peace.

I don't need to make her life even more difficult.

“ I hope you know for a fact how you are taking this, because everyone will be coming after her ass when it explodes”.

“ Do I pay you well enough for damage control, or are you backing out Dante?”.

“ Hell no! I'm just curious as to when she became an option so quickly”.

“ That's irrelevant “ I put my hands in my pockets, quietly throwing my shoulders back.

“ You are a completely dull and soulless person”.

I want to tell him that he is a spoiled child looking for attention because he didn't get it as a child, but I keep quiet, not because of friendship, after all we don't have anything solid or anything, but because I definitely don't care what he thinks or doesn't think.

I have never been one to express my most sincere opinions in public, I find it a waste and probably an easy way to give people some kind of vulnerability, I always keep my opinions to myself and this gives me many advantages.

There is also the factor that people like Dante are faithfully on the prowl, waiting to receive something he can use as ammunition, in the years we have worked together I can tell he is dying to have something he can use against me.

I will never give it to him, especially when it comes to the risky bet I am about to make, he was also forced to sign a confidential term on this matter, I don't trust his sadistic nature at all.

As he leaves, I glance through the open door and find my secretary in full swing with her papers and cell phone hanging from her ear.

Strangely enough I don't have any bad feelings about all this, in fact if I'm being honest, I'm more sure than ever.