LUCIANO

Joseph Lombardo arrived at the mansion where Luciano lived. He had important news to communicate to his grandson. The young man had seen his grandfather's limousine parked in front of his house from the window, so he hurried to meet him. As soon as the old man entered the mansion, his grandson welcomed him with a small bow and then approached to hug him.

Luciano not only had enormous respect for his grandfather, but he loved him deeply and was very grateful to him, as the old man had been the only one who had taken care of his upbringing after the death of his parents and therefore felt that he owed him everything he was now.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here today," Luciano said with a smile.

"I know, but something important has happened that I had to communicate to you immediately," Joseph exclaimed as he looked at his grandson's serious face. Luciano helped the old man to sit on the sofa, and after asking the employees to leave, Joseph resumed the conversation.

"A great friend of mine has recently died," that news was not so shocking to Luciano, after all, they lived in the world of the mafia, deaths occurred daily.

"Who was it?" Luciano asked.

"You didn't know him," Joseph assured him by raising his hand and shaking his head.

"Okay, then why are you telling me this?" Luciano asked confusedly.

"Because he and I had an agreement that involves you," Joseph said. Luciano frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, his company is one of our main subsidiaries. I have a lot of money invested in many businesses with his family, and we've wanted to do some mergers for some time. I thought that perhaps the agreement we reached would have to wait a couple more years, but due to his sudden death, we'll have to advance the plans we made."

"What plans are those?" Luciano asked.

Luciano was starting to feel a little nervous about what his grandfather was going to ask him, as he knew he couldn't say no. The old man was not only his grandfather and the one who had raised him, but he was still a respected leader within the mafia, and although he was now retired and had handed over his position to Luciano, he was still the head of his family and had to obey him even if he didn't want to.

"Grandpa, what do I have to do?" Luciano insisted nervously after a few minutes of complete silence.

"Well... my friend and I decided that... you will marry his daughter," Joseph responded calmly with a smile. Luciano's jaw dropped in shock.

"This is a joke, right?"

"No, it's not. In a month, you and her will be married. Everything is already agreed upon."

"What are you saying?" Luciano exclaimed angrily– "you can't force me to get married."

"Yes, I can. It's already decided."

"You know very well that I'm not cut out for marriage," Luciano reminded him, still unable to believe what was happening– "how can you expect me to marry a woman I don't even know?"

"You'll love her, I assure you. She's a great girl."

"And probably very unattractive, because if she needs an arranged marriage to get married, she won't have many options," he expressed sarcastically.

"Stop talking nonsense, and you better get everything ready because I already told you, in 30 days, you'll be a married man."

"Please tell me it's just a business deal... tell me it's not a real marriage, that I just have to sign some papers so you can make your alliances, but I'll still enjoy my bachelor life," Luciano pleaded. His grandfather smiled.

"It's time for you to settle down, Luciano. You can't continue with the life you're living," he said calmly as he leaned on his cane to stand up with effort– "Luciano glared at him.

"I won't get married," the boy stated. His grandfather looked at him angrily.

"You better not dare to contradict me. You know very well what I'm capable of doing to those who oppose me. It doesn't matter if you're my grandson or if you're now the head of our family, I'm still the one in charge, and I don't think I have to explain to you what will happen to you if you disobey me," he threatened with fury. Luciano looked at him angrily. He gritted his teeth with rage, but he didn't say anything. He couldn't do anything.

The old man walked towards the exit. He called his driver, and a couple of minutes later, he had left, leaving Luciano filled with immense anger. The young man began to scream hysterically as he hit and threw everything around him. The anger consumed him at that moment. It couldn't be possible that his grandfather was forcing him to get married.

After a few minutes of hysteria, Luciano took a deep breath trying to calm down. He closed his eyes as he waited for his vital signs to return to normal. He didn't understand what was going on, but he was sure that something dirty was being hidden by his future wife's family. It had to be something more important than a simple deal to make money; otherwise, his grandfather wouldn't dare to do something like that. They didn't need more income; they had more than enough with all the illicit businesses that Luciano handled. He had become the leader of the main operations carried out in that city, so money wasn't a problem, there had to be another reason that explained Joseph's decision.

Luciano was incredibly upset, he had been a womanizer his entire life, and his grandfather had never had a problem with that. In fact, at times he enjoyed listening to his grandson's romantic adventures. He knew very well the conflict that Luciano had with marriage, so he didn't understand how he now dared to sell him that way.

"It can't just be about money," he repeated to himself. "There must be something bigger here."

With that question in mind, Luciano sat down to think about the reasons why the old man could have devised that arranged marriage. It didn't take long before his mind lit up with an answer. Surely, the old man had ruined some important business of that family. Although he would never admit it, Luciano knew that his grandfather had probably done something wrong, and it was likely that he had to be the payment to settle that debt.

"Old fool," he exclaimed in anger.

One of the reasons why his grandfather had retired was that he no longer had the necessary abilities to carry out agreements between the different families of the mafia. Although Joseph did not detail the agreement he had made with his supposed old friend, Luciano was increasingly sure that his grandfather had tried to do business on his own that ended terribly wrong and he could not find a way out other than proposing his grandson as a trophy, but he knew that Joseph would never admit that he had messed up, so now it was up to him to face that bad deal.

"What am I going to do now?" he asked himself frustrated. He had to find a way to get out of that mess; he couldn't end up married to that woman. In fact, he didn't want to marry anyone; he wanted to remain free, so he had to come up with a way to fulfill his grandfather's deal without actually getting married, and he had to hurry because he only had 30 days to think of a solution.