Chapter 3

Deloria could not believe what she has heard. "Do you mean…?" "Yes, I meant it, " said Don Rocco, cutting her short through her words. "You heard that right," Deloria.

"but… murdering your son isn't the last resort to solving the problem," she said soberly, trying hard to convince him to look at the situation from her perspective.

"Remember this Don Rocco: Alessandro is your son, an only son for that matter, and my soulmate too. He is important to both of us. Life without him would be a life full of misery for both of us, especially myself."

Don Rocco frowns, said to Deloria, "you are young and inexperienced; do you know that the one capable of killing you is the one within? Alessandro knows every single fucking secrete of my existence. I wonder how he did that shit. It makes me want to scream sometimes! Even my wife that we've stayed together for decades before he was born did not know much about me, but Alessandro did; he knows everything about the deals I have transacted, I mean the money laundering and other financial racketeering my company was involved that once dragged the country into the worse recession it has ever seen. He was aware of the deal awarded to the company he last held, the Steel Rolling Mill, for the procurement of arms for a militia group that culminated into usurping law and order in a Middle Eastern country and the subsequent toppling of the regime. That alone is a treasonable act in the Italian laws and the laws of the United nations, and guess what? Its perpetrators are still being trailed. Am afraid he could make a generous confession to the church, most of whose priests are government secrete agents and could lead to my arrest and subsequent confiscation of my investments."

"Mr Rocco, the government or any other group of persons is not capable of pointing accusing fingers at you nor crippling your hard-earned investments. If they could, they would have done that decades ago. Besides, who is the government? I am the government! I hold tremendous sway in the cabinet of Mike Pompey. Let Alessandro be; he was not capable of causing such destructive propaganda you are insinuating.

"No Deloria, don't dictate to me what I should do. Assuming I did not fuck my wife to give birth to Alessandro, where would you have seen him let alone marry him? Alessandro is my son, I reserve exclusive rights to do anything I want to do with him and I want him dead, and you have no say in what I should do with my son. Go get your husband somewhere else, I want my son dead within 72 hours. I have paid you triple fold to get him killed, even going further to granting your desires like I was your God, and truly, that makes me your governor; I now have a monopoly over your conscience. I tell you who to kill for me, not you to tell me who to kill and who not to kill!"

"Agreed Mr Rocco, I shall break the bad news of your son's death as scheduled within 72 hours.

Deloria stood still for some time with a sad gaze into Don Rocco's eyes and said to herself: "since he will order the death of Alessandro without compromise, I too shall obey his commandment with mutiny. She bent slightly in a rude gesture and then cat-walked away.

The relationship between the two was like a Puppet and a Puppeteer; so much runs beneath the surface than meets the eye. She begged Don Rocco to take back his pronouncement days later but he wouldn't back down, and neither would she dare turn down the offer. She is in the throes of a destiny altering assignment and the tension from it keeps her away from calmness. "To kill one heartthrob is like committing suicide." She said. She has already lost him to the divination school and could not afford to lose him eternally to death. At least, if he is alive, one day, he could change his mind and they could reclaim their flagging relationship.

Her father, Mr Rafael Massimo showed up in her room and interrupted her thoughts, carrying with him a big box of a present wrapped in golden tinsel, singing an Italian folklore song. He always does this whenever he was in a good mood.

"My little flower," he said, "get ready, you will be meeting some of my business associates in Milan; that day, love will fall directly into your lap, I bet you! You will meet someone new and hit it off immediately because among them are eligible bachelor's and suitors."

"Father, if you will excuse me, I have got a long queue of to-do-list the length of my arm," Longoria stretched out her arm for him to see.

"Deloria," he said, "you've paid undue attention to duty while your sentimental life falls apart. Your happiness matters most to me, sweetheart. Be careful not to spend all the feelings from your heart on someone who does not want to get caught in the jungle of romance. Forget about Alessandro, you deserve a worthy lover that would tend to your needs, I believe you know what needs am talking about, those needs that when taken care of by your would-be lover will bring out the best in whatever you do. So get ready; I am going to help you cover lost grounds so that you make a big come back in matters of the heart without Alessandro."

"How soon, daddy? She asked curiously, "as soon as tomorrow, 10 am local time honey. Meanwhile, have this." Mr Rafael made a big show of how far he could go to show his daughter how much he loved her by presenting her with a box, content of which blew her mind away. The box was packed with a chartreuse couture gown, a dress she adores and desires to possess in her wardrobe. A graft diamond Hallucination wristwatch, the Hermes Kelly Rose Gold Purse and of course, a weirdly cute passion diamond Heels to match with the rest. She asked herself, "did Rafael break the bank to please me? But that proud voice within said to her: "come-on, you know your dad is worth a trillionfold of what your he had spent to procure those items!"

Deloria stood before the mirror blushing, test-running her jewellery. "Mirror mirror on the wall," she said, "how do I look on this one?" "You are the fairest of them all," answered her father instead in a mock display of a fairy godmother. She turned to her father and gave him a big hug.

It appears he has succeeded in dragging back home her roving mind that has wandered far and wide on a wild chase of Alessandro with all the expensive glitz and glamour, but ignoring the fact that money and possessions alone cannot take the position of the love she has for Alessandro. They can only take away her mind from him temporarily.

******

Mr Rafael did a lot of honking to get Lady Stefflon Don out of the house. When she did appear, she was looking more of a diety than human, all decked up in a modern classic 18th-century pale green mantua silk gown with its full skirt, laced with rich embroideries and a bedazzling make-up that reminded Rafael of their hay days. She transported herself to the awaiting Range Rover SV Autobiography with a graceful rise and fall of her footsteps, then slides into it with care. "comfortable?" Asked Rafael with that protective instinct of a mother hen toward her chicks. "Very comfortable," she said. Rafael taxied away.

Serafina, Deloria's kid sister, a gentle girl in her late teen, is good at telling anyone who cares to step on her toes the 'F. .' word sweetly without driving them too hard feelings, followed closely behind in an ocean-blue Cadillac Escalade SUV,2022 edition together with Deloria.

Rafael wanted his family to witness the earth-shattering signing ceremony of a deal to supply a Chinese consortium based in New York with 'rare-earth,' a contract if seen through successfully, will see Rafael walk home with over 2 billion Pounds.

Serafina staged a mild drama at the airport by refusing to enter its terminal due to her phobia of larger aircraft. But no worries this time, for Rafael was well aware of that and have made special acquisitions of a Bombardier Global-7000 for a flight friendly experience for his daughter.

On arrival, they sashayed down the celestial hall of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II to café Restorante Biffi at the south wing of the Giuseppe architectural masterpiece; a place where Rafael could be found when he was not seen anywhere in the world.

Deloria stole the hearts of men as expected and got the undivided attention of women; a deliberate plan by Rafael to get his unpaired daughter hooked up romantically with the movers and shakers of the business world.

They were greeted by a large admiring crowd clustered in groups of eight around large round tables decorated with flowers, cutleries and napkins. Rafael could not immediately set his eyes on his business partners as he walks in. He was almost convinced they will be represented in a proxy. If that happens, Rafael will certainly be disappointed. Before he gets all tensed up, firstly, he got his family settled down comfortably. He then set his eyes working, rolling them around the noisy hall like a Robot to see if his thoughts were playing tricks on him, and …yes! There they are. He exhaled a big sigh of relief. He has finally found what he was looking for: Soprano Visconti, an Italian and Assange LaPorte, a Malaysian. The former is an epitome of good looks and comfort while the latter is neither of the two, but in a class of his own, chatting with a drove of Chines in their entourage.

Rafael whispered to his daughter to sign the contract on behalf of his company and was made to seat in between the two leading men, a strategy that has already won Mr Rafael the contract, even without putting ink to paper.

He approached Mr Soprano Visconti and said to him: "I would like you to meet my lovely daughter, miss Deloria. She will see through the signing of the fine print on my behalf. Mr Soprano Visconti stretched out his hand to meet that of Longoria halfway. Her father seems to be at peace with the way she is handling the proceedings with seamless ease, just the way he wanted.

But the event was marred by delays. Miss Deloria demands to know why and the strange quietness surrounding the Chair of the occasion. She later discovered that he was a Malay and could neither speak English nor Italian and his interpreter failed to appear at the meeting at the appointed time, as such, the meeting could not go on. Therefore, a new date has been fixed for a later date in New York City.

Mr Rafael booked for hotel reservation for the sixty-three man Chines crew at the square Milan Duomo, a five-minute drive from the Vittorio Emanuele shopping area against Deloria's wish to be flown back home for an important assignment that has taken all of her attention from the meeting. Her father has earlier warned that every other thing comes distant second as far as this occasion was concerned, therefore, members of his household will have to ditch all important things they must do to attend this important event in the life of the family if not, she would have absconded but for the importance, the deal was to her father.

That night, Mr Soprano Visconti asked Deloria out for a dinner for two in a separate location, an offer she readily accepted as part of her game plan. He began a conversation far from what the outing was meant to be, but Deloria was smart enough to sense it; he wasn't courageous enough to discuss topics related to romance and relationships. She was rather disappointed to have stood so low to accepting a date with a fluke.

In terms of reaches, Alessandro and his family are dwarfs compared to Soprano Visconti. But money alone cannot guarantee him her love; as far as she was a concern, he was not capable of reaching that itchy spot in her that craves love, let alone scratch it. She is like an advanced love machine that needs men with a supreme mindset to Mann her if they hope for a bump-free ride of a lifetime with her.

"Are you Italian?" she asked. "Yes," he answered, "Italian American." He was happy that she initiated the conversation. "Ever been to New York before?" He asked. "Yes, times without number. Why did you ask?" "oh, it's nothing. I was expecting a no from you so that I hand over an invitation to you for a memorable experience there." "really?" She asked, "really, really, " he said, looking into her eye lustfully that makes her nearly throw the content of the cup in front of her. She grabs the glass of cognac and sends it in the direction of her mouth just to evade his piercing looks.

"New York is my favourite destination for holidays," she said, daring him with a stare that forced him to look away. "How would you receive the idea of me and you going out on a date?" "excited," she said.

Soprano Visconti was delighted to hear that. "I will show you many interesting things and places you've never seen before." Visconti has finally released the burden on his mind.

But from all indications, Deloria agreed just for the fun of the moment. Her mind keeps straying away from the conversation despite Visconti's use of impressive words to get her attention.

She put a call through to Don Rocco informing him of her intention of travelling away to New York City for an important assignment for her dad. "Am aware of that," he said, "but while you are out there, do not allow the good things of New York make you forget you have some killings to do for me back home."