Chapter 3

★ANGELITA★

Pursing my lips, I sat back down in the chair.

"That was too fucking harsh, Father. Where do you want her to go now?!" Gerard barked, but Father unfeelingly rolled his eyes.

"Wherever she got the bastard baby from. I can't have a wedlock child in my home—"

"Stop, Father! Just stop! What will Mother do if she sees you talking about Celeste like that?!" I yelled.

"Then she should have fucking trained your stupid older sister properly!"

"Oh, she did train Celeste very well and the rest of us, Father!" Gerard joined in, rising slightly from his seat. "If not for your stupid fucking deal with a stupid fucking Zavarelli, none of this would have happened, and Celeste wouldn't have felt the need to get herself pregnant just to stop this stupid goddamn engagement!" He was all red and a breathless mess by the time he finished.

"Celeste didn't get pregnant because she wanted to end anything, Gerard. She got pregnant for the man she loves! Why can't you both understand that?! Are we above being in love for heaven's sake?!" I roared, glaring at both of them.

Gerard sighed and leaned back in his chair while Father's gaze bore into mine.

"Zavarelli is coming tomorrow. You will be meeting his family as his bride-to-be. I hope you are prepared to take your sister's place since you're so eager to do anything for her." He mocked, and I scoffed.

"I am, Father. I am."

I left the room, hearing the distant quarrel Gerard was about to pick up about me being too young to marry a man eleven years older than me. I've always read novels about age gaps and arranged marriages.

Who knew I'd be thrust into such a situation myself?

★ZAVARELLI★

"De Luca! How have you been?" The sound from the device pressed against my ear was sickeningly loud.

"Just get straight to the fucking point, Romano," I deadpanned, twitching my lips while my eyes raked over my sleek office and landed on the shivering man kneeling right before me.

"Okay," Luca Romano cleared his throat before continuing. "Uh... There's a little bit of a problem," he said meekly.

"If the problem affects my empire, Romano, you're a dead man."

"No, no! Of course not! It's about your bride," he added quickly, and my brows furrowed.

My parents had been disturbing me to get a wife and grandchildren. Fuck the grandchildren part; I knew I needed a wife, and that was what brought me to the arrangement with Luca Romano—an incompetent businessman with two beautiful daughters and a son whom I could care less about. I'd agreed to marry one of his daughters—forgotten which by the way—while he continues equipping my AI empire business. It was a good deal, perfect; now he was about to throw in some shitty news.

"What about my bride, Romano?"

"Uh... Remember we signed a deal for my first daughter? Uh... Something came up so she's not available anymore, and I wanted to know if you would like my second daughter." My brow furrowed deeper at his jumbled words.

"I don't particularly care which woman I signed a deal for, Romano. Your part of the deal was to give me one of your daughters. And not to forget I'd be coming to your place tomorrow to take my future wife to meet her parents."

"Oh oh... I knew about that. I've already prepared Angelita for the meeting with your family."

Angelita... What an interesting name.

My lips curled up as I said, "Good to know then. See you tomorrow, Romano. Or not." I didn't wait for him to respond before hanging up and facing matters at hand.

"So... You tried to steal from me?" I slapped the Samsung Galaxy flip down and slipped it into my suit pocket.

"No! No, sir! I didn't! I would never try to steal from you." I tilted my head at his white lie.

"No? Then pray tell what were you doing in front of the safe? George, the cameras caught you." I sighed, finding this man a little too dull to deal with.

"I... I was just going to..." He shuffled for words, sweating like a pig while I took my eyes up to Dante and nodded.

"Fire him. And George, if I see you anywhere around my empire, you know what's coming for you." I stood up and walked around him to my office table. Making myself comfortable on the spinning office chair, I switched on the desktop and went down to work.

★★★

The Mercedes G-Wagon pulled up before the automatic gate of the Romano luxurious apartment. The gate opened on its own accord but a guardsman could be seen by the side. Dante drove inside the compound and parked under the canopy garage. I could care less about where he parked though.

Dante is my right-hand man. He serves almost every role for me because I saved his mother years ago. He promised his undying loyalty to me, and I couldn't be more thankful for it. He turned off the engine and we both alighted from the vehicle.

"Their place doesn't look bad," Dante whistled, and I rolled my eyes. He had always been a lover of luxurious modern houses.

"Of course," my lips twitched as I turned at the shuffling sounds of feet nearby. "Romano likes to spend money."

"Sir De Luca. This way please." The security man bowed and led us into the entrance hall. We passed through the foyer and reached the main sitting hall where Luca Romano stood with an extremely beautiful but petite girl by his side and another younger man who glared at me with daggers in his eyes; but I could hardly care about him right now. For some strange reason, my eyes kept darting toward the girl who was dressed up like a doll.

"De Luca," Romano approached me with a faux smile and outstretched his hand for a shake. But I didn't grace him with a response or dare take his hand in mine.

"Let's get to the point, Romano," I said coldly as he cleared his throat, tilting his head toward the woman behind him. She approached us slowly.

"De Luca, meet my second daughter: Angelita."