Chapter 64 STANDARDS.
\~~~LUCIANO MORETTI.
I was still in the office long after Viktor had left, my attention still fixed on the files spread across my desk.
Twenty years ago, my mother was killed and all the evidence pointed to Arthur.
But there was nothing I could do then.
I was only thirteen.
Arthur had been my father’s second in command, his trusted man and a shadow that never left his side.
After my father died and I took control of the empire, I discarded Arthur without hesitation along with every man who had been blindly loyal to my father.
My father had never truly cared about my mother’s death.
So, it had been conveniently covered up as an accident.
But I had always known there was more to it.
And now, after twenty long years, I had finally cracked the link between my mother and Arthur.
Still… it wasn’t enough.
I needed more.
Just then, a knock came on the door, followed immediately by it being pushed open.
“Sir,” one of my security men said carefully. “You’ve got a visitor. She forced her way in. She wouldn’t wait to announce her presence and…”
Irina.
I didn’t need anyone to tell me that as only one person had that kind of audacity.
“Where is…” I started, but the door pushed open again before I could finish.
She walked in and I smacked.
“Leave,” I said calmly.
The security hesitated for half a second, then nodded and exited, closing the door behind him.
I leaned back in my chair, folding my arms slowly as I watched her.
Irina strutted in like she owned the place, her steps unhurried and confident, like a peacock on the run, proud and loud without making a sound.
Her blonde hair fell smoothly over her shoulders, glossy and perfect. Her lips were painted a deep red, and were tugged slightly to the side in a familiar expression that once meant amusement… and trouble.
It had been three long years since I had last seen her.
Three years since I had broken off our engagement.
And yes, she hadn’t changed one bit.
She sat in the chair across from me, crossing her legs gracefully and leaning back as if this were still her territory.
She looked calm, but the Irina I knew was never calm.
“You knew I was back in the country?” she asked, her voice smooth, and almost casual.
I didn’t answer the question. My eyes unconsciously dropped on the wall clock across me and I looked at her again.
Raina would get home any moment from now.
“What are you doing here, Irina?” I asked instead.
“That is the first thing you’d ask me after three long years?” She asked, her brows raised like she had taken an offense at my choice of question.
I leaned back in my chair, my fingers lacing together slowly on the desk. The file I had been staring at minutes ago was still open, my mother’s name staring back at me like a wound that never healed. I shut it without looking away from Irina.
“Yes,” I said calmly. “It is.”
Her eyes flashed, the calm mask cracking just a little. Irina hated it when she didn’t get the reaction she wanted. She always had.
She scoffed and stood up, her heels clicking as she paced the length of my office like she owned the place. “You haven’t changed,” she said. “Still cold and still acting like everyone else is beneath you.”
“And you,” I replied evenly, “still dramatic.”
She stopped and turned to me sharply. “You broke off our engagement without explanation. You disappeared from my life like ten years meant nothing. And now you are asking why I’m here?”
I shrugged. “Ten years ended, and people move on.”
Her laugh was humorless. “You got married.”
There it was.
I watched her carefully as she walked back to the chair and sat again, crossing her legs with forced grace. Her eyes searched my face, looking for something. Guilt, maybe, regret, or even weakness.
But, she would find none.
“So,” she continued, her voice softer now, and more dangerous. “Is she why you erased me?”
“My marriage is none of your business.”
Her lips twitched. “You used to say that nothing about you was off-limits to me.”
“That was before,” I said flatly.
Irina leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. “You married her to spite me, didn’t you?”
I smiled then, slow and cold. “You give yourself too much credit, don’t you?”
“It’s not giving myself credit, Luciano. I know you very well, like I do the back of my hand. You expect that I believe that you met another woman and married her in just three years?”
I didn’t answer her, I just turned to look at my open computer in front of me.
“You don’t love her, do you?”
Still, I didn’t answer her.
Love was a word I barely entertained.
She served a purpose, and that was all it was about Raina.
But, I was not about to tell Irina that.
“You don’t. You don’t have what it takes to love a person.”
I didn’t react. I had learned a long time ago not to rise to Irina’s bait.
“You don’t look happy,” she added.
“And you don’t look welcome,” I finally said.
Silence stretched between us before she leaned forward slightly, her elbows resting on the armrests. “You really think you can erase ten years like they meant nothing?”
“I didn’t erase anything,” I said. “I ended it.”
“For her?”
“For myself.”
Her jaw tightened. “You think she will last?”
“That is not for you to decide.”
She stared at me, her eyes sharp now. “You’ve changed.”
I almost laughed.
“No,” I said quietly. “I just stopped entertaining your shits.”
There was another silence and it was thicker this time.
She stood slowly, smoothing her dress. “I didn’t come here to reminisce.”
“Then make your point.”
Her lips curved again, but there was no humor in it.
Slowly, she crossed over to where I sat, pushed my swivel chair gently backward, and before I could react, she settled onto my thighs, crossing her legs in front of me.
“What are you doing?” I groaned.
“You are mine, Luciano,” she said, her breath fanning my face.
“Do you know why I agreed to the breakup three years ago without too much protest?”
“I don’t care.”
“I thought you needed time for yourself. You look…”
“Irina, I don’t care. Just stand up.”
“And now, you have the effrontery to marry another woman… a woman that is not me. And maybe I wouldn’t be pissed if she were above me. But that one?” She scoffed. “Did you even look at her?”
“Even in your wildest dreams, you’d never be up to my wife’s standards. Just know that, Irina.”
Her face clouded in anger in an instant and it looked as though she was going to erupt into a volcano or perhaps, punch a hole through me.
However, without warning, her lips crashed against mine rather forcefully, and just then, I heard the soft click of the door, and then a soft thud.
I pushed Irina off forcefully, and Raina stood there, her eyes widened and her hand pressed over her mouth.
Shit.