Chapter 38 Fake
"Oh! Hi, Marianna! How are you?" I ask as I get on my feet, embracing her for a second. We let go of each other, and the way her smile looks right now, it's definitely a fake smile. Very different from the smile she gave me when we first met. Something is definitely off about her.
"I'm good. How about you?" Marianna asks with a wide smile. She's trying so hard to look polite, and it makes her look strange instead of charming. The forced smile is really throwing me off.
What's really going on with her? There's something wrong with her. She's giving an entirely different vibe than the first time we met. She was so sweet back then, but now? I'm not really sure. It was probably just a facade for a first impression. I don't know why, but it's starting to feel like she's giving off a mean girl vibe. A fake ass bitch. Thankfully, we never contacted each other since we met at the dinner. I should keep my distance from her, or else she'll eat me alive.
"I'm fine. I didn't know you'd be here," I say.
"I didn't know either. I'm so glad you're here. I didn't know anyone else in here," Marianna says.
"Well, now you're not alone anymore. Oh, let me introduce you to everyone here. This is Antonio, my boyfriend. And this is Valeria and Giorgio, his younger siblings," I say. All of them smile at Marianna, and she smiles back at them. I swear I can see her rolling her eyes for a second there. What is her problem?
"It's nice to meet you all! How did you know each other, if you don't mind me asking?" Marianna asks.
"Well, both of our fathers work together, and then they arranged mine and Antonio's relationship. I'm glad they did it, though. Antonio is an amazing man," I say, turning to Antonio and smiling at him.
For a second, I feel genuine admiration for him. I can't help it. He's been nice to me all this time, and it's definitely bad that I'm actually falling for him and his charm. Fuck my life. I need to be serious. If I keep letting my thoughts about Antonio control me, it'll prevent me from doing my job. Focus, Alessandra. Focus yourself.
"Says the wonderful person herself," Antonio says with his usual charming grin. My heart flutters at the sight, and I quickly look away from him with my cheeks burning from my sheepishness.
Get a hold of yourself, Ale. Calm the fuck down.
"Oh, shush," I say. When my gaze returns to Marianna, I notice her smile changes as she glances at Dante's way. It's not forced anymore. It looks almost like she's celebrating her victory.
Does it mean? Oh, it definitely does. She's absolutely fucking overjoyed to know that Dante and I are not together. Girl, don't get ahead of yourself. I won't let you be near Dante. He's mine and will always be mine. You don't have a goddamn chance to be with him. He's already in love with me. You can't make him fall for you.
"That's amazing! You two look good together. The absolute perfect couple," Marianna says. Her phone vibrates, and as she glances down at it, a frown appears on her face.
"I have to go now. My father wants me to be by his side," Marianna says.
"Okay. Come back here if you want to talk," I say.
No. Don't fucking come back here. Stay away from Dante and me, you little bitch. You're not taking my man away from me. I'll fucking break your arm if you dare to try it.
"I will. Thanks," Marianna says. She waves at me for a second and then disappears into the crowd. I'm glad that she's gone. For the sake of my sanity, I will block her number and delete it from my phone. I'm not going to be friends with her anymore.
"You might want to be careful with her," Valeria says. I turn to Valeria, and she's still scowling as she stares at someone in the crowd with her arms folded over her chest.
Marianna? Why should I be careful with her? Does she know something I don't? I mean, it's already clear that she's fake, but is there something more to the story? If so, interesting. I need to hear more about it.
"Why?" I ask.
"Don't you know? There were countless rumours about her, and most of them turned out to be true. So, definitely not rumours," Valeria says.
Rumours? What kind of rumours is Valeria talking about? What is it about Marianna that I don't know about? Is she actually evil? Like, secretly evil despite her sweet appearance? No wonder her smile looked so fake and forced earlier. There's definitely something off about her.
"What rumours?" I ask.
"She's basically a fake ass bitch. Yeah, she might look nice at first, but she's actually not. She's been involved in lots of bullying cases while she's in school and college. And do you know why? It's because the girls she bullied stared at her boyfriends, who are now her exes, for too long. Yeah, you heard that right. Her father hides the scandal very well, though. The worst thing about her bullying cases was that she violently killed three of the girls. She was known to be violent and volatile. It's kinda ironic that she's worse than us, who have been living in such a violent world since birth," Valeria says.
Killed three girls? Just because they stared at her boyfriends? Fucking hell. She's worse than I expected. I thought she was just an ordinary mean girl, but it turned out she's a damn murderer. She sounds like a wannabe gangster right now with what she's done. How didn't my father know about this? Didn't he do a background check on De Santi family first before deciding to do any business with them? I should warn Dante and my father. There's definitely something more to them than just being the owner of a wine company.
"Oh wow. I didn't know about that. I gotta do my own research later," I say.
"You should. I can send you some info if you want. You know, for precaution. Where did you know her anyway?" Valeria says.
"Our fathers just established a partnership contract a couple of months ago. She was the one who approached me first. She seems kind at first, so we decided to become friends even though I hesitated at first. We're not really close, though. We haven't even got in contact with each other after we met at the meeting dinner," I say. Valeria nods solemnly and then looks at me again.
"Really? Why didn't you tell me about this?" Antonio asks.
"Sorry, I forgot. It was a quick meeting, and everything got settled in like a week or so," I say.
"Yeah. You'd better stay away from her. She's bad news. Don't let her innocent look fool you. I don't even know why Dad invited them here, even though he knew about who they truly are already," Valeria says.
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for warning me about her," I say.
"No problem. I'm just looking out for my soon-to-be sister-in-law," Valeria says with a smile. I can only laugh awkwardly at Valeria's words.
Shit. This is getting more serious than I thought. Could Valeria also be involved in whatever her family and the Romanos might be scheming towards my family? She's so adamant about calling me a part of her family already. Maybe she's just excited to have a sister-in-law, considering she's the only girl in the family. Even though that might be the case, I still need to be careful around the family members of the Ricci.
"You know what? I'll send everything to you right now, and you'd better send it to your father, too. It's not just Marianna that's problematic; it's the whole family. I think they're trying to get into the illicit business just like us and establish their own crime family. Based on what they've done, especially the killings, they're trying to make people scared of them and join them. So, be careful around them," Antonio says.
"I will, and thanks. I'll read everything later," I say.
"You're welcome," Antonio says.
I skim through the files Antonio just sent me, and all of them are quite horrifying, especially Marianna's victims. They all look so awful. It looks like Valeria is right about how violent Marianna is. The way they all look, it seems like Marianna burned their faces and also broke their limbs in the worst way, making them all look contorted. It's like their limbs are not attached to the body anymore, but their skin and flesh kept them attached still. How the fuck did she even managed to do that? She definitely has someone helped her because there's no way she managed to do all that by herself.
The victims of her father are in the same condition as well, with ruined faces and broken limbs. The pattern immediately reminds me of the Romanos, but the difference is that they use acid to disfigure their victims' faces instead of fire. That could only mean two things. They're either the Romanos wannabes or they actually work with the Romanos. Shit. This is getting more serious. Dante usually knows almost everything about everyone, so I should ask him if all this information about De Santi is true or not.