Chapter XXIV

Amelia finally came back with the laces for my hand. I was still shocked by Dante's statement. Oh God, Amelia has laces in her hand. Could someone please take them off her before I lose an eye.

But she didn't look at me and wordlessly put the laces on the table in front of Dante. He immediately took one out and sat up straight. I was about to take it from him when he held it away from me. "It's better if I give it to you, Amore." Him and his Amore. When did he actually start doing this? First I'm just air to him, or am I being thrown around by him and now he's acting like a fiancé in love?

Let's see how long that lasts. Dante pulled my T-shirt down on my shoulder and put the syringe on. The Neanderthal hadn't thought it important to disinfect the area beforehand. I just rolled my eyes and straightened my shirt again.

"Did you just roll your eyes?" His tone was stricter now, but still sounded playful. Who is this man?

"Yes, I did," I answered, ignoring his provocation.

Since I had tried to escape from him and he said that offensive sentence, I had completely blocked out the others at the table. When I now let my gaze wander over them, I realized that they had been watching us the whole time. Oh God, how embarrassing, I hope they hadn't seen everything.

"Amelia, bring Anastasia her breakfast." Following Dante's instructions, Anastasia immediately turned around and went towards the kitchen. "Now that you've had the medicine, you can eat something." Great, he's acting like my doctor. Another thing he's going to boss me around about.

A breakfast plate was placed in front of me and I started to eat, still sitting on Dante's lap.

It was incredibly uncomfortable to sit and eat like that, but I knew that this argument wouldn't make him let go of me, so I just carried on quietly to finish as quickly as possible so that I could leave the room.

"Anastasia, when you're finished I'd like to speak to you in my office." I looked up from my plate and looked at Sergio. What does he want to discuss with me? It's probably about yesterday's test. Did our Isabella test too? Actually, I can't imagine that. It somehow didn't fit with Ivan or my father.

I just nodded and emptied my plate. When I was finally finished, Dante let go of me and I followed Sergio out of the room.

He led me to the room where I had heard his and Dante's discussion yesterday. Well, not heard, but rather overheard.

We entered the room and Sergio sat down behind an old oak table. He pointed to one of two armchairs that stood directly in front of it.

After I sat down, I looked around the room. The furnishings were rather dark and antique. The most modern thing here was the computer on his table. Even the music system consisted of a record player and a wide collection of vinyl records.

"I asked you to come here to tell you about yesterday's test." With that, Sergio interrupted my tour of admiration through his office and drew my attention back to himself.

I just nodded, as I wasn't sure how to respond.

"First of all, I want to apologize for hurting you yesterday and for the beating you took. But I hope you understand why I had to do this. I want to be honest with you, I don't trust your family. And even though we've made peace now, I had to make sure that I could trust you, especially before the wedding."

I had already thought so. I mean, I knew that I had to earn the family's trust first, especially because of my last name, but I hadn't expected such a test. I thought I would earn it over time, through my actions.

Again, I just nodded.

"I would be lying if I said that you didn't impress me yesterday. Not because you passed the test, I assumed that, but because of your ability to see details and put them together. You draw the right conclusions and quickly.

That's why I wanted to talk to you."

I raised my eyebrows. I couldn't imagine for the life of me what he wanted to discuss.

But the fact that he had already assumed I would pass the test made me smile.

"I think you have noticed in the short time you have been here that our mafia has a different structure than the Russian one. At least under your father's leadership." He was right on both counts. It was less formal or strict here. You were not put in a box that you were not allowed to leave under any circumstances. The women here also had a completely different position. I knew from Chiara that her mother had many tasks in the organization and that she was involved in everything.

I could be wrong, but the marriage between the two of them is nothing like the ones I know. The looks he had given her at dinner a few minutes ago were more emotional than all the ones my father had given my mother. At first

I thought it was because of the Italian way, and that we are simply cooler in Russia, but now I think there is more to it than that.

Also the fact that our organization had changed a lot since my father was the boss. I only knew from Ivan's stories what it was like in my grandfather's time, because he died when I was still small, but it was completely different from now. My grandfather had been a good, if strict, man who loved my grandmother more than anything. He would not have forced his daughter into marriage for anything in the world.

"Don't worry, you will quickly get used to the change and my wife will help you step by step to find your way in your new role after Dante's appointment."

My new role. I took a deep breath. I already suspected that I would take Valeria's position, but hearing it out loud was something else entirely. Actually, it was exactly what I always wanted. A voice, but now that my goal was so close, I began to have doubts. What if I don't manage it, or I make a serious mistake. I'll have a hard time proving my loyalty to men as it is, but one mistake could mean that they'll never accept me.

"To help you with that, I thought we could start with small tasks now. Since your wedding is tomorrow, we'll start after your honeymoon."

Oh God, I didn't know how to react. My heart was racing and I had to sort out my thoughts.

Damn the wedding. I had completely forgotten that it was tomorrow. And now this. I decide to think about it after the honeymoon and to panic about the wedding and the honeymoon first.

"Yes, I would love to do that." I said in a trembling voice after I had somewhat recovered myself.

"Very good, that's all."

I stood up and said goodbye to Sergio, who remained sitting behind his desk. I went into the hallway and tried to collect myself.

How am I supposed to get through the wedding and how on earth had I been able to suppress the thought of it for so long.

I was still standing in the hallway in front of Sergio's office when Lucca came up to me.

"How are you? Has it gotten worse?" I knew immediately what he was talking about. I just shook my head so I wouldn't think about the kidnapping any more. Neither of them. The one from yesterday had been on my nerves and I had really struggled to suppress impending attacks, but so far completely blocking out memories had helped me not to get lost in them.

"I'm fine." I thought that Luca would let me go with that, but he held onto my arm so I couldn't walk past him.

"If I had known...I would have stopped it, believe me." And I did. Although he was often cold and rather resigned, when we were alone he was understanding and concerned. He reminded me of Ivan, which made it easy for me to trust him.

"I do." I smiled at him honestly and then released my hold.

I was about to go back to my room when I heard voices coming from the dining room. It was Dante and Miss Dumbhausen. I crept to the door, careful not to catch me eavesdropping. If this keeps up, I'll be considered a spy. I've snuck around this house more than I did my parents' house. And I hadn't even been here a week.

"Baby, I know you don't want to marry her."

Excuse me?