I was going crazy!
Luca's POV
"Did she meet up with her father?" I asked the man who had just walked into my study.
Payson bowed, then nodded his head. "Yes, they did sir, but it didn't end on a good note." He answered.
I nodded.
We had returned to the mansion, and Aria went straight to her room and locked the door.
A part of me began to think that the kiss, the one she gave me, wasn't so intentional after all.
Maybe there was no plan... But then why?
I went to my study to think and finish up the extra work I had in my hands.
But then I remembered something.
Diego Bellani was also at the party.
Aria disappeared for quite a while before she returned and then did something so brazen, so... It was possible that they met each other.
Did they plan something against me?
Was Diego finally making a move? The thought brought a smile to my face. I instantly left the papers I was handling to call Payson in.
I had him watch Aria at the party, if anyone could know anything about what happened with her, it was him.
So I called him in.
And now he was telling me this.
"How are we sure it wasn't just a pretense? What she and her father had already agreed on was a plan to bring me down? A plan to take her away?" I asked again.
I knew Diego was a heartless man.
But... Aria was his daughter
His biological daughter.
There have to be at least a few feelings stimulated from seeing her again.
Payson shook his head. "I don't think so, boss." He replied. "Aria approached him first, but then he denied knowing her in front of the people he was talking to."
"Later he dragged her somewhere... I couldn't hear what they talked about, but one of my men spotted Aria leaving the place with tears in her eyes. Even Diego, her father, looked a bit down, but he was also still proud and selfish."
A sigh left my nostrils.
So... That was out of it.
Diego Bellani kept surprising me with his selfishness.
He really was playing the long game.
A game I would enjoy if I had time for it, but I didn't.
I leaned on my seat, twirling the pen I held in my fingers. "What happened after that?"
"Another one of my men reported that they spotted the mayor's son and his friend with her."
Almost instantly, the air around became heavy.
I felt it too. I made that happen
I sat up in my seat and glared at Payson, who trembled slightly. "She was with whom?"
The man was used to me, but that doesn't me he wasn't afraid of me. "Manuel and Gaston boss," His lips quivered lightly as he pronounced their names.
My eyes flashed red.
Manuel and Gaston.
Those two psychopaths?
Manuel was the mayor's son... He was a public figure, yet the guy had a friend like Gaston around him.
Both of them, especially Gaston, were psychopaths who enjoyed sleeping with women until they were dead.
I wouldn't lie, I was a sadist.
It gave me pleasure to inflict pain on others, and I couldn't care less what they felt.
But those two boys... No, they took theirs to another level.
A thought crossed my mind, and my eyes narrowed. The pen in my hand broke because of the amount of force I was applying to it.
"Did they touch her?"
Payson shook his head. "I... I'm not sure boss." Came his short reply.
How could he not be sure?!
I rose up from my seat, my gaze on him getting even more intense. Payson took a step back. "Your men saw her with those two idiots and they didn't bother to call me? Or even get them away from her?!"
Payson trembled. "Boss... You told me the aim was to scar her mentally, an interaction with Sir Manuel and Gaston would do that perfectly." He defended.
That was probably what he thought when his men gave him the report.
My chest rose with anger. "Yes, I want to scar her... Me! Not two psychopaths, I want to do it by myself!" I roared.
Payson flinched a little.
I gritted my teeth, glaring at the man.
I wanted to spark... To show him how angry I was, but something calmed me down.
Aria didn't have any bruises when she came to me. It was impossible for a girl to leave either Manuel's or Gaston's side without bruises, or a mental trauma, or still living, so that meant Aria outsmarted them.
She was smart, and I believed she could.
Maybe that was why she kissed me. To show them that she had someone stronger.
The thought was like cold water poured on my anger.
I was that person stronger.
Whatever it was... It still irked me that there was a possibility that those two boys touched her.
My glare on Payson, who had his head bowed, subsided, and I sat back down on my seat.
"Listen to me good, Aria is mine. If anyone is going to scar her, it has to be me. I don't want anyone going close to her, understand?" I instructed. I could tell Payson was unhappy with my words, but he has no choice than to nod his head.
"Yes, boss."
I placed down the pieces of the pen. My palms were reddish because of some of the pieces that snuck in through the broken skin.
I pulled them out slowly, one after the other. "Also, I think she's up to something, have her watched even closer now."
"Yes, boss." Payson nodded again.
"I want those boys shaken up. They should know they tried to touch the wrong girl."
Payson raised his head. He wanted to defy that instruction, and I understood why.
Manuel was the mayor's son. The mayor was one of our allies; if anything happened to his son, he could declare war... But I didn't care.
Imagining his filthy hands touching Aria felt like torture.
Payson gritted his teeth and nodded. "Yes, boss."
I sighed, gesturing for him to leave with my hands. "You're dismissed."
Payson gave a huge bow, turned, and left.
I exhaled deeply, leaning on my chair
again.
Aria Bellani...
I wanted to break her.
I thought I was breaking her.
But why does it feel as though she was the one breaking me?