Chapter 94 Consequences
Mr. Martinez’s POV
The slap echoed through the master bedroom like a gunshot.
Maria’s head snapped to the side, her hand flying to her reddening cheek as she stumbled backward against the vanity.
“Where is she?” I roared, my hand still raised. “Your brat of a daughter…does she want us all ruined? Does she understand what she’s done?”
“Ricardo, please…” Maria’s voice trembled, tears already streaming down her face.
“I thought you said she was in check!” I grabbed a crystal vase from the dresser and hurled it against the wall. It shattered with a satisfying crash. “I thought you told me Aria understood her responsibilities!”
“I thought so too,” Maria sobbed, pressing herself against the vanity. “I even set guards at the door. I watched her myself. I…I don’t know how she escaped.”
“Can’t you track her?” I demanded. “Her phone? Her credit cards? Something?”
“I tried!” Maria’s voice rose in desperation. “Her phone is off. The credit card we gave her has been blocked since she tried to use it that night. It’s like she vanished into thin air.”
I swept my arm across the dresser, sending perfume bottles, jewelry boxes, and cosmetics crashing to the floor.
“You caused this!” I pointed at her, my finger shaking with rage. “You let her have her way all the time. Let her pursue that stupid art instead of proper studies. Now she thinks she has a choice. she’s a spoiled brat who thinks she can just run away from her obligations!”
“Ricardo, I’m sorry…”
“Sorry doesn’t fix this!” I grabbed another vase. “We owe the Bennetts two million dollars, Maria! Two million! And the only way we pay that back is through this marriage. Do you understand? If Aria doesn’t marry Christian, we lose everything. The house. The cars. Our reputation. Everything!”
I threw the vase. It exploded against the mirror, spiderwebbing the glass.
“You better fix this,” I said. “You better find your daughter and bring her back. Or I have no use for you. Do you understand me? No. Use.”
Maria nodded frantically, still crying.
“Fool,” I spat. “Stupid woman.”
I walked to the bathroom and grabbed a hand towel, tossing it at her.
“Now fix that face,” I commanded. “We have a guest downstairs. And if you embarrass me in front of him, it’ll be worse than a slap. Understand?”
“Yes,” she whispered, catching the towel with shaking hands.
“Good. Five minutes. Then come down.”
I left her there and headed downstairs, forcing my breathing to steady, my face to smooth into something more presentable.
Christian Bennett sat in our living room like he owned it. Which, in a way, he did. His expensive suit was pressed perfectly, his hair styled just so. He looked every inch the successful young businessman.
Except for the bruises.
His eye was still slightly swollen. His lip had a cut that was healed but still visible.
All courtesy of my daughter and her friend.
The humiliation burned through me.
“Mr. Bennett,” I said, forcing warmth into my voice as I descended the stairs. “Thank you for coming. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Scotch?”
“Where is Aria?” Christian asked, not bothering with pleasantries.
I paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Ah. Yes. About that. The thing is, Aria is still a bit… childish. But we will find her soon and…”
“Are you playing with me, Mr. Martinez?”
Christian’s voice was cold. Nothing like the polite young man who’d courted my daughter for the past year.
“My family helped you to the stage you are now,” he continued, standing slowly. “We saved you from bankruptcy. From prison. From losing everything. Yet your daughter repeatedly insults me. Again and again. She refuses to answer my calls. She runs away. She lets her little friend attack me.”
He took a step toward me.
“Do I need to remind you what I can do?” His voice was soft now. Almost gentle. Which made it more terrifying. “What my family can do?”
“No, sir,” I said quickly. “Of course not. We’re handling it. We’ll find her…”
“Your daughter insulted me,” Christian interrupted. “She humiliated me, her and that slimy friend of hers, that Melissa girl.”
“I’ve been patient,” he continued. “Very patient. Because I was told Aria was worth the investment. That she’d come around. That she’d be a suitable wife once she accepted reality.”
He walked closer until we were nearly face to face.
“But my patience has limits, Mr. Martinez. And we’ve reached them.”
“Mr. Bennett, please…”
“You have one week.” Christian’s eyes were cold. “One week to find your daughter and deliver her to me. Willing or not, I don’t care anymore. She will stand at that altar. She will say her vows. She will become my wife.”
“Of course. Yes. One week…”
“And if she doesn’t,” Christian continued as if I hadn’t spoken, “then the debt comes due. Immediately. In full. Two million dollars. Plus interest. Plus penalties for breach of contract.”
He smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“You don’t have two million dollars, do you, Mr. Martinez?”
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even shake my head.
“That’s what I thought.” Christian straightened his jacket. “So let me be very clear. If I don’t have Aria back within one week, I will come back here. And you won’t like that. Your wife won’t like that. Your comfortable life won’t exist anymore.”
He walked to the door, then paused.
“Find her,” he said without turning around. “Or lose everything. Your choice.”
Then he was gone.
I stood there in my own living room, my hands shaking, my mind racing.
One week.
I heard footsteps on the stairs. Maria descended slowly, her face cleaned up, makeup applied to hide the redness from my slap.
“What did he say?” she asked quietly.
“One week,” I said. “We have one week to find Aria.”
I looked at my wife…this woman who’d given me a daughter who’d become my greatest liability.
“If we don’t we lose everything,” I said. I walked to the bar and poured myself a scotch. Drank it in one swallow. Poured another.
I drank the second scotch and slammed the glass down.
“If Christian Bennett’s family decides to make an example of us, no one will help. No one will care. We’ll be destroyed so thoroughly that people will forget we ever existed.”
Maria’s face went white.
“Now start calling,” I said.
She looked at me with fearful eyes.
“If you had just controlled our daughter properly, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Remember that.”
Then I poured a third drink and tried to figure out how the hell I was getting out of this Alive.