Chapter XXV

Excuse me? I mean, I know that we are both getting married out of necessity and neither of us wanted the wedding, but what does that have to do with her?! Nothing, exactly!

"Don't interfere, Leonora. I'm getting married and that's that."

"Interfere? I'm the woman at your side, I should marry you and not that provincial Russian slut." Did I just get insulted by this lack of intelligence? Forget about the provinces, more like a metropolis! What a load of crap.

"I've already told you my opinion on marriage often enough, what can't you get into your head with?" Dante sounded angrier now. I was right in assuming that the two of them had something going on.

"I accepted that excuse when you had no intention of getting married. For years you kept putting me off and telling me that you weren't a man to marry and now she comes along and you change your mind," she practically screamed.

I heard footsteps and hid behind a wall in the hallway.

"If you're going to marry someone, marry me!" she shouted after him as he left the room and I heard the front door slam.

I came out of my hiding place again and wanted to go upstairs when Barbie also entered the hallway.

She looked me up and down disparagingly.

She came towards me and then stood next to me at my level.

"You think you've won, but you shouldn't forget that he was with me voluntarily. He had to be forced to be with me."

With these words, Leonora left the house and left me standing speechless in the hallway.

Of course I could have thrown it in her face that we were both being forced to do this and that I was just as much a victim of this situation, but somehow I couldn't open my mouth.

The fact that she was rubbing her relationship with Dante in my face bothered me more than I wanted to admit.

It wasn't because I was jealous, because I certainly wasn't. It was because I felt somehow used and out of place.

Just the thought of him cheating on me with her made me tremble with anger. I would be condemned to watch his love affairs and still play the faithful and loving wife.

People would talk about him spending his nights with her and me being just a guarantee of peace.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. What is he thinking? If he thinks I'm sitting here and letting him do whatever he wants with me and my honor, then he's out of his depth. I won't let him take away my pride. And especially not that little whore.

I ran up the stairs to my room. When I got there, I slammed the door and went into my walk-in closet. It was more like a room of its own than my closet.

I put on some black pants, a top of the same color, and my leather jacket. To round it off, I combined a pair of leather boots and tied my hair into a high ponytail.

I grabbed my cell phone and ran back down the stairs.

I stopped in front of Sergio's door and took a deep breath.

After I had collected myself, I patted him down.

"Come in," came Sergio's voice. Slowly, with my heart racing, I opened the door and entered the office.

It took a few seconds before Sergio lifted his gaze from the papers on his desk and looked at me questioningly.

"Let's start now."

I didn't want to wait until after the honeymoon and then possibly be in the position of the pitiful wife. No, I won't let it get that far.

"I thought we agreed to wait." Sergio stood up and came out from in front of his table. He leaned his back against the table and folded his arms.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind... well, let's start with a simple handover. The wedding is tomorrow and Valeria will kill me if you have a scratch." Towards the end he laughed at his own joke and I had to smile too.

"Okay, I see you're ready. Take Luca and Dante with you. I'll let Pablo know that you're in charge. He'll fill you in on the details."

Oh God, my first mission.

"Thank you, I won't disappoint you." I jumped excitedly to the door and could still hear Sergio's laugh before I closed it.

So this is what it feels like when a father figure supports you. I wish I had found out about this much earlier.

I ran into the living room to look for Luca. But I couldn't find him. Before I had to search the whole house, I called out to Amelia, who immediately came running from the kitchen.

"Do you know where Lucca is?" She was covered in flour, so I had to pull myself together not to laugh.

She noticed that I was making fun of her and put her hands on her hips. But before she could verbally attack me, I saw Pablo enter the living room out of the corner of my eye.

"Pablo, do you know where Luca is?" I called to him excitedly. He turned around in surprise and then nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Martinelli has already informed me and Lucca will meet us in the garage by the cars. I just need to reach Dante, but you go ahead."

He pointed to the hallway that led from the living room to the kitchen and from which Amelia had come out a few seconds ago.

I nodded and walked down the hallway to an open door, which was the last one, and went through it.

It really was the garage, because I could smell a slight smell of gasoline.

I saw Lucca leaning against a black SUV and fiddling with his cell phone.

"There you are." I walked over to him and leaned next to him. The only response I got was surprise, but I didn't care. Nothing could ruin my mood today.

Just as I was about to explain it to him, Pablo came over.

"I can't reach Dante, but we should get going and I'll just try to continue on the way."

Lucca nodded to Pablo and opened the driver's door. "See you later, Anastasia."

Ha! He would have liked that.

I walked around the car and sat in the passenger seat.

"What's going on?" Lucca asked more sternly and sat down, as did Pablo, who sat in the back.

"Drive off, I'll explain everything to you on the way."

Still skeptical, he started the car and drove out of the garage. As we left the yard, I noticed two more SUVs following us. Great, we had support.

Now I just had to think about what strategy I would use.