CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

The drive back to the office is the most uncomfortable twenty minutes of my life and I have just spent two hours in a warehouse with my hands tied.

Lorenzo drives himself.

I did not expect that, I expected a driver or guard of some sort. 

I stare out the window at New York going about its completely unbothered Friday morning and I think about the fact that I am currently in a car with a Mafia Don who just saved my life and also told me I have to marry him and I genuinely do not know which part of that sentence to process first.

"You're staring," he says.

"I'm looking out the window."

"You're staring at the window there's a difference. I understand you might be afraid but just put yourself together"

I look at him as he keeps his eyes on the road when he spoke. His jaw is set and his hands are easy on the wheel and he looks like a man who is very good at being angry without letting it show and is currently working very hard at exactly that.

"I'm not afraid Sir, I'm processing," I say as my pride steps into action. 

"Fine, suit yourself"

Rude, also attractive, but rude.

I face the window again in silence putting him behind me 

His office on the sixtieth floor looks like the kind of room that was designed to make people feel small and maybe I am insecure because I felt small in it. It has floor to ceiling windows and a desk the size of my first living room.

He sits behind the desk and he tells me to sit on the chair across from it. We are back to where we started except now I know he is a Mafia Don and he knows I know and we are apparently getting married so things are a little different.

"You'll move in tonight," he says.

I blink. "Tonight?? Why what's the rush"

"Your apartment address is known so it's not safe. A newbie in the Mafia could decide to kill you as a way of making his name and I'd have to bear the burden"

"I have things…"

"A car will take you, you have only 2 hours. Pack what matters."

I open my mouth with shock…my life is also getting uprooted immediately. God how wish I could go back in time to stop myself from telling everything to Lucy last night 

He looks at me with dark eyes that say: this is not a negotiation, Miss Sofia Valenti, this is information I am giving you as a courtesy.

Fine, tonight then.

He had a driver take me home and wait outside while I sorted everything I needed, including bringing my plant I water every morning. After that he drives me back quietly and now my head throbs because of headache while my hand goes sore from the place where I was tied.

The mansion is not what I expected.

I don't know what I expected exactly maybe something dark and gothic maybe, stone walls and locked doors and a general atmosphere of menace. 

What I get is a building on the Upper East Side that belongs on the cover of Architectural Digest. 

The kind of beautiful that is so deliberate it makes you suspicious and ohh no, from everything I thought you'd know that I've never lived in place like this before. 

I'd simply imagined them when I see pictures of the dinning, living room or bedroom on P*******t

A woman named Rosa shows me to my wing warmly. 

 My wing. Like I am a member of the family and not a financial analyst who accidentally audited the wrong account.

The bedroom alone is bigger than my entire Queens apartment and the wardrobe is already stocked. I open it and there are clothes inside, my size, my colours, things I would actually wear if I had the budget and the occasion.

"Who bought these?" I ask Rosa.

"Mr. De Luca arranged it."

"He doesn't know my size."

Rosa gives me the polite smile of someone who has been instructed not to answer certain questions. "Is there anything else you need, Miss Valenti?"

"A way out," I say.

She gives me the same smile. "Dinner is at eight."then she whispers “But you have to be there on time so my boss's mother doesn't wait for you”

Then she rushed out with a grin on her face.

No one told me his mom is here too, I feel like my problems just tripled because she could decide to make me enjoy my stay or hate everyday of my life. Terrific!!

And Lorenzo wasn't there maybe he could've calmed her down or something.

An hour later by 9pm there's a knock on the door, and I recognize Lorenz pqo's voice as he tells me to open up

“How are you adjusting to my humble home”

“Pretty good” I wouldn't want to tell him that his mom ruined my night. 

“Hope my mom did not give you any trouble?”

“She didn't, besides I need to sleep now it has been a very long day. Good night Sir”

I don't know why I didn't tell him about what his mom said. It just felt like the right call to not bring in any drama on my first day here. 

“ We really need to work on the name thing. No one would believe you're to be my wife if you call me Sir instead of Lorenzo. Goodnight Sofia” he says and shuts the door 

If you want to know how the dinner went I'll tell you, I was called the woman who ruined her son's life. Like I told him to join the fucking mafia in the first place. She called me some lowlife who couldn't stop thanking her stars she was forced to marry into the De Luca family. 

Anyways, all that aside I am sitting on the edge of the bed still in my clothes because I refuse to touch anything in that wardrobe on principle and she calls twelve times before I pick up.

She is crying before I even say hello.

"I'm so sorry," she says. "Sofia I'm so sorry I don't know what I was thinking I just… it was the biggest story of my career and I thought… "

"Lucy."

"I thought they wouldn't trace it back to you, I 

thought I was careful, I didn't put your name"

"Lucy."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so…"

"Lucy. Stop."

She stops and I can hear her breathing, uneven and wet.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"They're making me resign. And sign something. 

And leave the city."

"I know."

"Where are you? Are you safe?”

“Not really, 

“"I'm safe," I reply her. "Are you?

"I think so Sofia…"

"It's done," I say. "It happened. We deal with what comes next."

"You always do that."

"Do what?"

,"Skip straight to the solution, you never just feel it first."

"I'm feeling it," I say. "I'm just doing it quietly."

“Besides I need your help, do you have any strategies for dealing with an angry mother-in-law?”

We stay on the phone for another hour without saying much although she gave me some crazy ideas.

First she said I should play nice so if anything happens in front of anyone I would always be the innocent person, badasss, I'm feeling this already.

Then if she still persists I'll simply make sure Lorenzo sides with me because I'm married to her son not her.

Well, I'll see how to apply them tomorrow morning