Arianna POV:
I went into the office the next day my mind fuzzy from the night before. I only had one drink but I felt hungover. Replaying the story my father told me again and again. I started questioning here and there if he ever really wanted to get out. By now I knew he never would, he wanted it all. He could claim it was for his family, I saw through it after all this time this was for him and his greed.
I wanted to sink into my work that now seemed tainted I holed up in my office with a black coffee hoping its bitterness would cheer me up. Unfortunately, my desire to slink into the shadows of the machine was ignored.
Instead of strolling in, he knocked on the door and asked if I was available. Leaning back in my chair contemplating whether or not to open the door I waited with a grouchy set jaw.
I let him in and he walked over sitting down once again like he had every right.
"Oh please sit down," I exclaimed in false cheer as he did what he wished. Closing the door keeping my father and his cronies out.
"I want to start by apologizing for how angry I got last night. It wasn't right to grab you and I am ashamed," he apologized, catching me slightly off guard.
I walked over calmly to my desk sitting down and nodding. "Alright,"
"But I don't think you've grasped the danger you are in your father will not stop at anything to get his hands on the city and his cruelty knows no bounds. You need to go back to your home and stay away from here," he insisted, watching him plead for me to leave twisted something inside me the normally debonair and unfaltering man was undone at this thought of me standing in the middle of a battlefield.
"I've made it clear to my father I want no part in this I'm finishing my help and leaving but I won't stay away from my family I just got my sister back,"
"It won't be enough your the perfect new card to play to his will listen to me you need to go-"
"Funny I was just thinking the same thing," my father entered the room. He glared down at Giovanni gone was the tender man begging me to flee the battleground. Returned the hardened king ready to fight to the death the mask of mystery applied once more.
"She's no part in this forgive me for removing the distractions," he told my father who gripped his fist tightly.
"She may be disgusted her place is with her family that much she's made clear, I appreciate we're in bed business but I don't believe it appropriate for you to concern yourself with her," my father walked over placing an arm around me the menacing shadow looming over me.
I felt like a China doll ready to fracture, the thought made my skin crawl.
"I don't believe in involving innocents," Giovanni told him before storming out.
A man closed the door behind him and my father removed his arm from me. "While I understand you not wanting any part of my business I cannot condone fraternizing with the enemy," he scolded me.
"I wasn't fraternizing," I snapped and my father chuckled handing over his phone. Photos of me leaving Giovanni's house last night.
I snatched up the screen furious at the intrusion. He'd had me followed, which meant he knew hours before I stormed home I was on to him the whole thing was orchestrated just to make me feel like I had some control.
"You. Had. Me. Followed," I growled.
"Of course I did my long lost daughter returned and you think I'm letting you go around on your own?" He scoffed. "You went to his house last night. What does he know," his tone shifted from serious to angry?
"If he knows you're against me he'll try and turn you. I can't afford that," he stepped towards me and I flinched backward.
I pulled myself together and stood my ground. "I told him I knew he was in the mob. The detective told me he was investigating him, I told him I won't let him be in business with you," I lied right to his face, my gut ordering me not to tell him the truth.
He sighed shaking his head, "And he told you I was already in the mob,"
"Yes," there wasn't room to say anything else.
"Well…" he stepped back towards the door. "I told them he wanted to turn you against me. I'm sorry he's weaseled his way into our lives but your sister is head over heels for his cousin,"
"I just want her to be happy," I reiterated my only desired outcome of whatever I had found myself in.
"She will be darling, I won't let anything happen to either of you," he promised his voice once again soft and sweet.
"Will Gio do something to ruin her wedding?" I asked.
"I have no doubt he didn't this wedding to happen he wants an entry into our family.
"Guilia would never,"
"No of course not," he agreed like it was fact. I snarled in my head that he so quickly had faith in her but I got the third degree and a babysitter.
I chastised myself at the petulant child whining in my head that my sister got more attention. Of course, he trusted her they had been together all this time, and I'd been off with my mother. He didn't know me, I clearly didn't know him.
"I won't let him know a thing, I don't want any part of this," I sat back down in my chair getting back to my work.
"Well I'm sorry to say you might have to stay for a while," he sat down across from me.
"Dad, I told you-"
He held up a hand. "My accountant is a rat he's been stealing money from me," he explained I wanted to tell him it sounded like karma but I kept that to myself. "I need someone I can trust you won't be doing anything illegal just balancing the real government overseen books. Anything fishy I do myself,"
I was ready to tell him no, tell him I had a life and a job. He had no right to try and force him to stay here but he continued.
"Besides you can stay here spend more time with your sister, be closer to her keep an eye on her,"
I knew what he was getting at. Guilia was in a precarious situation, I had to stay to watch over her. She didn't know about Gio, she had no clue we were on the verge of a war.
"You ask me to do one thing that crosses a line and I'll walk, just like mom," I warned him.
"I wouldn't dare. Just stay here do the work you've been doing," he stood up and headed out the door pausing at the door. "And you'll stay away from him,"
He didn't look at me when he said and it wasn't a suggestion this time. I was being ordered to keep away from Gio, the words Gio said as he'd left entered my mind. That I was innocent.
"Tell my tails to fall back," I told him but the door closed.
I thought I had stood my ground but now I had accepted there was no out. The moment my mother died I was my fathers once more. I wouldn't get a choice in this he could claim I would keep my hands clean but sooner or later there would be a a problem only I could solve.
I felt like I was swimming and the water was getting wilder and taller holding me down and pushing me this way and that. I didn't know how to get out of this, all I could do was tread water until I saw land.
I went back to the house that night, my body numb from the tension swirling in my head. I stumbled up to my room exhausted from the past 48 hours.
I laid down on the bed too tired to change into something comfy. A knock came at my door I prayed to whoever was listening that it not be my father.
"Hey," Guilia poked her head in.
I sat up. "Hey gules," I groggily greeted her.
"Long day?" She asked frowning at the unfortunate state of my hair no doubt.
"Long week," I corrected.
"Wanna unwind?" She opened the door holding a bottle of wine and a tub of ice cream, I grinned at the sight.
We laid down and put on a stupid move eating the ice cream and sipping the wine. They didn't go together but we didn't care, it was nice not caring about anything for a moment.
"Dad's been really tight about this whole business deal. He's driving me nuts asking about what Gio is doing. Like I don't know I'm not marrying him," she snipped.
"Yeah he's so nervous about Gio getting the upper hand," I took a long swig of wine.
She giggled and jabbed me. "You wouldn't mind that I bet,"
I felt slightly sick thinking back to what my father had said as he left the office. "I don't think so,"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever he wants you that much I know,"
"Come on eat your ice cream," I changed the subject and for once Guilia listened to me.
She was the one thing that seemed good in this endless sea of chaos. If I stay for her sake it would be worth it. I snuggled closer to my sister as he laughed at the movie, her mouth full of ice cream. Yeah, it would be worth it.