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“Sweetheart, a hotel is not worth more than you,” my father’s voice echoes through the room.
I stand up, rush over to him, and wrap myself around him. “I’m so sorry,” I say, sobbing in his arms.
“I’m sorry you didn’t think you could come to us with this,” he replies, cupping my face in his hands.
“I thought I could fix it,” I say, my lip wobbling with emotion.
“The Contis are ruthless, my love, you were never going to get them to be compassionate.”
“I know that now,” I sob again.
“It’s going to be okay,” he says, reassuring me with a tight hug. I’m surprised that he’s taking it so well. “Gio, Luca, contact the Hoffmans and tell them we are pulling out of the deal.”
“Papà, no, please, no,” I plead with him.
“I will not let a Conti blackmail my daughter,” he says angrily.
“I promise you I’ve fixed it. I have a plan and it’s been set in motion,” I tell him.
The room stills at my words.
“What do you mean, sweetheart?” my father asks.
I untangle myself from him and address the room. “The Contis think that what is releasing tomorrow is a gossip piece about me on my—our drunken night in Vegas, but what they don’t know is I changed the story, I rewrote it. If Alessandro Conti thinks he’s in control, then he’s wrong.”
“What have you done?” Gio asks.
8
ALESSANDRO
Ring. Ring. Ring.
My phone ringing wakes me. “Hello,” I say, answering it groggily.
“She fucking played you, bro. It’s a masterpiece,” Nico says. What is he talking about? “Have you read it yet?” he asks.
I look at my phone before answering him. “It’s five in the morning, I haven’t even seen the fucking sun,” I tell him.
“Check your emails. Match point to Miss Fiorenzo. She just cut your balls off.” He chuckles.
What the …? I pull my phone from my ear and open the email Nico is talking about, and there in bold letters …
How I fell in love with the enemy.
It’s an interview that Natalia did for one of Nico’s magazines, talking about how we have been secretly dating, hiding it from our disapproving families, and that we got carried away in Vegas and decided to get married because we were sick of hiding our love.
“You’re like the real-life Romeo and Juliet. Guess she just married the wrong brother,” Nico says as he cracks up laughing. It’s too early for this shit. “This girl is crazy. I like it.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, asshole,” I remind him.
“She called your bluff.” He chuckles.
“Fuck you. Your magazine posted this bullshit. Can you delete it or something, make it disappear? What the hell was Francesca thinking posting this?”
“She was thinking this is going to sell a hell of a lot of magazines, which is what I pay her to do.” He laughs.
“At my expense.”
