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“Um, she’s hot, why wouldn’t you flirt with her?” he states.
“Because she’s a Fiorenzo, and I’m trying to get her family to drop out of the Emerald Hotels deal,” I explain to him.
“Why does your father hate the Fiorenzos so much?” Val questions me.
Valentino’s mother is my father’s sister. They were never close, especially when she got pregnant out of wedlock with Valentino. She was sent away by my father for embarrassing the family. She was told to get rid of the baby, but she refused, so my father, in his stubbornness, refused to acknowledge her or Valentino’s existence. My aunt ended up falling for the widowed billionaire who she worked for as his nanny. She looked after his twins, Adeline and Etienne, who were two years older than Val. Two years later, they were married. They then had two more kids together, Colette and Xavier, and became one happy family, the complete opposite of my own upbringing—which was hell.
“The Fiorenzos stole from my father,” I tell him.
“What did they steal?” he asks, pushing for more information.
I’m not sure exactly. I just always remember being told they were bad my entire life and that we should never do business with them. “A business or something, I don’t remember.”
“Isn’t that weird? You hate someone so much, but you don’t know why?” he questions.
“You know you never question my father,” I remind him.
He nods in understanding. “You don’t have to be like him though, Andro.”
He doesn’t understand what it’s like to have Giuseppe Conti as a father. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, you do.”
“It’s not that simple, Val. Now that Dario’s gone there’s no one else to take over the business.”
“You have Romeo.”
“Who moved to New York to get away from him,” I explain.
“And he’s happier for it, maybe you should try it,” Val says.
I glare at my cousin. “He would disown me if I did.”
“Wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” Val adds quietly.
My cousin means well, he only wants the best for me, and he’s right. I would be a hell of a lot happier if I wasn’t under my father’s microscope, but then I would have to leave my mother. She’s lost one son and the other has moved away, and she’s stuck in a loveless marriage to a tyrant. I’m all she’s got left.
“If I can win this deal then maybe he will ease up on me,” I tell him.
“Yeah, but at what personal expense, Andro?” my cousin asks.
“Personal life? I don’t have one.”
“Not true, you have a beautiful wife upstairs.” Val smirks.
My eyes narrow on him. “Never happening,” I warn him.
He chuckles. “Such a shame, it could have been beautiful,” he teases.
“Right, well, I’m ready to head. It’s been an interesting night, boys,” Rocco says, then says his goodbyes.
“I’ll come too,” Nico adds, following his brother, leaving Val and I alone together.
“You staying? Want another drink?” I ask him. He nods, and we head over to the bar, grab a drink each, and then take a seat on the sofa.
“You sure about this fake marriage?” he asks, waving his hand in the air.
“Yes, if it gets me what I need.”
