Chapter Nineteen

"Luca?" Grazia knocks and immediately enters my office, bringing with her a plate of food.

The room is dark and moody, unintentionally reflecting my own personality. The dramatic lighting and heavy wooden accents give the space a rich glow. It"s a glow that I am not interested in sharing.

I look up from my laptop for a second, and go back to my work, still not ready to have this conversation with her.

"Not now, Grazia. I have inventory to look over. I don't have time to play little girls" games. Not with you or your friends." My anger still hasn't died down, and I'm actually battling to focus on work because of it.

"Uh, okay," she snaps back. "But you had time to play other kinds of games while you were fucking my best friend?" She slams the plate of food down on my desk and I watch the piece of chicken fly in the air for just a second. Lucky for her, no mess was made.

"Watch your fucking mouth, Grazia! Don't forget who you're speaking to!" I know my anger is at a boiling point, but I tried to warn her, and yet she continued.

"I know exactly who I'm talking to. If you think that just because you're a little older than me and all of a sudden you've got a big job, that now you're the boss of this house, think again. I can't believe you took Emelia to Mexico and let her fuck you all the way into fatherhood." She scoffs, clearly disgusted by the thought.

I stand up. "I cannot believe that you allowed that woman to weasel her way into this family. Enough that I thought she might be someone I could trust! Did I fuck her? Yes, and I enjoyed it too, Grazia! But that would never have happened if she hadn't just spent months in this house, taking care of Nonna."

"So it's my fault that she fooled us all? That Nonna trusted her? That even though we've been friends since we were tiny kids, I had no idea she could ever take things this far?" She starts crying again.

I've always had a soft spot for my sister, and in any other situation, I would have bundled her up into a hug and sworn to destroy anything and anyone who made her cry. But right now, I needed to cool down and she was making things worse.

"Thank you for the food," I say. "I have work to do now. Please leave." I sit down and look back at my laptop, hearing my sister walk out of the room, still in tears.

***

My phone rings as I'm about to get in the shower and I curse under my breath.

It's been days of non-stop calls, trying to smooth out the details of this deal, as well as handling more shit with my runners. One guy was jumped and attacked and had all of his product stolen. Another had a car try to run him off the road. These incidents were all happening a little too often, and too close together to be a coincidence.

That mess, plus Emelia's drama, and the thought of becoming a father in such terrible circumstances has me beyond annoyed and angry.

"Hello?" I ask, snapping a bit. All I want to do is shower and get into bed.

"Luca!" It's Carlos' loud voice coming through the phone. Shit. I said I would call him back today and I completely forgot.

"Carlos!" I reply, trying my best to match his energy but failing miserably.

"Luca, I'll forget you ghosting me–as the kids nowadays say–and get to the point. Will we see you this weekend? My wife is getting your room ready."

"Why the hell should I go to Mexico? It doesn"t make sense. We need to change this arrangement. You come here for the pre-shipment meeting, and I"ll fly over for the post-payment. It streamlines the process." My annoyance is bubbling over.

"Luca, we"ve always done business this way. You are changing things now?" Now Carlos sounds annoyed too, and I know I need to smooth this over fast.

"Times change, mi amigo. Efficiency is key. And I thought maybe you all would prefer a holiday in the States. What do you say?" I word it as if it's better for them to come to me, but really I just don't have the time to be out of the country now.

The cheerfulness in Carlos' voice is gone when he replies, "Fine, we"ll come for the pre-shipment meeting. But you better make sure you"re on that plane when it"s time for the post-payment."

"You've got yourself a deal, Carlos. I look forward to hosting you and your family in my home." I say, putting on a bit of a happier tone to end this conversation.

"And we look forward to being hosted by you and your family, and of course seeing your lovely lady, Emelia. Tell her I will bring my wife and they can chit-chat all they desire."

We end the call and I run my hands through my still-dry hair. The one thing I forgot was that I would need to have Emelia here to continue the pretense of her being my girlfriend. Shit. Shit. Shit.

I can't handle another crisis right now, so I strip and get into the shower, using the time in the steam and hot water to think through everything plaguing my brain right now.

If I can just get through this meeting, and then have the shipment delivered safely, a lot of the stresses will be gone. I"ll still need to deal with whatever is going on out there with my guys getting hurt, and I'll need to face Emelia and talk about the baby, but this deal is the most important thing for now.

Getting out of the shower, I call Emelia. She picks up on the first ring.

"Emelia, I need to speak to you about something business-related," I say as soon as she answers. "Would you be willing to meet with me tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure." She sounds uncertain, and I get it.

I try not to let any of my anger leak into my tone of voice when I speak to her. I need her to attend this meeting and be willing to play along for the sake of this deal.

If that means being nicer to her for a day or two, I'm going to have to make the effort and bite my tongue.

I plan to meet her at my city apartment the next day, and we end the call without saying much else to each other.

Finally, I crawl into my bed and fall asleep.

***

Emelia shows up dressed in a maxi skirt and a tank top. For her, this is casual and understated, but she still looks flawlessly.

I let her in and offer her coffee. She takes a cup and sits down on a kitchen stool. I stay standing, running through exactly how I'm going to put this to her before I say anything out loud.

She sits patiently, waiting for me to speak.

"Carlos and his wife, and probably a couple of his men and their wives, are coming to the Baldini mansion over the weekend," I start, tapping on the kitchen counter in tune with the song I have playing softly in the background.

"I was supposed to go there, but I can't, it's too much right now. So I'm hosting them here."

Emelia nods and takes a sip of her coffee, so I take it as my sign to keep talking.

"The only problem is that they expect that you and I will be there together, since we're meant to be a couple. And I could just say that you're away for the weekend, but they mentioned your name specifically, so they're expecting to see you."

"Oh…" Emelia finally speaks, but she's not giving me much.

"Yeah, so I have a deal for you. I will pay you to play my partner for another weekend. You would need to stay at the house, and do exactly as you did when we were in Mexico…" As I say the words my thoughts flash back to Emelia on her knees in front of me, my cock in her mouth as she swirled her tongue around the tip.

So, maybe she didn't need to do exactly as she had done in Mexico.

"So, I'd need to come and be your girlfriend in the mansion?" Emelia asks, slowly.

"Pretty much. Just until they leave on Sunday. Then you are free to go back to your life. And I will make sure that you are compensated for your time, of course." I take a sip of my own coffee and watch her twirl her hair as she thinks about the deal.

"Where will I sleep?" she asks, and the anger bubbles up inside of me again.

If she's looking for an easy way to get back into my bed, this is not going to be it.

"In your old room," I reply bluntly.

"Is Grazia okay with this?" I hadn't even thought of this, and after our conversation in my office I'm not sure she would be. But this was business, and my sister knows that sometimes we have to do things we aren't comfortable with in the name of the family company.

"I will handle everything in the house, Emelia. I just need you to arrive, smile and be nice to the associates, and not let on that any of it is a big fucking lie. For that, I will pay you handsomely. Do we have a deal?" I mention the money for a third time, sure that it's what will convince her, if nothing else.

While she contemplates the deal, I look at her slim body and wonder about the baby that is supposedly inside of her. She's not showing any signs of being pregnant, and when this deal is sorted out, I will probably need to take her to a doctor so that we can confirm that she truly is carrying my firstborn child.

Unable to stop myself, I ponder her striking features. I know that any baby coming out of her would be beautiful in my eyes.

"I'll do it." She speaks suddenly, interrupting my train of thought.

"Fantastic," I say, and put my hand out to shake hers. She looks at my hand and smiles, refusing to give me hers.

She finishes her coffee in one big gulp and slides off the stool. She takes one look around my apartment, perhaps remembering the last time she was here, when things were still good between us.

I see her glance into my room at my still-broken headboard, and then she shakes her head quickly and looks at her watch.

"I'll see you this weekend, Luca Baldini." Her eyes look sad, like she hoped that this meeting was actually for something else, maybe for us to talk over everything that had happened, and the pregnancy.

But there is no way I can do that just yet. I had told her it was for business last night on the phone, because I didn't want her arriving with expectations of something else.

She walks towards the door and I don't bother following her. She knows her way out.

When she's gone, I sit down with my head in my hands and let out a long sigh, my thoughts finding their way back to the baby and what this situation means.