Page 20 of A Beautiful Crime

Dressed impeccably in a black tail suit and bow tie, Giuseppe appears to be the perfect poised butler.

“La mia forte bellezza,” he softly croons.My strong beauty.“Always the early riser.”

“It’s nice to feel the sun upon my skin,” I respond vaguely.

But Giuseppe is smart enough to read between the lines. Finding hints to lead him to the treasure. “Ah, but it is never enough to cleanse our souls.”

I smile weakly at him. I’ll never confess that I long to see the world the way I had seen it before. With all its beauty and splendor.

“Is that today’s newspaper?” I nod my head towards the newspaper pressed against his side.

“Yes, Ms. Fiore. Have you not seen it yet over breakfast?”

I shake my head. “Haven’t eaten yet. Has papa and Luca seen it?”

“No, they have been in meetings all morning.” Meetings. I refrain from rolling my eyes.

“May I ask why you are shielding the front page from me?”

The apple’s of Giuseppe’s cheeks flush. “I didn’t want you to feel embarrassed.”

I raise a brow. “Why would I feel embarrassed about the front page? You’re acting as if I’m on it.”

He swallows and then presses the newspaper closer to his frame.

My family has been in the media. This is true but my face has never once appeared. My papa to everyone else is a business mogul who is a millionaire. But the underworld, the criminals of the world know of my papa as The Don to The Fiore Famiglia. With how clean papa is with laundering money, keeping up pretenses and knowing those in high places he hasn’t yet been seen as anything different than the successful businessman.

Luca and Elio have always been in the spotlight. Their names and photos have always been in the paper. Luca was named as one of the East Coast’s Most Eligible Bachelors. Luca ate that up more than a patriot with an apple pie on the Fourth of July. As much as Luca is sadistic he is as much conceited. The Evil Queen does not compare to how much my brother admires himself in the mirror.

And Elio was named the young playboy too wild to tame. The media said that Elio had trouble swimming in his brown eyes and any woman would willingly commit a crime to have a chance at his heart. While yes, Elio did have trouble swimming in his eyes he also had world domination written underneath. Elio, unlike Luca, was blatant in his arrogance. He believed that the world was his for the taking and that if anyone stood in his way then they must want death.

Papa taught him that.

It was papa’s fault that Elio’s arrogance grew so magnificently big that he could hardly fit his head through any door he walked in.

And it was that same arrogance that led Elio to becoming a traitor.

“Hand over the newspaper, Giuseppe,” I demand softly, holding out my outstretched hand.

He sighs defeatedly and hands the newspaper over to me face down reluctantly.

Turning it over I finally see the front page.

My heart inside my chest starts beating at a hummingbird's pace.

Constantine Donati Enthralled By Mysterious Woman.

It seems as if The East Coast’s Infamous Constantine Donati has been captivated by a woman made of ice. But who is this Ice Queen? And why on Earth is she not melting under the scorching gaze of fire himself? We may just have the answer. The Ice Queen herself is none other than Carina Fiore, the daughter of business mogul Savio Fiore, and you heard that right, the younger sister to Luca Fiore. While her brothers Luca and the late Elio, who died senselessly to gun violence earlier this year, have always been in the spotlight, Carina has stayed shadowed in the background. But last night Carina took center stage with Constantine Donati as they shared a dance with each other. She looked less than thrilled. For the majority of the dance she didn’t even look in his eyes! By the time the dance was done Carina left without looking back but Constantine’s eyes had never left hers. It only begs the question, how could a woman made of ice capture the attention of the most charming man? Perhaps it’s a game of cat and mouse. Or maybe the age old saying of opposites attract is true. Whatever it is, it has Constantine in a trance. We can only hope that she doesn’t give him frostbite.

The gala in which Constantine Donati held last night raised over twenty million dollars for children’s cancer, a. . .

I stop reading the paper as my heart drops out of my chest and plummets to the pit of my stomach.

A heavy feeling sits in my throat causing me to feel highly nauseous.

I hand the newspaper back to Giuseppe with trembling fingers.

“La mia forte bellezza.” He sounds upset as he eyes me with concern. His emerald eyes that have flecks of gold look as if they want to reach out and pull me in a long embrace. “I wish I could protect you.”

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