Page 46 of The Virgin's Dance with the Devil
There was no hesitation. “I promise.”
And so Rico told her. Nose to nose, he told her everything, from Niccolo being entrapped into an unaffordable debt with his father and having to marry Siena as repayment, to Niccolo getting his mistress pregnant and the current battle to stop Niccolo learning about the pregnancy before he made his vows. Throughout it all, Marisa did nothing but listen. Her face, though, did a lot of talking, expressing shock, horror, disgust and upset, sometimes all at once.
Once he’d finished, she continued gazing at him, her troubled brown eyes narrowed with thought.
“Remember, you promised to still marry me,” he said, only half joking.
She didn’t smile. “I have questions.”
“I thought you would.”
“It’s more clarification than questions. Your father convinced Niccolo to go into business with him and engineered things so Niccolo was saddled with a nine-figure debt he couldn’t repay in the time frame demanded?”
“Yes.” One hundred and ninety-six million to be precise.
“In exchange for writing off the debt engineered by your father, your father offered him marriage to Siena.”
“Yes.”
“Was Siena given a choice in this?”
“Of course. She’s an Esposito. She knows where her loyalty lies.”
“What if Niccolo had refused?”
“Then interest would have been added to the debt.”
“Of the financial kind?”
“No.”
She closed her eyes, although whether at the answer itself or his bluntness, Rico didn’t know.
“And now Niccolo’s English girlfriend’s pregnant,and her twin sister is currently in Tuscany being hidden in Dante’s castle to stop her getting to Niccolo and telling him he’s going to be a father?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve got men keeping watch of the castle and all its exits in case she performs a miracle and escapes?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve also got men spying on the girlfriend in case she changes her mind and decides to tell Niccolo before the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the logic in that? Why would she fly to Naples if she can just call him or message him?”
“Niccolo’s phone unfortunately went missing during the suit fitting earlier.”
“You stole it?”
“Mattia did.”
“All this so you can marry a Martinelli into the Esposito family.”
“Yes.”
Brown eyes still locked on his, she took a deep breath. “What happens if the sister escapes or the girlfriend does decide to fly over?”
