Page 125 of 7+Us Makes Nine

There was definitely a threatening tone to his voice now, and I doubt he was offering to just ‘talk’ to Giovanni. And as much as I wanted to give him my permission to handle Giovanni, a part of me felt that he wasn’t worth it. Gio had hurt me far too badly, and no amount of revenge would make it for it, regardless of how tempting it seemed.

I shook my head. “No, Daddy. That won’t be necessary. The only thing I want is for the wedding to be called off.”

I heard him let out a sigh, and he began pacing the room.

My father had always been a tough man, but it was very seldom that he got angry in front of me. He was angry now though…

I felt mildly panicked. Although I knew there was no way that I could go through with marrying a man like Giovanni, I also hated the thought of letting my parents down. I didn’t know all the details, but I knew there was a reason beyond the obvious for me to have gotten matched with Giovanni. Apparently, our families needed each other for one reason or other. I wasn’t stupid. I knew the line of work my family was involved in, and I knew that it had somehow likely played a role in the arranged marriage. Yet, I also knew that regardless, it simply wasn’t worth my happiness or me giving up my own peace of mind.

“Daddy, I know this arrangement meant something important to you, but you have to understand, I just can’t go through with it. Not after what I saw last night. After seeing what kind of man Giovanni is, I can’t see myself being happy with him anymore.”

Daddy sighed. “And you know that you and your happiness are and always will be one of the most important things in the world to me. You’re my baby girl, and all I’ll ever want is for you to be happy. I can’t make you go through with something you aren’t comfortable with because if you aren’t satisfied, then neither am I.”

I stood. “So, does that mean you’ll do it? You’ll call the wedding off?”

“I have no choice but to, darling.”

My bottom lip trembling, I threw myself into my father’s arms. “Thank you so much, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome. Anything for my princess. I’ll call the Romanos and let them know that the whole deal is off.”

“I’m sorry if I’m messing everything up.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. You haven’t messed anything up. He did. And trust me, that’s his loss, and he’ll pay dearly for it. Not to mention, he’ll have his own family to answer to.”

CHAPTER 18

Giovanni

“Hello?” Mrs. Marino’s voice answered on the third ring.

“Hi, Mrs. Marino. This is Giovanni. How are you today?”

“I'm all right, Giovanni. How are you?”

“I’m pretty good. Is Arianna home?”

“She is, but I think she’s still sleeping. Have you tried calling her cell?”

“I have,” I said. “But it keeps going straight to voicemail.”

“I see,” said Mrs. Marino. “Well, as soon as I see her, I’ll tell her to give you a call.”

“Thank you so much,” I said.

I felt somewhat better knowing that Arianna had made it home safely, but something still just didn’t seem right. With it being nearly noon already, I couldn’t fathom why she wouldn’t have her cell phone turned on by now. And considering that she’d left the nightclub fairly early, it wasn’t like she’d had a particularly long night—unless she hadn’t gone straight home. While it had crossed my mind to ask Mrs. Marino if she knew what time Arianna had made it home, I refrained from doing so, figuring that such an action would sound a bit alarming, not to mention stalker-like.

Regardless, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. I didn’t want to be too paranoid about it, but a part of me felt that she was back to avoiding my calls for some reason. It was like we had gone all the way back to square one and I was finding out the hard way.

Figuring there was no need for me to sit in my apartment stressing, I got up, showered, got dressed, and headed to my father’s office. I typically didn’t volunteer myself for extra work with my old man, but right about now, I desperately needed a distraction, and I was pretty sure he could give me enough busy work to provide that.

The instant I entered the building, I was met with the typical glances and waves, yet something still seemed off. People seemed a little more unwilling to meet my eyes.

I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone these days, I thought.

As I neared my father’s office, I heard his voice drifting through the door. I recognized his business-voice and suspected he was on a serious phone call. I paused outside his office for a moment, listening and wondering if it turned out that I wasn’t going to have to look for busy work after all.

“A sanitation problem, eh?” he said. “Yes, of course, it needs to be overseen. We’ll figure it out, I guarantee you that. It’s what we do after all.” There was a brief pause in the conversation before he continued. “Sounds like this is a bigger problem than normal.”

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