The Borrowed Bride [PUBLISHED]

Chapter 19: The Countess

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

-Audrey Hepburn

Leila Fiorenza's POV

"I got the information you need, little one." Finally, after two weeks and two days of patiently waiting for the information, I need the phone call I've been waiting for finally arrived.

"Oh, really?" I asked with a slight smile on my face as I studied my appearance at the full-length mirror inside my room. My baby bump got more pronounced as the weeks passed. I could see the unexplainable glow in my eyes right at this moment.

"Yes," Marco Orsini answered on the other line. Ever since my brother-in-law said that he's the one who could help me with my quest in searching for Leandro's mother. I've been skeptical at first. I think he's not the type of man that could do such work but Nikos reassured me that beneath that sarcastic mouth of his. He's damn good with locating missing persons. He has a connection with the devil himself as my brother-in-law proclaimed.

I guessed that praise wasn't overrated. He finally had the information I need in two weeks in time. "Thank you for your help, Mr. Orsini."

"It's nothing." I could hear the laughter in his voice. "This is all I could do to my pitiful friend who is so sick with worry to his pregnant wife."

I raised my eyebrow at his statement. In the past two weeks that we're constantly talking to each other about the progress of his search, I think we became close acquaintances. "Based on your speech you aren't least concern about my brother-in-law's agony. You even sounded that you enjoy seeing him sick with worry about my twin sister's severe morning sickness."

I heard him barked a burst of laughter on the other line. He's a devil as he claimed to be. "You know me, little rebellious princess. I love seeing him in torment—the man who swore that he would never marry a woman—not in this lifetime, at least."

I snickered, walking near the window of my room, and stared outside. "That assertion came from a man who probably felt the same way if you haven't met your wife, correct? You and Nikos wouldn't be best buddies if you don't share the same view in marriage."

"I beg to disagree," Marco Orsini contradicted playfully. "My Nonna always believes that I have a long marriage line in my palm and it's only a matter of time before I wed that's why she's always shoving unmarried ladies under my nose in my bachelor's days."

I couldn't help but scoff at him. "Marriage line in your palm?" I repeated with a laugh.  "I thought that's just what the fortuneteller would tell you to get your attention."

"Oh believed me," He said dryly. "My grandmother would believe in anything if it means that I would walk down the aisle at the end." I heard someone spoke in the background and Signore Orsini answered. "Yes, I'll be there in a moment..." Then he spoke to me again. "...as much as I want to have chitchat to you, little one. My secretary told me it's time for a boring board meeting.  Do you have a pen and paper to write down the address of this woman you asked for me?"

"Oh, yes." I went to the bedside table near me and pulled the drawer to get a piece of paper and pen. "Okay, I'm ready." I wrote down the address Marco Orsini dictated on the paper. Once his dictation finished I look at the address making sure that I wrote it correctly. "Thank you for your help. It means a lot to me, Signore."

"You don't have to thank me, Your Excellency." He said with such a serious tone but I could still hear a hint of mockery in his voice. "Just take care of yourself there for the sake of your twin sister. She's so dear to me."