The world thinks she's dead, purely so she could become her fathers ultimate & deadliest weapon.
Armed with a new alias & a fearless attitude Gabriella Valentino goes undercover in enemy quarters to avenge her mothers death once and for all.
She's...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y F O U R
Red had become my trademark so when picking a gown for this evening, it was a no brainer - it needed to be red. I ran my palm down the silk and sighed. Truth be told, I hated these events.
Individually we went through full body scanners and bag checks to make sure we weren't smuggling in weapons.
I grabbed a champagne flute from a server the second we walked through the door.
"Willa, lay off the alcohol today. Yes?" Antonio glared at me with fury.
"No." I replied, chugging it back and stopping another server to swap my empty glass for a full one.
"Willa, Antonio." Simultaneously, we froze before slowly turning around to face the familiar voice.
"Father?" Antonio asked. "What? How?"
He didn't have a scratch on him, not a hair out of place. His dark eyes set on me and his mouth quirked up in the slightest smile.
"He let me go." I swallowed down champagne too abruptly I almost choked.
"He let you go?" I questioned, finding the whole notion suspicious. "He wouldn't just let you go."
"I'm here, no?" Antonio and I exchanged a wary look. "Quit being so suspicious, I will take it from here." He walked away, heading in the direction of Nikolai, they shook hands and started a conversation immediately.
"Hey!" I flagged down a server. She had a tray of something. I turned my nose up at it. Posh people food was so tiny. "What's the canapé?"
"These are cheese and cranberry tartlets, the chef used goats cheese for a little salty flavour which compliments the sweetness of the-"
I held my hand up to stop her and took one from the tray, eating it in one bite.
"That's actually really good, you can leave the tray." She looked a little dumbfounded but handed me over the silver platter.
"Honestly Willa, you're an embarrassment." My brother chastised. "If you're going to eat a whole tray of canapés at least do it in private, the dressing room is over there."
"Mr Antonio Valentino." A large man approached us. I rolled my eyes, not wanting to listen to mafia talk. Instead I took my brothers advice and disappeared inside the dressing room.
My feet halted on the carpet, Ace was standing in front of the mirror fixing his bow tie. He wore a full tuxedo and it was honestly a better view than the Grand Canyon. Yet, I tried to turn back and leave without being noticed because I didn't want to thank him for freeing my father.
