The de Marco's Arranged Marriage

Chapter One

Chapter One

Matteo looked out of the window of the taxi and up at the hotel in front of him, his eyes disbelieving what he was seeing, "Are you sure this is the right place?" he asked the taxi driver as he stared in distaste at the building once more.

"Yes Sir—this is the Royal Garden Court. It used to be the best hotel to stay at near London many years ago. But doesn't seem like much now."

Thanking the taxi driver and paying him, Matteo brought his bag out with him and walked into the hotel—he could have imagined the place might have been a site to see many years ago, but as it was, he could tell that the Rogers had had a bit of a rough time lately.

Or not so much lately, but at least for a couple of years from the looks of it. Matteo wondered and not for the very first time just what in the hell had his grandfather gotten him into.

He had read up as much as he could on the Rogers, but nothing about the actual family had come up. Just what he already knew, the grandfather which had had only one child—a son, Michael Rogers, who had married Miriam Rogers and had one daughter.

Not much to go on, the only one with a real background had been David, it seemed that once upon a time he had been quite a ruthless business man, he had bought up hotels who had gone bankrupt and made millions out of restoring them back to their former glory. 

Matteo snorted, thinking of the poetic justice of it all. Now David's hotel was no doubt in the same league as those we he once took over.

He had further read that when the economy fell, and the world fell into crisis. David's business had greatly suffered.

The debts had probably piled up and of course, he had had to sell off the hotels to stay afloat—the only one which had not sold off was the Royal Garden Court, the first hotel which he had bought.

Matteo was sure that David had been hoping to keep the best one afloat to try and bide his time until the economy got better.

But sadly it seemed that that had not happened. Or at least not fast enough to have been of any help to him.

Matteo walked in the grand doors of the hotel, going to the young receptionist Matteo smiled pleasantly, "I have a booking."

The girl blushed under his gaze, "Matteo de Marco."

Matteo smiled once more flashing perfectly white pearly teeth and a pair of dimples to make his already arresting good looks more attractive. As he waited for the young woman to find him on the out of date computer system.

"We have the best room prepared for you Sir," Matteo almost laughed at that as he took in the reception area.

There were people cleaning and dusting off the place, but all that he could see was the thread bare carpets that should have been tossed out years ago, the poor work that had been done when the hotel had been repainted.

The only good thing he had seen so far, was that the place was spotless, but none of that could hide the shabbiness of the hotel.

Nor the fact that it needed a large investment of money soon or it would soon have to close its doors. More to the point was the fact that he didn't see many people around, he couldn't begin to imagine why the place didn't have more people.

It was in London after all, though albeit at the outskirts of the city—he supposed back in the day, people had favoured it because of the quietness it offered, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Just than a bell boy, took his bag and escorted him to the elevators, after he'd been given the magnetic card to his room.

Riding in silence Matteo wondered where he would be able to find David Rogers, he had tried to telephone that he would be coming in, but had heard nothing from the man, Matteo had gone as far as to email but no reply had come forth.