What She Doesn't Know

Chapter 3

"You never interrupt me like that ever again!" The door slammed inharmoniously behind him as he stormed into the room.

Isabella rolled her eyes. "So you expect me to starve at night?" She pulled back the covers and put one leg after another onto the bed.

He removed his tie and unbuttoned his shirt, removing it from his body. Isabella stared shamelessly as his back muscles flexed as he bent over to untie and remove his shoes. His black pants were removed next. He turned around to see his wife paused in the midst of pulling the sheets up over her chest.

"I expect you to listen to me. How hard is it to follow a simple command?"

She pulled the covers over her chest, silently ending their conversation. He had no right to speak to her in such a manner that proposed her as the bad guy. The cause of her treading down the steps was not only the slight pangs of hunger but the curiousness that burned in the back of her mind.

For as long as she could remember, Leonardo has always carried around a quiescent side to him which she was ready to uncover. She was more than tired of his lies and diplomacy that he had encroached upon her.

The longing she felt to be able to speak freely to her husband knawed at her; she could not will herself to do so. The feeling of always stepping on eggshells overshadowed her ability to love her husband as any wife should.

"And now you won't speak to me? How mature."

A sigh left her mouth as she turned on to her side. Her eyelids were drooping down and her mind was becoming muddled from the shift she had. Her thoughts disengaged from Leonardo who hovered over the bed and shifted over to the next day she had work and the people she still had to look over as if they were children and not nursing the actual babies.

The bed dipped under his weight as he gracefully got into bed. He pulled the covers over his bare torso and took a moment to look over his wife's figure as she laid on her side on the bed. Her blonde hair was strewn atop of the pillow and her blue eyes as had fallen shut.

She felt a warmth crawl from underneath the covers as it placed itself on her waist. Not in the mood for another argument, she allowed his hand to remain in its place, just as long as he didn't have any other intentions.

++

Leonardo sat at his desk and waited for Rafael to come in through the door to deliver him his regular coffee and information in regards to the shipment. His eyes never wavered from the screen he was watching. The security cameras he had put up were set in place so as to keep track of his house.

There were four images set up and they rotated every ten seconds to magnify the bigger picture. One of the screens managed to switch to his wife getting into the shower just as Rafael entered into the room with coffee in one hand and manila folder in the other. A groan reverberated from the depths of Leonardo's throat.

"I went through the files Jonas sent. Everything looks to be in place." Rafael set both the coffee and folder down on top of his boss' desk.

Leonardo took a swig of coffee and opened up the folder to see black ink scribbled on the page. Some of the fonts were too small for the average man to take notice of, and there was information that was hidden within the lines someone could have easily missed.

Taking a closer look, Leonardo took one of his black pens and wrote something in the margin of the paper. It was short and to the point, something that made him a good businessman.

Content with the file, he handed it back to Rafael, instructing him to go ahead and sign for the agreement.

Rafael stood in his place as he inspected his boss. He could feel the unruly tension stirring around him like a cloud over his head. "Is something wrong?"

Leonardo looked into the eyes of Rafael and with clear diction, he stated that everything was fine. There was currently nothing to be concerned about. In the next couple of weeks, Leonardo thought to himself, something amiss will take place, however, he thought it best to keep the tidbit of information to himself.

With a final weary glance at his boss, Rafael removed himself from the room and headed back to where Jonas so impatiently on the couch in the waiting room. His knee bobbed up and down and when he finally saw Rafael, he jumped up and excitedly questioned if Leonardo signed it.

"Yes, come with me and I can formally sign the agreement." Rafael took the over-excited man into a separate office to conclude their meeting.

Jonas had heard through the grapevine that Mr. Moretti had a reputation for changing agreements. He wanted to make sure he was not going to make a fool of himself unlike all of the others who had come before him with contracts that had failed miserably with the inscription of Moretti's black ink.

As he held the file up, he saw the black ink that never failed to be inscribed on a contract. Seeing this, Jonas' eyes bulged. He threw the file down on the wooden table and exclaimed that this was meant to be non-negotiable. His plump, pale skin ripened like a tomato. "Moretti cannot do this!"

Knowing fully well what he was about to encounter, Rafael spoke calmly to the tomato of a man. "Mr. Jonas, you never wrote in your contract that he cannot mark it and change it to what he deems necessary."

"What he deems necessary!" Jonas scoffed at such a ludicrous statement. "I have you know that what he changed is extremely unethical!"

Rafael lifted up an eyebrow. His hands remained perfectly clasped in front of his waist. His posture remained calm, yet the cool domineer could change into one of ferocity if the situation called for it. "I do believe you need Mr. Moretti's help if you want your business to stay around."

A meaty finger was jabbed rudely in Rafael's face to which he did not respond to. "Listen here, I am not going to engage with a criminal any longer. I-I could call the police for harassment."

A snort escaped Rafael. "Please, go ahead and call them. Mr. Moretti may be a criminal, but he has his own little spies within the ranks."

Jonas' jaw dropped. How could Moretti have risen up through the ranks in the mere span of ten years? Perhaps what Rafael was informing him was just a scam so that the contract would be signed and he would have his way.

On the other hand, he has known many men who have attempted to run with their money and never be heard from or seen of ever again.

Gulping through his uncertainty, he looked over at the black ink written in the margin. He did have a family to take care of and a business to uphold. If getting involved with a man like Moretti would solve all of his problems, he would do just about anything, even if that anything entailed his youngest son being sent to Moretti if he could not repay.

With a shaking hand, he pulled out his own black pen from his pocket inside of his suit. With a scribble and a dot, Jonas signed his son's life away.