The Don's Daughter: Love & Betrayal

Forty

De Luca

     The past few weeks have been hectic. Trying to recover from the attack and keeping my business on top hasn't been easy. I had to use a bit of money from my personal account to compensate for the merchandise Mari took from me. Alone, it wouldn't have mattered but put together with the money Fausto stole from me, things weren't looking too good. Luckily I had Nev by my side and even though he's been mad at me for dating his kidnapper, he helped me with everything I needed.

The only reason I'm here was because I knew he would take care of things while I was away. I might have let Tommaso convince me to come to the Maldives. In my defense, he begged me day and night and I couldn't refuse him. I've been on a few dates with Mari but since she left my house, she hasn't gone back. She was scared the guys wouldn't welcome her like they did the first time because of what her father did. Well, adoptive father. I still haven't gotten used to calling her Carina.

It took me some time to accept that she wasn't Marianna and that she'd tried to kill the real one. I've killed people before, in my line of work it was unavoidable. But her? I didn't think she was capable of that. It's really hypocritical for me to think like that especially when we've grown up in the same environment but I can't help it. I don't know, I guess I thought she would be a little darker than I am.

"Padrino, can we go now? I'm ready" Tommaso says coming out of the bathroom. He's wearing a blue short, white T-shirt and slippers. Mari doesn't know it yet, but I pulled a lot of strings to book the room next to hers. We just arrived to see them heading to the beach and I had to drag Tommaso here to change first before following them. Truthfully, I missed her too. I don't see her enough and I'm starting to consider her idea of moving in together.

"Excited much?"

"I just want to see Zia. She promised she would show me how to throw knives" yeah, that's the only reason he wants to see her.

"Let's go then. Hopefully Mari still remembers her promise"

"It doesn't matter. I won't leave until she teaches me how to do it. Just wait and see"

We leave for the beach. It's private so only guests have access to it but there aren't many people. Tommaso spots them immediately and takes off to where they've set up two umbrellas. As I walk towards them, I watch as some guy tries to put a folded towel under her head. She slaps his hands away and he stops only to offer her a bottle of water. I wonder what he's doing. First of all, who is he? And why is he fussing over her? Is he making a move on her?

"Zia Mari, surprise!" Tommaso yells throwing his hands in the air. For a split second I think he's going to jump on her but then he slows down when he's two feet away and kneels beside her. If he had jumped on her, I would have knocked his teeth out. He's not a child anymore. Mari on the other hand looks surprised alright. She sits up asking

"How did you get here?" I guess she hasn't seen me yet.

"I came with Padrino" he points back at me. They all look up. Aside from Paulo who sporting a scowl, the rest stare at me with their mouths open. Stopping behind Tommaso, I say

"Hi"

"Okay girlfriend. I see why a threesome with us is out of the question" the guy who was fussing over her earlier says. I have no idea what he's talking about, but the urge to kill him is growing by the second.

"Chris" Mari whispers, blinking up at me. I understand that she's surprised to see me here but that should have worn off already. I was expecting a warm welcome. Something along the lines of her jumping on me and wrapping her legs around my waist while she showered me with kisses. Not looking at me as if I'm an apparition.