Page 15 of Checkmate
Just as I’m about to reach the door my father speaks in an eerily calm voice. “You walk out that door, Vivianna, and you will no longer be my daughter. No child of mine will tarnish the Giordano family name in such a way.”
My heart stumbles in my chest because that is not an empty threat when it comes to my father. If he threatens to disown you, he means it. I swallow past the lump in my throat and shrug. “Guess it’s a good thing I don’t give a damn then.” I pull the door open and stomp out, letting the heavy door slam behind me.
****
I know why I’m being escorted to my father’s office right now. Matteo. That dumbass of a boy has no idea how many lines he’s crossing right now. I can’t stand him, and he knows it. He can’t truly have me and it pisses him off. Our families have an agreement, one that I will never agree to, that Matteo and I will marry after we graduate high school. Yeah right, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I marry his ass.
Once upon a time, I had loved him, or at least I thought I had. Then the truth came out. He was with me based on an obligation to his family. He didn’t choose me, which explains all his extracurricular activities, well, sexcapades to be exact. Yep, he flirts in front of me all the time and drops his pants quicker than a man on fire for any woman with two legs. I’ll never marry him, and to prove my point I went out and pulled a “Matteo” as I like to call it, I cheated on him. The difference between us is that I cheated on him repeatedly with the same guy, Foster.
It’s different with Foster. I love him and I know now how foolish I was to ever allow myself to believe that I loved Matteo. Foster is everything that he could never be, and he treats me like a princess. He chooses me, not his family. The problem is, his family is part of the law enforcement, so my father will never allow it, not that I care. The other problem is that as long as I’m promised to Matteo, I’ll never have my own life.
Foster and I got caught earlier tonight and now our fates are now sealed. I can’t ignore that gnawing in the pit of my stomach. My entire body is tied up with nerves. I don’t know where Foster is. My father’s goonies took him when they caught us in the backseat of the car behind the casino. “Wait here,” Luz says to me over his shoulder. He knocks on my father’s office door and I hear him tell them to enter. I’m left in the silent hallway with just my thoughts and the pounding of my heart. Finally, the door opens and the men file out. I remain in the hallway until my father tells me to enter. I haven’t stepped foot inside this office in four years since I was carted in here for fighting at school.
My father beckons me and I take a deep breath, trying to find my courage that’s buried deep within my soul at the moment. Ha! It’s hiding. I walk into the office and my father glares at me. “Sit, Vivianna.” He motions toward the couch. It’s funny how you can actually hate something like a piece of furniture. I hate this couch. I take a seat and my father rounds his desk before making his way in front of me. “I don’t know what you think you are doing, Vivianna. But it stops now.” I laugh. “Why would you find this funny?”
I shrug. “Because you think you can actually control how someone feels. You may own this town and just about everyone in it, but you can’t own their feelings.”
“Vivianna,” my father says, his tone warning. I roll my eyes. “You are spoken for. You are marrying Matteo in a year.”
“I am not! I will not marry him. He’s horrible and I love Foster!”
“You don’t know the first thing about love,” he tells me.
I scoff. “Maybe you’re right, but then that makes this whole situation worse. Because if I don’t know anything about love right now then I never will, because I’m being forced into a relationship for your own selfish, power-hungry ways. You’re taking my life away from me. You’re taking my choices from me. You’re taking my chance at love and happiness away!”
“Love does not make the world go round, Vivianna.”
I stand up, unable to remain sitting. “Well, news flash, neither does power!” I yell the sentence out, and before I can even register what is happening my father’s hand strikes me across my cheek. My head whips to the side, my hair flying, and my skin instantly burning from the contact. My eye socket pounds from the strength of the hit. I look back up and meet his cold, hard eyes.
“No daughter of mine will raise her voice at me,” he tells me, his voice as cold as his eyes.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m not your daughter anymore, right? You disowned me, remember? Therefore, I consider the agreement you made with the Gigante family for me to marry Matteo null and void,” I tell him, as I cross my arms over my chest.
“The only way that agreement is null and void is over your dead body.”
His words slice at my heart. They shouldn’t, but they do. I should know to expect the least from him, yet I still hold out hope he’ll be the father I used to dream of. I scan the room and out of the corner of my eye I see the handgun laying on his desk. I walk over and collect it. Once I’m standing in front of my father again, I hold out the gun to him. “Then I guess a dead body is what it’ll be because I’ll never marry him.”
Without a moment of hesitation, my father snatches the gun from my hand and presses it against my forehead. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. Maybe, even a part of me had hoped that he was bluffing, but I should have known better. Sweat beads on my forehead while waiting for this fate. However, the fate of death is better than being married to Matteo for life. I’m waiting for him to pull the trigger when I hear, “What the fuck, Dad?” come from the doorway. Leo. I don’t open my eyes because if I see him, I’ll cry. I feel his hands on my arms as he yanks me back. My eyes fly open and see him standing between our father and myself. My father looks bewildered. That’s a new look for him. “Are you seriously going to kill her? She’s your daughter!”
“She has no sense of family loyalty, Leonardo!”
My brother shakes his head, and an unknown fear works its way through my body. I was fine dying, but if he kills Leo in order to get to me, I’ll go crazy. I just know it. “She has loyalty… to the ones that show the same to her.”
My father glares at my brother before finally sighing and lowering the gun that was pointed at Leo. “Get out of my office.” Leo reaches behind him and grabs my hand while pushing me toward the door.
I return to the present and see Luca looking at me with worried eyes. How long was I zoned out for? If I had known that being back in this room would bring back so much, I wouldn’t have picked the damn lock.
Seventeen
Luca
Stepping into this office puts me on edge. I’ve never been in here aside from when I’ve been asked to come in. It’s a well-known rule that Gio’s office is off limits unless told otherwise. The fact that the door was locked and Vivianna just picked it only makes it worse. As I come up beside her, my hands stuffed full of expensive little sandwiches that sheshovedthere, I notice the faraway look in her eyes. I’m not sure where she is, but mentally she’s definitely not in her father’s office. I stand there just staring at her, waiting for her to return. When she finally does, she meets my eyes, and the range of emotions are impossible to decipher in those gray pools of depth.
She steps forward and wraps her hands around the back of my neck and pulls my mouth down to meet hers. I don’t have time to protest, not that I would anyways. You’d have to be crazy to try and deny this woman anything she wants. My hands ache to wrap around her body, but they are still currently holding onto the sandwiches she shoved at me. I’d drop this food right now if it was up to me, but I don’t know what Vivianna is wanting me to do with it.
Suddenly, her hands slap mine down, sending the sandwiches scattering to the floor. She steps into me, pulling me closer. My arms wrap around her waist, molding her to my body. Our kiss deepens as her tongue slips past my lips. One of my hands slowly makes its way up her spine, before burying into her thick chestnut locks. Her nails scratch at the back of my neck causing chills to race over my body, despite the heat rising within my blood.
Vivianna’s hands come around my neck and roam over my chest until they fist into my suit jacket. She pulls me forward as she leads us toward the couch. My head is screaming that this is thebiggest mistakeI’ve ever made, but the rest of my body is telling me to ignore my logic. At the moment, my body is winning this tug-of-war. Vivianna pulls away, just far enough that I can see that smirk on her lips and the glint of mischief in her eyes. She places her hands flat against my chest and pushes me back until I’m seated on the couch. I watch, fascinated, as she pulls the hem of her dress up and crawls onto my lap.