AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It has me worrying all overagain.
* * *
A feast for God himself awaits on the dinner table in the dining room.
Lucia, our head maid, is just doing the finishing touches to the table, and Marcus, Dad’s head of security, stands by the table talking with him in a hushed tone.The conversation dies when they see me, and Dad smiles as he looks at my dress.
Marcus excuses himself, as does Lucia, leaving me with my father.
“Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.” Dad nods.“No one can rival my daughter’s beauty.”
“Thank you, Dad.”
“Sit next to me,” he says, pointing to the chair beside his at the head.
I do as he asks and glance at the clock before I lower to sit.
It’s five to eight. Whoever is coming to dinner will be here soon.
Dad brings his hands together and suddenly looks older than his sixty years when he glances at the clock too.I’ve always marveled at how much younger he seemed because he’s one of those old tough guys.Tonight there’s a shift in his usual overconfident persona that I’m not used to.
He was nearly thirty years older than my mother.Cordelia told me people thought Mom was a gold-digger, but anyone who knew my parents could rule that out completely just from looking at them.
She’s been gone for six years now, but I still remember the way they were.
He hasn’t remarried, and while I know there have been many women eager to be on his arm as much as they’d love to get their hands on his fortune,there hasn’t been another woman that I’ve been aware of.
“I want you to be on your best behavior, Evie,” he states, holding my gaze.“We will talk after dinner.”
“Dad, you do realize this is very vague, right?We could have talked today.”
“Evie, I’m a busy man, and I don’t have time for this shit.I’ve known you long enough to know what to expect when you’re up against something you might not like.”
I quirk a brow. “So this is something I’m not going to like?”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“I think we both do, or you wouldn’t be so secretive.” I knew something was up.God, I wish I could be wrong just once.“Today’s my birthday, Dad.”
“Time waits for no man, Bellezza.It’s not going to wait for me, and it’s not going to wait for you.That’s why we strike when the iron is hot.”
My lips part to answer him but the doorbell rings, and the words fade from my mind.
I’m about to find out what’s happening and who I’m going to see.
Moments later, my question is answered when Lucia ushers in Peter Marino, a man who makes my skin crawl and my soul quiver.
That smile he gives us might be well versed in charming many women out of their panties, but it won’t work on me.
He is one of my father’s business associates that I have the misfortune of knowing for the simple reason that our families were close.My father kind of took this devil under his wing when his parents died.
Peter was ten when he came to live with us. Dad then groomed him to be who he is today.
At twenty-eight years old, Peter is my father’s assistant and the vice president of Omicron, the international private bank my father owns.
Put simply, in the absence of my father, Peter’s in charge, and that makes him a powerful man.
One I don’t think I could dislike any more than I do.
