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“A payment arrangement is an IOU. A debt. I always collect. If you don’t want me to take the club, you shouldn’t have offered it to me.” He looked down at his phone. “Beautiful, how can a man afford to give something so enchanting away?” He stalled, staring at the picture.
I leaned over a little to see that it was Simone’s picture there. The building faded into the background and he didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off the screen.
“She’s not for sale,” I said defensively.
She deserved better than me and what I’d brought her into.
“The words were spoken by a man who just lost everything. A poor man doesn’t know the value of money the way a man with it does. Everything has a price, knowing the stakes would help with figuring out how much that is.” He placed the papers in front of me and looked down. “Sign them.”
The guard nearest me pulled a gun from his waist and held it toward the floor casually. His grip was ready to fire it if he needed to. I took the offered pen and signed all the places he indicated. I moved to push them back to him and he shook his head.
“You missed one.” He flipped it over and pointed to the blank line. “Here.”
I did and when they took it away, I knew Simone was going to give me hell. I’d just put her in business with someone that I didn’t know if they were trustworthy.
“Mr. DeLuca, your car is ready.” The guard said.
DeLuca? I’d heard that name. The Italian mafia family that ran most of the state of Florida.
“Nice doing business with you Marcus.” He stood up and when I moved to get up, one of his guards stepped forward.
“I need your ID.” The man said to me, with his gun still in hand.
I scoffed, offended that he hadn’t bothered to ask. I took it out and gave it to him. He took a picture of it and tossed it on the poker table.
“Don’t make this a problem.” He said as he walked away.
How could I when I was too busy scraping my pride off the floor? Suddenly my stomach lurched and I ran to the bathroom where I threw up my dignity. I had to warn Simone. It would be better if this all came from me instead of some sexy stranger. She had to know that this wasn’t my fault. I’d done everything… well, I’d tried to keep him away from the property. Made him an offer. If I could keep him away from the club for two weeks, I had a chance of her never finding out.
Wiping my mouth, I rinsed it before taking out my phone to call a few people I knew. I had to do something fast to get that building back before Simone found out. Thinking about that made Beniamino less scary. I didn’t need to know anything about him, but Simone was going to go batshit crazy if she ever did.
Not.
Happening.
ChapterOne
SIMONE
Today made out for a good day to have a spectacular day. I got up early to go to the bank to get a cashier’s check for the hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I needed to buy out Marcus. I’d own my club, La Notte Nera, without having to worry about what anybody else had to say.
Though Marcus was more of a silent partner, it gave him control that I didn’t like him having. Especially with everything that we’d been through pertaining to that man. We’d sworn vows in front of our family where we promised to love and protect, honor and obey, through sickness and health, until death do us part. Fuck that! No amount of love can make me forgive him for being bisexual with a male preference and not tell me what’s up. I would have considered having a husband and the two of us having a boyfriend. I could see the perks. However, that’s not how I found out that he was into men, forever squashing the possibilities of exploring anything more.
I had one steadfast rule that I expected my forever boo to stick with. One that wasn’t too difficult to live with. If they could honor and obey that through sickness and health until death ended that contract of love, we could rule the world. Don’t lie to me. That’s the only one. I see it this way–if we both can acknowledge that forever is a long time then we understand that mistakes will happen along the way. It’s not a hall pass to cheat, steal, or disrespect what we have. Instead, it’s a way of admitting that we’re human. The only way to forgive and make communication possible is to make space for people to come together even when it sucks. If he cheats, come to me like a man and own it. Maybe, I did play a part in the why’s of him having a lapse of judgment. Not all people will agree but it doesn’t change how I feel.
Now, with that explained, he had the opportunity to tell me before our wedding day, and after that, he needed male attention as much as I did. He failed for the entire five years of our involvement to bring me that information. Five times three hundred and sixty-five days plus a leap year. He’d lied to me day in and day out, and so therefore I couldn’t trust him. Riddle me paranoid, but if you can’t tell me the truth about that, I doubt that he could be honest about a lot of things. So giving him access to my business, no matter how big or small felt much too vulnerable of a position for me to be in.
No, thank you.
Holding this check in my hand was buying back my freedom. It would be the last straw in our divorce and grant me permission to tell him, respectfully, to fuck off. Being friends was impossible. Acting cordially was requesting too much of me. He’d disrespected me and violated our lives with his shenAmigans.
No more.
He was meeting me at the club today so that this version of us was over, too. My attorney was scheduled to arrive at the same time so that there wasn’t any delay in the change of ownership.
Now, I stood in the middle of the dance floor feeling the freedom coming from the walls, penetrating my soul. I’d put in enough work to make this shiny thing light up the sky. Free and clear, I’d banked that hundred and fifty thousand so that today could be possible.
Next came upgrades. I had so many plans that I’d set up phases to execute them. It was time. Twelve o’clock couldn’t get here fast enough. Knowing there was always something to do, I went upstairs to my office and worked on the paperwork for yesterday. This would keep me busy for three hours. Then, the magic would happen.
