Chapter 9

Anastasia’s pov:

The morning after our arrival, I wake up at 10 pm, Normally, I rarely wake up this late, Since we arrived late last night, I needed the extra hours of sleep,

I get out of the bed, My wedding dress is still laying on the floor where I left it, It took me forty five minutes last night to get out of it, It had millions of buttons on the back that are supposed to be opened by the groom which was not the case, As soon as we got here, Dante showed me my room and he was gone to god knows where, Of course, I preferred suffering alone for almost a hour over asking for his help,

I take the dress from the floor and I hang it on the walk-in closet, I am going to think later about what I am going to do with it,

I find by my door the boxes that I delivered from Spain to here, I open the one that contains my skin products and I head to my bathroom to do my morning skin care, Then, I put on the first thing that I find on the box containing my clothes: yoga pants and a white crop top,

I wonder what I am going to do for the rest of the day, Usually I work out on the gym or go for a run then I start working, Spoiler alert: There no business for me to deal with here because Mr my husband won’t allow it, Even if he does, I won’t accept to offer him my services, I Will never I break the oath I made to our mafia, I will always remain faithful to them,

I get out of my room and I descend the stairs, Yesterday, as I was so tired, I didn’t notice how big this place actually is, At Spain, we had a small mansion as we were not a crowded family, At first, It was me, papa and mama, Ever since her death, it was just me and papa, So, we didn’t need a lot of space, How does Dante lives in this huge place by on his own?, Maybe he had company before I came here, Maybe he had a girlfriend, As if I care, It is utterly none of my business,

That’s when I smell something good, Really good actually, I am so hungry, I didn’t eat anything since last night, And, I happen to have a weak spot for food, I can’t function properly without a full stomach,

I hear shouts that make forget how hungry I am, It seems that there are persons fighting somewhere in the house, I track the voices and it leads me to what seems to be the kitchen, As I step in, I see the source of all the yelling I have been hearing for minutes now, A woman maybe at her end fifties and a man, who seems to be the chef as he is wearing a white hat over his head, are arguing, Worse than arguing, it seems as if they are going to get on each other’s throats any minute, Another woman, much younger than the first one, is standing behind them, She is giggling while watching them, They were so busy yelling at each other that none of them notices me, To make my presence noticed I clear my throat: “ehm”, Both, the woman and the men, stop arguing, All three heads turn in my direction, Everyone in the room stares at me with eyes wide open,

The older woman walks past the chef and approaches me with a large smile on her face,

“Mi preciosa , you are Anastasia right?”, I nod at her words, Without previous alert and out of blue, she brings me to her and she hugs me so tightly, I swear for a minute I couldn’t breathe,

When I get out of her hold, She raises her head to look at the sky and she say something in which sounds like Italian:” grazie a Dio ho visto questo giorno.”, (thank god I saw this day), Then, she looks at me again, One of her hands cups my cheek and the other gently caresses my wavy hair,

” molta bellicima.”, (Very beautiful.), She seems to have a conversation with herself,

“Pardon, but who are you?”, I ask confused,

“Sorry darling I didn’t introduce myself, Not every day we see such a beauty in this mansion, I am greta the housekeeper.”, She says,

“Nice to meet you Greta or should I say Mrs Greta?, Is it okay that I call you by your first name?”,

“Say whatever suits you, dear, That’s what Dante calls me anyways.”,

She seems so friendly, I think I already like her,

“Are you Italian?, I think I heard you say something in Italian?”,

“Yeah, I am, I have been serving the famiglia since 40 years now, I am the one who helped grow up Dante, If you want to hear about childhood you are in the right place.”,

I want to scream No,

“No thanks.”, I say with a nervous smile, Not to upset her because she seemed so excited I add: “Maybe another day.”, Actually, Never In eternity,

I wonder how she could handle Dante all these years?, Because I can’t stand him for more than five minutes,

“I am Spanish by the way, I am the daughter of the capo of the Spanish mafia.”,

“And now you are married to a Don, How wonderful.”, She says are she brings both her hands to her chest,

Is she obsessed with Dante or this is what It seems to me?, Because she mentions him at every sentence,

“Greta maybe one day you can teach me some Italian, I always wanted to but never had the chance nor found the time, I am always so busy.”,

“Why don’t you ask Dante?”, Here we go with Dante again, I swear that this woman is his number one fan,

“He is great at Italian you know.”,

“I will see.”, Of course I won’t do suck a thing, But, I don’t want to break her heart, She is so lovely,

“Dio mio, We engaged in the conversation and I totally forgot to introduce you to the rest of us.”,

“This is Amelia, our maid.”,

“Amelia this is Dante’s wife, Anastasia.”,

Amelia offers me a shy smile, “It is so nice to meet you Mrs Russo.”, She say in a polite tone,

“Please don’t call me Mrs Russo or I won’t recognise myself.”,

Shit, What the hell did I just say?,They all offer me questioning looks, We should pretend that this is a real marriage in front of everyone,

I save my ass from this situation and I say:”It is just that I am still not familiar with my new name, Plus I am not fan of formalities, You can call me Mrs Anastasia or simply Anastasia as you like.”,

“Okay Mrs Anastasia.”,

Greta turns to the chef who she has been arguing with minutes ago and glares at him, “And, this is our chef.”,

He extends his hand towards me and says in French:”Bonjour mme, je suis Matieu, je suis très ravi de faire votre connaissance.”, (Good morning Mrs, I am matieu, Nice to meet you, French),

The good thing is that I am fluent at French, I shake his hand, “Enchantée Matieu, Je crois que vous êtes un bon chef, Ça sent très bon.”, (Nice to meet you too Matieu, I think you are a good chef, It smells so good, French,),

“Merci, Vous voulez que je vous serve un plat?”, (Thank you, do you want me to serve you a plate?),

“Ouiii.”, I reply,

I sit by the table, Matieu gets a plate and places in front of me,

“C’est quoi exactement?”, I question, (What is this exactly?, French),

“Une omelette, Une spatialité française.”, (A French specialty, French),

I put a piece in my mouth, OMG, It is so fucking good, This is one of the breakfasts I have ever tried,

“C’est très délicieux!”, I exclaim, (This is so good, French),

Greta is standing, by the counter, arms crossed, She doesn’t seem to like what is going on,

“I bet that the italian Frittatta is much better than this French thing, You will like it more, I will prepare it for you right this second.”, She says irritated,

Oww, Seems that Matieu has some competition here,

Few minutes later, after I finished a the omelette, Greta places in front of me a plate, “Come on eat it dear and tell me what do you think.”,

I take a spoon and put it in my mouth, Was it delicious?, Absu-fucking-lutely, I think I am going to be spoiled here with food,

Greta and Matieu are standing next to each other, Matieu says:” Qui a preparé le meilleur déjeuner?”, Shit,

“What did he say?”, Greta asks, clearly not understanding a single word of frensh,

“He said whose breakfast is better?”, I translate for her, I look between the two of them, They are waiting for my response, Both of them look like they are going to kill me if I don’t choose them,

I haven’t been scared the slightest when a man put a gun on my face, but here I am stuck in a situation where I am scared of being killed by my housekeeper and by my chef,

That’s when my phone vibrates on the table, Thank god,

I got a message, I unlock the phone to see who it is from,

Unkown: Be ready in one hour we have a press conference,

Of course this is Dante, Who else would send such a message and speak to me with such command,

So I message back, ‘Hai Hai Captain.’,

I look from the screen of my phone to Greta and Matieu, They didn’t move an inch, They are still standing in their places waiting for my response,

“I have to leave now, I will think about it and I will tell you later.”, I raise from my chair and I rush out of the kitchen,

I go back to my room, I retrive a short black dress from my one of boxes, I search for the box that contains my shoes but I can’t find it, Not wanting to loose more time, I put on the heels that I wore last night at the wedding, Then, I straighten my hair and I put on light makeup and of course I don’t forget my signature bold red lipstick, Today, I need to be in my best looks,

I get my engagement ring from the nightstand where I put it last night before sleeping and I slide it on my finger, I get my purse and I exit the room,

Dante is already waiting for me in his car by the front door, He is the one driving us today since he is seated behind the wheel, As soon as I get inside the black Lamborghini, the engine roars to life and we leave,

Neither of us says anything until Dante decides to speak:”Do you know what you have to do out there?”, He questions not bothering to look at me,

“I am going to pretend that I am madly, insanely and out of my mind in love with you.”, I say sarcastically,

“I need this to pass as perfectly as possible, Try not ruin it.”, He says in a firm tone still not getting his eyes the road,

“Calm the hell down I am not going to ruin anything.”, I say annoyed, I hate how easily he gets on my nerves,

“Good.”, He says that’s all, A simple good that drives to all levels of madness for an unknown reason, Then, we go back to our silence again and to ignoring each other’s presence,

We arrive to what seems to be a venue, Dante parks the car at the entry of the building and he gives the keys to the valet, Another valet, opens the door for me and helps me out of the car, Dante comes to my side and he offers me arms and I slide mine around it,

As We make our way inside, he brings his lips to my hear, I can feel the heat of his breath rush through my body as he says:” Just keep in mind that none of what I am going to say or do is real.”, I turn to him, “Trust me I have never in my life waited for prince charming to come, Plus, you look nothing like a one, You are not a gentleman remember?, Your words not mine.”, I say satisfaction filling me,

On the inside hall are seated at least sixty people, Some are photographers others are reporters that are dying to know what we are going to announce, At end of the room there is a table with two empty chairs is waiting for us, Dante pulls out my chair for me, This is just for the show, I mutter to myself, He takes a seat right next to me, He looks down at me and I give him a nod,

He says:” Welcome everybody, I want to thank you all for accepting our invitation and for coming,

Everyone in the room goes silent, “Today, we have a big announcement to make.”,

Every person on the room is staring at us, their microphones and their cameras pointed at us, They are all waiting for what Dante is going to say next,

“Yesterday, was the happiest day in my life.”, He takes my hand is his, His touch send a shiver in all my body, He places a kiss on the back of my hand, Then, he continues his sentence:”Because I married the woman of my life, the woman who made me fall madly in love with her and the woman I want to build a family with, Anastasia Russo.”, I hear gasps from our audience,

I don’t recognise this Dante, He is far from the Dante I know I hate, who is able to boil my blood so easily and irritate me whenever I am around him, This is all a show, He is not meaning any word of it, He is just playing his role so well, So damn well,

Actually, I am a good liar and I can manipulate people so easily, It is a trait I developed thought years of being part of our dirty mafia work, If Dante wants a show, he will have one,

“I am sure that we will have a happy life together Honey.”, I say looking straight in his eyes, Then, I lean on and I place a kiss on his cheek, Let them take good photos after all, By tomorrow, our faces will be on the first page of each newspaper and will be shared online,

One would ask why we care so much about our public appearance?, In the sixties, the mafias used to have a lot of power we conctrolled everything in our countries, But, today we have a lot of problems we the government and the police, Of course we are still powerful, But, we just do our dirty work in the shadows without anyone noticing, In society, we appear as business-men and businesses-women, We only show only the legal part of our work which is owning hotel, restaurants, bars and factories,

“Thanks you everybody for joining us, Now, my dear wife and I have to leave, Have a good day everybody.”,

And, we that we leave the venue, leaving everyone behind us astonished with the news we just dropped,