You Wanted an Ornament, You Got a Mafia Queen Chapter 05

You Wanted an Ornament, You Got a Mafia Queen Chapter 05

The other number, his spare line that she hadn’t blocked, was the one he tried next.

Marco stood there for a moment after the confirmation hit him.

Then he laughed, sharp and humorless.

The nerve.

Bianca came in carrying a stack of files.

“Marco, there’s a new coffee place in the mall next door. Come check it out with me?”

He looked up at her. Still simmering.

“Do I look like I have nothing to do? Is that why they hired you, to drag me on coffee runs?”

Bianca’s eyes went red at the corners immediately. Her bottom lip pushed out.

“Why are you being so mean?”

Marco pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This is a workplace. Act like it. Close the door on your way out.’

She left looking miserable. She didn’t know what had shifted. She just knew something had, and she was smart enough not to push it too hard. She had a persona to protect.

The office fell quiet.

Marco turned a pen over and over in his fingers. His chest felt like it was caving in.

Then something clicked.

He grabbed the phone and made a call.

“Get me booked in for the wedding dress fitting. Tomorrow. Me and my fiancée.”

The pause on the other end lasted too long.

“Sir… the order was cancelled. Ms. Monteiro already paid the cancellation fee.”

“What?” His voice came out strange. Thin. “When?”

“Thr, three days ago, sir.”

Three days ago. The family dinner.

He hung up and grabbed his keys.

The car screeched to a stop outside the family estate.

“Grandpa!”

He burst through the living room door.

What met him was Grandfather’s cane, aimed squarely at him.

“You worthless boy! What are you doing back here? I should just let you be the death of me!”

Marco didn’t fight back. He just threw up his arms.

“Grandpa, stop, please, I need to ask you something-”

The old man wore himself out and dropped into the couch, still scowling.

“Grandpa. At the birthday dinner, what did Elysia say to you? She cancelled the dress. She…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. Some answer was forming in the dark and he didn’t want to see it.

“She’s been gone for days. And this is the first thing you noticed, the dress?”

Marco’s stomach dropped.

“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

Don Giovanni brought his cane down hard. A hollow thud against the floor.

“The Santoro-Monteiro engagement is broken. Elysia called it herself. Look what

you

did.”

Marco felt the floor shift.

“She called it. She said it herself. Why, what exactly did she say, Grandpa-‘

The old man went very still. His eyes went sharp in a different way now.

“Shouldn’t you be asking yourself that question? Ever since that intern assistant showed up, you lost your mind. Did you even remember you had a fiancée?”

Marco stood there.

Bianca. Elysia had broken the engagement over Bianca?

She needed to grow up already.

The thought came fast, anger as a shield, but underneath it, something he couldn’t name pressed against his ribs.

“I never did anything to betray her. Grandpa, she’s always been like this, you spoiled her and she got dramatic. I’m running a family empire. Don’t I get any space? I only-”

Crack.

Giovanni had found his second wind.

“You, the Vegas hotel. The one room. She told me everything. And you still stand there and tell me you did nothing wrong? You’re an embarrassment to this family’s name!”

Marco went still.

One room.

He remembered that. Bianca had handled the booking on the trip. She’d gotten a presidential suite, three bedrooms, one living area. He hadn’t paid attention to the details.

How had Elysia even known about that?

“Go ask your precious little assistant what she’s been doing behind your back.”

Don Giovanni watched comprehension crawl across his grandson’s face. He didn’t wait for the question.

“Grandpa, where is Elysia?”

He’d had his people check the Monteiro estate. Nobody home.

“She flew to Toronto that night. And you’re only just figuring this out now.” The old man looked at him with something colder than anger. Disappointment. “She was absolutely certain. I tried to talk her out of it. I understand now why I couldn’t. You brought this on yourself.”

Toronto. She’d gone to her parents.

Marco stood in the middle of the room and felt a crack open somewhere he didn’t have a name for.

He went back to the office. Had Bianca sent in.

She walked in looking as fresh-faced as always.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Did you post anything about me. Online. Anywhere.”

Marco’s eyes didn’t move from hers.

She flinched. Small, but real.

“I… no. I didn’t.”

He’d worked with liars his whole life.

“Tell me the truth right now. Or I’ll find out on my own, and you don’t want that.”