Frank coughed. He pounded on his chest before spitting out his phlegm in a nearby wastebasket.
“Listen, you,” he said, his voice turning hard. His black eyes zeroed in on his eldest son through the haze of cigar smoke. “How many times I gotta tell you this? This ain’t the old days. People look at you, at me, and they see a crook, a gangster, all over our faces. Davey’s different. He looks like any pussy man you’d see today walking down the street. He looks clean. He don’t look like he’d steal your old lady’s pearls or fuck your sister doggy style. Get it?”
Ignacio grumbled.
Frank waved a hand dismissively. “David knows his role. He’s there for pictures. He’s there for them god awful suit and tie dinners. He and that Del Marco girl are gonna just be the face.” Frank grinned, his craggy face and scars making him look fierce and sinister. “But you and I know who the brains are.”
Ignacio, although still grumbling, seemed a little appeased. “When do we get rid of Del Marco?” he asked eagerly, puffing on his cigar.
“Soon,” Frank said. “Antonio is no dummy. That kid’s got his father’s annoying knack for escaping death and danger. We have to act fast with that one or we’ll miss our chance.”
Ignacio grinned. “DM Holdings is gonna be an awfully large acquisition for little Miss Del Marco to carry on her shoulders after her big brudder passes.”
Frank barked a laugh. He took in a deep puff, letting the smoke slowly crawl out his lips. “That’s why she’ll have Daddy Cavalli to help.”
Chapter Twenty
Emma yawned again as she got up from bed. She barely remembered coming upstairs. She had a hazy memory of strong arms holding her effortlessly as she was carried up but she had been so exhausted, emotionally and physically, that she hadn’t been able to stay conscious for long.
Feeling refreshed in a way that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time, Emma shuffled towards the bathroom. By the bathroom door, there was a silver tray with a rolled newspaper on it. Since accompanying Antonio to the office, she’d started receiving the paper every morning. She assumed it was to help her stay abreast on any DM Holdings news.
Wondering if that city beautification project had started yet, Emma unrolled the papers. But before she could flip towards the business section, the front page of the paper screamed out at her in bold font, “Wedding of the Year: David Cavalli and Emma Del Marco Engaged!”
Instantly becoming the world’s biggest power couple, David Cavalli of Cavalli Corporations and Emma Del Marco of DM Holdings are engaged. Although sources would not confirm if a date has been set, it has been hinted that the stroll down the aisle is not too far off!
Emma’s vision swam as she stared at the photo of her and David dancing at Hastings Charity Gala. What was this? Surely this was a huge mistake.
Grabbing the paper, she rushed out of her room, surprising her guard that waited for her. Nearly sprinting down the stairs, she burst into Antonio’s office, the doors banging against the walls.
Antonio, seated at the desk, looked up in surprise. Steven Wells, who had been standing at the window, turned in equal shock. “Emma,” he said in a quiet surprised voice. “Er, I mean, Miss Del Marco. What’s the matter?”
Emma threw the paper down in front of Antonio, eyes blazing. She expected him, wanted him, to rage at the photo and headline. She wanted to hear him demand to speak with the paper’s editors so they could redact the announcement.
Instead, Antonio stared at the paper, his face a blank mask of calmness. “Yes?” he said.
Emma stared at him. “What the hell is this! What does this even mean!” She tried to search his face for the same man she had kissed and held the night before. She wanted to see any hint of that face that had lain bare his passion and pain.
It wasn’t there.
“I think it’s quite clear what it says,” Antonio said slowly, leaning back in his chair, fingers steepled. Emma’s spine shivered a bit at seeing him so similarly positioned from when she had first met him. “It’s the wedding announcement for you and David.”
Emma felt like she was drunk. “What—But what about last night? What about us?” She saw Steven’s brow rise in surprise from the corner of her eye.
“It has always been the plan for you to marry David,” he said evenly. “You knew that from the start. Nothing has changed.”
Could words leave bruises? Because she felt like she had been punched by what he said. “Nothing has changed,” she echoed breathlessly, her heart slowly cracking.
Antonio sat up and reached into his jacket pocket. Pulling out a small box, he opened it and placed it carefully in front of her. The biggest diamond she had ever seen sparkled from the box.
“Your engagement ring,” he said simply.
An orphan didn’t have much except fantasies. And even in her most modest fantasies, she had never imagined such a cold, empty proposal as this. She stared at the brilliantly cut oval diamond, every facet looking as cold as her heart.
“You have an event today,” Antonio said as if discussing weather. “You will be meeting David at a charity function sponsored by DM Holdings. It’ll be a good event to show the merging between Cavallis and Del Marcos. Wear the ring and make sure to have it photographed. But don’t answer any questions. Just give them plenty of poses with the ring on.”
Emma looked up at him. She could still feel his hands holding her wrist, his lips pressing against her throat. She could feel how deep he had plunged into her with his cock. And yet, he sat in front of her, an expression of mild annoyance on his face.
“You should get dressed,” he said in clear dismissal.
“So that’s it,” she said softly. “I was just the convenient fuck.”
Steven cleared his throat. “Now, wait a minute, Emma. I’m sure—”
“Well right now, you’re making it a little less convenient,” Antonio said, his words hitting exactly the right open nerves.
Emma pressed her lips, nodding, trying to hold back her traitorous tears. “Fine, alright then,” she said softly. Taking a step back, she ran out of the room, barely able to see clearly where she was going.
But if she had, if her visions had been just a bit less clouded, she would’ve seen the reproving look on Steven Wells’ face and the harsh look of regret and pain on Antonio’s.
Chapter Twenty One
“By the way,” David said smiling, “you look just as beautiful today as you did on the dance floor at Hastings.”
Emma blushed. “Thank you,” she said, never having known how to gracefully accept a compliment. Wanting to diffuse the awkwardness, she took a sip of her white wine.
They sat in a private room at Milo’s, an exclusive restaurant in Beverly Hills. With their respective guards standing outside, David and Emma had the entire room to themselves.
David gave a self-deprecatory chuckle. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I made you uncomfortable.”
Emma shook her head. “No, no, it’s alright.”
David smiled, his face so open and warm. “No, I did. And I apologize. I must admit, this is kind of an odd line to walk since we’re getting to know each other after our engagement.”
He sounded so understanding, so warm that Emma could feel her eyes burning. Antonio had tossed her aside as if she was just another pawn in his game and it felt so good to hear someone else understand what that felt like.
David reached across the table, gentling grasping her hand. “Hey now, are you okay?” His brow creased in concern.
Emma shook her head again, trying for a smile and just barely succeeding. “Now I’m sorry,” she said with a watery chuckle. “It’s still all new. Not just the engagement but also just…this.” She waved around the intimate but luxuriously decorated private dining room.
“Ahh,” David said understandingly. “I remember. You were away at school for the last several years.” He smiled wryly. “It does take some getting used to, I won’t lie there.”
Emma looked at him curiously. “
What’s it like?” she asked, genuinely curious. “What’s it like having grown up publicly with such an…infamous family?”
David leaned back in his seat and sighed. “Well, in one word—hard,” he said honestly. “I think it’s especially hard with all boys. There was three of us growing up. And all of us were so different. My older brother was the leader, my younger brother was the rebel. And I….” He trailed off.
Emma smiled encouragingly. “And you?”
David’s face took on a glow that seemed quite close to a blush. “Well, I guess you’d call me the artist.” He laughed softly. “But of course, my father wouldn’t hear of that. A Cavalli boy who only wanted to paint or write for a living? Ridiculous!” He shrugged. “So of course, I joined the family business. But I try to keep my interests towards the public sector, like some of our charity work. It makes things more…manageable.”
Emma was confused. David Cavalli was the known successor to Frank Cavalli. Why would Frank choose a son who clearly was only interested in a small and not profitable sector of the company?
But she didn’t feel completely comfortable to ask such an intimate question yet. Emma took another sip of her wine.
David reached out again for her hand, her left hand. His thumb passed over the large diamond. “I’ll be honest,” he said quietly. “I didn’t even get to pick out the ring. I was told last night that a ring had been delivered to you and that was it.” He frowned as if he regretted such a detached delivery of something so significant, like a mistake he made. Slowly, he raised his gaze, earnest and sincere. “But that doesn’t make my commitment to you any less genuine. I know this is an unusual situation and I don’t think either of us were really prepared for it. But I promise, I will be a good and loyal partner to you. And I think with time, we can grow to even love each other.”
It was impossible to dislike David. He was so warm. He was so sincere. Even his face was open and broad, inviting her to trust him. But all she could think about were stormy gray eyes and rock hard arms that held onto her as if she was the only thing anchoring him to the world.
David slid the ring off her finger. “So if you’ll allow me,” he said. David rose from his seat and walked around to Emma. Kneeling down on one knee, he held the luminous ring up. “Will you, Emma Del Marco, do me the honor of being my wife?”
A flash of burning lips. A scent of spicy manly musk. A shudder of a hard embrace.
Emma mentally shook her head, clearing the images of a man who did not want her, as she shyly smiled at David.
“Yes,” she said softly, extending her left hand towards him.
Chapter Twenty Two
“And thank you so much, Miss Del Marco, for everything DM Holdings does for Angels Services and Health! We can never show you enough gratitude!” Penny Taylor said as she pumped both of Emma’s hands.
Emma awkwardly tried to thank Penny for her services as Regional Director while trying not to feel like a fraud. After all she had only been with DM Holdings for a few days. She had done absolutely squat so far. But she smiled and tried to graciously accept the thanks anyway.
They stood inside the inner lobby of a beautiful philharmonic hall. Expertly decorated, it was filled with socialites who made a life out of exclusive charity events, journalists, and actual Angels Services employees.
There were even some children wandering around since earlier, Angels Services had arranged for their children’s community choir, a recreational activity that they funded, to sing for the event.
All dressed in blue and white, the colors of Angels Services, they sang an adorable medley of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonders songs.
After Emma and David had finished their private lunch, they had been driven to the charity event. As soon as they had stepped out, photographers immediately began snapping away. David, the consummate professional, pulled Emma close and gave a magazine worthy smile.
Emma tried her best to follow suit. She had almost forgotten about her ring when a photographer yelled out, “Is that the ring? Show us the ring! How’d he propose? Where’d he propose? Do you like the ring or hate it? Show us that ring!”
Good thing Antonio had told her not to answer any questions. Emma had no idea how she would be able to answer such a barrage of invasive questions like that without at least some preparation.
Upon stepping in, David and Emma had almost immediately been separated. A sound technician approached David about mic-ing him for his speech that he was due to give regarding the importance of organizations like Angels Services in inner city communities.
David had squeezed her hand, promising to find her afterwards, before leaving with the sound tech. Emma had only a moment to wonder what she would do in the meanwhile before a swarm of people descended upon her, all wanting to get a chance to speak with the newly introduced Del Marco daughter and now Cavalli fiancée. And, she assumed a little cynically after seeing a few women dart their eyes down towards her hand, to get a close up view on her ring.
After Penny Taylor left, Emma turned to head towards the small podium where David would be speaking. But before she could take one step, she felt a cool breeze waft against her cheek.
Turning, she saw a man in a black vest and white shirt carrying a huge tray of catered food through a back door. It must be the catering door where the trucks lined up to drop off the food.
Emma was about to head again towards the podium when a realization hit her.
That catering door led out.
It probably led out to some parking lot. Sneaking out through that parking lot away from press or nosy socialite, she could cross to any of the major streets that the philharmonic hall sat on. A few bus stops and she could be back at her old apartment. A few minutes and she’d have everything packed. Within an hour, she could be heading out of state.
Emma looked around. For the first time in weeks, she realized her guards were gone. It was an awkward situation to say the least to have Cavalli and Del Marco guards in close quarters. It had been mutually agreed upon to wait outside with plenty of space between the two sets of guards.
Emma was alone.
She just needed to take a few steps towards possible freedom.
As she frantically contemplated her chances at actually making it out of state and staying out of Antonio’s hands, Emma heard a round of genteel applause. She looked up and saw David step up to the podium, smiling and waving. She saw him quickly scan the audience for her before starting his speech.
Emma knew she was too far away for him to be able to see her. This was it! Wasn’t this what she had been waiting for this whole time?
But as David began to speak, Emma found herself thinking back to all the files she had studied in Antonio’s office. She thought back to the countless mergers, acquisitions, funds, factories, and even employees DM Holdings had. She thought of how shocked she had been when she realized how much the company and Antonio were worth. Well past nine figures.
The Cavalli Corporation was no mean competition either. They themselves held a sizeable fortune. Regardless of what reasons Antonio had for marrying her off, whether it was to eliminate the gang rivalry once for all or to protect Emma from their grasp, it did stand to reason that if the Cavallis and DM Holding were to go head to head, whole economies could be shaken.
These were two colossal titans of financial strongholds. They had enough money and enough influence to break or grow a nation’s economy. If she ran now…if she left for good…what kind of mess would she be leaving behind? She imagined Antonio Del Marco and Frank Cavalli eyeing each other from opposite coasts, ready to do battle for the rest of their lives, damning who ever got caught in their crossfires.
Emma saw a little girl and boy holding hands as they carefully tiptoed to the desserts table. On break after their singing, they inched their way to the table and sneakily pulled two cookies onto a plate then covered it nonchalantly with a napkin. They giggled all the way back to wherever they had come from.
But if she stayed….
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If she stayed, if she married David, there were unlimited resources for what good she could do. At her counseling center, she was limited by being only one person available for a certain number of hours per day. But if she was a Cavalli who also had stake in DM Holdings, she had countless number of people at her disposal and ridiculous sums of money for her to use.
That was what she had always wanted to do, wasn't it? To help those who couldn’t help themselves? Maybe this was the universe’s way of giving her that opportunity, albeit not in the way she had expected or preferred.
Emma took one final look at the back door before heading towards the podium. She stood towards the back of the crowd but as David spoke, his eyes swung over to her. He smiled without missing a beat in his speech.
Emma took in a slow shaky breath. Maybe she could make this work.
Taken - A Gangster Stepbrother Romance Page 10