Chapter 4

Arianna POV: 

“Darling, do you think you could help me out? I'm in a bit of a panic here,” My father sounded out of breath across the phone line. 

“Papa what’s wrong is everyone alright,” 

“Yeah yeah we’re all okay here it’s just my accountant he was pinching some money from us so I had to let him go,” He explained and I gasped I had never known anyone in real life to pocket money. 

“I know, what a crook,” My father replied. “Do you mind coming down and helping me for a couple of days? I just have this huge meeting coming. I need someone I can trust,” He asked me and I could tell he needed the help. 

I thought once or twice about it for a second. I definitely had the vacation time to help and it would only be a couple of days. I came down with a weekend bag and he opened up one of the guest rooms for me. 

“My hero,” he called me as I walked in the door. 

“Just helping you run your books for a few days Dad it’s not like I’m giving you a kidney,” I murmured as I set down my bags. 

 “I’m proud I can rely on my daughter like that’s a bad thing,” He scoffed and led me towards the guest room. 

“I'd give you your old room but once your sister got it to herself she was a bit unstoppable,” He scratched his head in embarrassment. 

“No worries I’m not staying long anyway,” I reminded him. 

I know he was more than pleased to have me back in the house but I had grown accustomed to my freedom and wasn’t in the mood to give it up. I had lost my mother. I wasn't going to lose myself to whatever business schemes were going on. 

“Ahhh!” Gulia bounced into the room. “This is gonna be so fun, you can help decide which bridal salons to go to, and we can decide on the final color schemes I’m thinking of, bold like gold and red..” 

I listened to my sister's list of the 50,000 things she had in mind for us to do while I was here. It was soon after I realized no relaxing would be done while I was here. My sister had a request for every second of the day and most of it was simply me agreeing with the things she wanted. 

After days of going over my dad's books, the other accountant did a good job and they were all in order and I just did the day-to-day adjustments. I would come home and the house was clean and the cook had dinner made. That I had no issue getting used to but what I couldn’t seem to adjust to was the family dinners now reinstated after almost twenty years. 

Gone was the kitchen table dinner we would welcome my father home to, now we ate in the semi-formal dining, a large wooden round table with enough room for the random business associate my father always managed to bring home. Tonight was no different. 

“Arianna,” My name rolled off his tongue in surprise as I entered the dining room. 

Okay, slightly different. 

I held myself together and sat down as composed as I could have been. I wasn’t prepared to see him outside of wedding planning and I definitely didn’t expect to see him seated next to my father with his tie slightly undone. 

I focused my thoughts on the gnocchi being served onto my plate. 

“Grazi,” I murmured and poured myself a glass of wine, as much as the cup allowed. 

“Tough day?” Gulia giggled at me laughing at my uneasy adjustment. 

“No,” I kept my voice calm as I glared at her, even her fiance was stifling a laugh beside her. It was the first time I think I saw him emote. 

“Arianna, Gio will be at the office tomorrow. I want you to go over the numbers on this business proposal for us to make sure it’s something we can sustain,” My father told me, and I gave him a small nod. 

Something was off. I knew that my father wasn’t a fan of Gio and I knew Gio wasn’t a fan of my father. My mind flashed to his frustration at me picking my father's side the last time we spoke. I felt more like a fool now than I did then, they were playing a game and I was the pawn. Each man thought if they moved me here the other would fall victim to my distraction. 

My father knew that Gio was attracted to me and I had a sneaking suspicion that he wanted me to use that to help him get the upper hand on this partnership. I was furious but I wasn’t going to make a scene, no I would have a conversation with my dad alone. 

I sat through dinner ignoring the frequent glances from the green eyes on the other side of the table and chatting with my sister instead. Her many wedding plans had my complete interest for the next hour so long as it didn’t give either of them a chance to involve me in any more of their plans. 

“Right well thank you for the evening,” my father shook Gios hand at the end of the night, I watched from the corner, still holding onto my wine glass, the decorum having left my body at this point so my face had hardened into a grimace. 

As he walked out the door my father wandered off to his office and I wasted no time in marching after him. I wanted answers, now. 

“When were you going to tell me that the meeting was with Giovanni?” I stomped into the room and closed the door behind me. 

My father still sitting down in his chair. “I didn’t know it mattered, it's not as if you two are involved…right?” 

“You know that he would like to be and I would appreciate it if from now on when it comes to your business deals you do not use your partner's desires for your daughter against him,” I recoiled at the thought of being passed over like a bottle of bourbon. 

“Arianna, I know he has affection for you but I didn’t plan on you being here. I got stuck in a bad situation. That's why he was here tonight. He kept insisting on our accountant checking our books to make sure we had the funds,” He shrugged like his hands were tied. “I thought you could handle it, seeing as you have no interest in him,” 

It was a loaded tone that my father used, he knew that Gio had gotten under my skin, well aware that I would have a problem with this but he wanted me to realize the messiness of the situation. 

“I can handle it,” I assured him, still furious that he had puppeteered me to do his dirty work. 

I got myself ready in the morning and decided that I was going to be strictly professional for my meeting today. If that was normal business I’d be meeting with their accountant and a dozen lawyers to go over our books and their books and make sure we were being represented equally in the business venture, but somehow I knew this was going to be just me and him.  

I wore the most boring blouse I could find and some simple dress pants. I wasn't one to shy away from skirts in the office but I felt today that was a call for trouble. I kept my hair out of my face but down and I put on no makeup.  

If I just keep it on business then this will all be over as soon as it begins and then I can go back to my house and leave these men to their games. 

The morning was simply more numbers and the daily rundown of costs so far that week and what we had earned so far that week. My father had started off with just a concrete company then he expanded into construction, then into refurbishments. Then he got his fingers into real estate and that's when he stepped up his game. From what I could gather, if there was business in town he didn’t own Gio had it in his pocket. No wonder there was some animosity. 

Right now I was only accounting for the cooperation as a whole and a lot of other books reported to me. I only saw the big picture. I didn't know the fine details for each business, if I was here longer I would care more but it is just for the week. 

Midday came around and I felt my body stiffen when he knocked on the door to my office. 

“Do you have a moment to discuss the numbers,”