6: Bending the Rulebook

Chiara Moretti

The evening came by faster than I planned, and somehow, I found myself running against time to meet with Marco. Alessandro had sent me his driver thirty minutes earlier, and I felt worse that I was making him wait. Marco had long texted me the details of where we would meet, and it turned out to be a high-end private restaurant.

Marco was waiting outside for me, looking at his watch occasionally. The driver packed, and I got out. He saw me almost immediately and hurried over to where I was. He made to hug me, but I stretched out my hands, offering him a handshake. He laughed and took my hand, shaking it firmly.

"Good evening, Marco," I greeted calmly as I pulled my hands away from his grasp. His body touching mine now infuriated me, and I doubted if I would be able to last long without losing myself and ripping him apart right here.

Alessandro's words from earlier resounded in my ears as I took a deep breath and steadied my emotions. My end goal was more important than whatever immediate gratification ripping him apart right here would give me.

"Thank you for having dinner with me. Allow me to ask for a favor?" He said, smiling cheekily at me, One would never imagine the evil that such an innocent-looking face was capable of.

"I'm listening" I replied coldly as I made sure that we weren't in close proximity.

"I have a meeting in less than one hour; it is not a meeting that I can move forward with, so we will be having someone join us during the course of dinner. I hope you do not mind. I won't be long, I promise, that is if the person is as good as they said he is" he said, giving off the idea that he was supposed to have a professional meeting.

"Of course not. There's nothing personal between us, Mr. Marco. I believed this was a friendly date and nothing more. Did I miss something at any point?" I asked him, and he laughed nervously, masking his awkwardness with his halfhearted chuckle.

"Alright. That is fine." I responded, wondering how careless he was to be having such a deal in front of a strange woman. One that he has only heard about for two years.

We headed up to the private room for our dinner, and he went all out. I wondered how many times he had used my money to impress other women when we were together. I remembered all the expensive female items he had paid for with my card that he never explained where they went.

"I was hoping that things went well between you and me, something for us to build our connection on" he started as soon as we were settled.

"You have been hounding me since I got in with the talk of connection and all, like I earlier said, the only reason I came out was that you mentioned it just being a friendly date. I will have to take my leave now if you had anything else in mind" I stated clearly.

"Oh no, no, no! I'm just trying to be forward, you know. I've been told that I am pretty direct and straightforward a lot" he said and laughed throatily.

My phone lit up; the message I had been expecting was here. I cleared my throat and adjusted where I sat as I began to eat, hoping that would buy us some seconds of silence before he started talking about connection or some stupid synergy again.

Damian was led into the room; he had his eyes set on me as soon as he came. He gave me a knowing look as I smiled at him. Marco got up to welcome him immediately, the two men slapping hands like they were best of buddies.

"Damian, it's a pleasure to finally meet you" Marco said as he led him to the sofa beside him.

"You pay me really well; there's no telling my excitement to have us meet. Do you have everything here?" Damian asked before his gaze openly landed on me; he exchanged glances with Marco, who immediately rushed to sort out the misunderstanding.

"Pardon me, Damian, this is a close friend of mine, Vivianna" he introduced me as though we were close ourselves.

"Mr. Marco is an acquaintance of mine. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Damian." I said quietly and went back to eating my food, pretending that I couldn't hear what the men were talking about.

"Are you sure about her being here? You know I don't like exposing what I do to everyone around. Even the international police have been on my trail for a few days now" Damian whispered to him, looking at me suspiciously.

"She is trustworthy. Moreover, she doesn't know the details of what we are discussing" Marco responded.

Soon, Marco was done, and I watched him attempt to transfer all that belonged to me from my electronic vault to Marco. Anger seethed inside me, but I held myself together. The final phase of today's plan and the first phase of many more needed to succeed if I wanted things to go the way I wanted.

Just as they finished and he was about to hand over the hard drive to Marco. The door was pushed open, and Alessia walked in, her eyes filled with so much rage, the energy in the room changed.

"How could you? You told me you had a business deal to attend to, and now you are with some wench!" She yelled, her eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets.

"Don't do that with me today. How many times have I told you not to barge in on me like this?" Marco yelled, getting up to meet her immediately.

"Isn't she your business partner anymore?" I asked, pretending to be shocked.

Alessia looked at me, her rage hot enough to boil me to the ground. But I didn't mind; if she tried anything, it would be so easy to vent my anger on her.

"So it's because of her you refused me coming with you for this today? She's the new bitch right?" Alessia screamed like a mad person as she lunged at me.

Marco caught her just in time and dragged her with him outside the door. She kicked and fought, scratching him terribly, but he eventually succeeded in dragging her out.

Damian handed over the hard drive to me; it was the exact replica of the one he had given to Marco. My plan had succeeded; Marco won't even know what hit him when the time comes. This was me slowly gathering the life that he so violently took away from me.

Damian left, leaving the fake copy of the hard drive on the table. I didn't move an inch, and I made sure to call the driver to be on standby. Alessandro's text came in then, lighting up my screen.

"Well done! I'm downstairs!"

I smiled, wondering how he knew that this was already successful even though he was not inside. Furthermore, I looked around and saw that there was no CCTV. Whatever Alessandro Bianchi was capable of, I didn't want to be on the wrong side of it.

Plan one was to cause a rift between Marco and Alessia. I listened to hear him still trying to pacify her outside the room. I picked up my bag and left the room, my heart fulfilled that I had finally gotten my first pound of flesh. Now I want more, and I won't stop until they are out of meat; then I will crush their bones.