~ Chapter 5~

The men stood up after agreeing on everything and walked over to the kids, laying the paperwork before them.  Valentina reached for the pen and signed her name and then handed the pen to Giovanni, which he took.  But before he signed it, he looked up at the two men.

                “Can you give us a moment?” he asked them.

                “If you don’t sign…”

                “Dad, I’ll make him sign.”  She glanced at Vinny and then back at her dad.  “Besides, I trust him enough that he will follow through with this.”  The older man nodded and walked off.  Vinny cleared his throat and then took something out of his pocket.

                “You are to be my wife, and that means you should be treated with respect and be in style.  I couldn’t have you walk around, saying we are engaged without something to show.”  He brought the three carat, marquise cut diamond that was surrounded by both rubies and black diamond’s, out and slipped it on her left finger.  “Valentina De Luca, will you marry me?”  She rolled her eyes at him, but couldn’t fight the small smile, which brought out a chuckle as he signed his name.

                “It’s gorgeous, thank you.”

                “It’s one of a kind; I had it designed for you.”

                “What made you design this?”

                “I love the diamond cut, always have.  The black is the color of our start and the regular diamond is our end.  In other words, a rough start but hopefully one that ends well.  And the rubies reminded me of your firey spirit.”

                “Well….”  What in the world could she say to that?  No one had ever done anything like that for her, and this was a guy that was an enemy of hers.  This was far beyond the normal for him, and she knew that.  Perhaps it was the olive branch, showing he did care?

                “Shall we?”  He stood up and offered her his hand.  She took it and gave it a squeeze as she stood up.  Maybe things wouldn’t be so horrible after all with him?  Maybe he wasn’t such a heartless bastard after all?  He escorted her to their car and helped her in, leaning down to the doorway to look at her and her father.  “My mom would like the pleasure of your company this Friday night; a pre engagement party, just a few close friends.”

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                ‘A few close friends, my ass,’ Valentina thought as she, once again, looked at all the people in the house.  It almost seemed like this was a formal party and no one had told her family.  Oh, they were dressed accordingly, but there were way too many people for this to be a pre-party.  Would Mrs. Constantini set up a party and call it an engagement party, excluding her family in the plan making?  She sure seemed like it, which did not go over well with Valentina’s mom.

                “Valentina?”

                “Yes mother?”

                “Next week.”  And with that, Val rolled her eyes.  So, the battle had begun and no one even knew.  At least this one wouldn’t bring bloodshed, she hoped. 

                “You don’t need to compete, Il mio cuore (my heart),” her dad said as he drew up along them, catching here mom’s meaning.

                “Who said anything about competing dear?  We must have a piccolo (small) gathering of our own to wish the happy couple well.”  Valentina couldn’t help it; she rolled her eyes again at her mom.  She loved her, but Susana De Luca was not one to be out done by Sofia Constantini.  Speaking of, Valentina had yet to see or meet her future mother in law.  In fact, she saw Vinny once so far, and that was when they walked in. 

                Everyone would know this was not going to be a loving marriage, but it was still rude that he hadn’t remained by her side, or introduced her to any of his family.  In fact, it had taken quite a bit of finessing on her part to quiet her dad’s temper, for that was so disrespectful.  Not that she would have expected less from him; that had always been his nature to her.  She took a sip of her wine before looking at her parents.

                “Excuse me; I’m going to find the restroom.”  Rafael glanced at his daughter and then around the room.

                “Please be careful, this room still has a lot of enemies and I’m not all too sure where our hosts are.”  Valentina nodded; she heard the anger within his voice, his patience was on a thin rope.  She handed her glass to her mom and then made her way down the hallway.  She needed a moment alone to clear her head and ease her own anger.  So what if she was a female, she was still part of one of the biggest families in Chicago, and she was being treated like she was nothing.

                Although, she should have known better.  After all, how many times in the past had Giovanni shown the contempt for her?  Shown his lack of respect?  Did she really buy that just because he signed a legal and binding document that his spots would change?  That was her mistake if she bought that, sadly; more the fool on her too.

                She walked down the hallway, glancing at doors, hoping to see one open to show it was the restroom.  She shook her head, stopping as she found a door cracked open and voices wafting through.  Normally she wasn’t one to eavesdrop, after all being who she was she knew what happened to people like that, but she picked up on Giovanni’s voice and another females, which was too young to be his mom’s.

                “Come on Vinny, you can still meet up with me, no one would even know you were gone.”

                “Jennifer, when I met up with you a week ago and told you I was done, I meant it.”  Valentina’s brow crinkled at that.  A week ago was when they had all met up to discuss what they wanted.  Of course, he had to go out and get laid.

                “She’s a prude, a bore.  She won’t be able to give you what you want, what you crave.”  Valentina swallowed hard; maybe this chick had a point.  Her experience with men had been a few small and stolen kisses.

                “She’s not a prude.”

                “You called her that!  You know how many men were after her and yet she turned every one of them away, as if they weren’t good enough.  You will get bored and you will call me.”  Valentina walked away from the door, her heart pounding.  She knew he disliked her, but she wasn’t aware his feelings were that strong.  The rest of her life looked bleak as she thought of that.  She had no clue how she was ever going to have a love marriage, not when feelings were like this.

                She finally found the restroom but gasped as she ran into a body, so wrapped up in her thoughts as she was.  “I’m sorry.”

                “No worries, Valentina, you made me a happy man.”  Her head snapped up at the voice, a voice that had constantly asked her out, a voice that always talked to her, a voice that said she was okay for those few kisses.

                “Dante DeLaurentis.”