Chapter 8

Alvize

Why did people fail to apprehend the concept of personal space?

I despised when people blatantly refused to value my silence and felt the need to cram it up with unnecessary banter.

All my life, I tolerated such nuisance from my cousins as I barely had any choice, seeing they were family. All my life I had tolerated it from Antonio and Liliana because whether I wanted to accept it or not, they were family. So why on earth did I tie myself to a talkative like Maria who wouldn't know the meaning of personal space even if it hit her with a ten foot pole? I should've done more of a background check. It was my mistake.

“So, how does it feel to be a married man?” Antonio asked as we walked up into my house.

“Why don't you get married and find out?”

“Nah man. This single air feels much more refreshing.” He said, tapping my shoulder in solidarity. Any other man would have been nursing a broken wrist after that move. Antonio should be grateful I respect his mother.

Speaking of Maria however, I might have scared her with the whole murder threat. This morning she barely looked me in the eye during breakfast and didn't even utter a word except to say thank you. Of course I wasn't going to kill her after we were done with our arrangement but it's probably for the best that she remembers I'm the kind of man who wouldn't blink while doing something so gruesome. Our marriage is a farce not a meet cute. I'm not interested in being friends either.

When we stepped through the front door, the first thing that greeted us was Maria weeping on my couch with her used tissues littered all over my pristine floor. The TV was playing in the background but that didn't interest me. Why she was crying didn't interest me either, she was probably still hung up on that limp dicked Lucas.

Antonio stopped behind me but I continued my journey up the stairs, I had work to do.

“Why are you crying?” Antonio, the gentleman his sweet mother raised, asked her. For some reason my steps slowed. Not like I cared about her reply but I was a bit curious to know whether my wife was one of those foolish women that couldn't let go of toxicity.

As if only noticing our arrival, she exclaimed in a cracked voice.

“Oh! Welcome back husband, and… Antonio.” Then she went back to her crying.

“You still haven't answered my question.” Antonio pointed out.

“It's really nothing.” She told him, still sniffing. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and continued my journey up the stairs.

“Tell me.” He demanded.

“Don't worry.” She said, still sniffing.

“Fine.” Antonio said but I understood his technique. The man was way too nosy to mind his business.

“Well since you insist.” She called out as I imagined he began to walk away. Trust my foolish wife to fall for his tricks.

“Catalina just lost her husband.” She wailed.

I stopped in my tracks.

“What?” Antonio asked, voicing my confusion.

“Fernandez just died and now Catalina has to deal with his evil family without him and it's just so sad because Fernandez didn't deserve to die! He was sweet and-”

“Are they your friends?” Antonio asked gently.

“What? No. The TV. It's a drama I'm watching.” She said before blowing into a tissue.

There was silence, with only the sound of her little sniffs filling the house.

“So all this,” Antonio started slowly, “Over a Telenovela??” He exclaimed.

“Not just any Telenovela. THE telenovela. Featuring the man I'm in love with and now he's dead.”

I didn't wait to hear Antonio's response. I knew my wife was a lot of things but this could possibly be the icing on the cake.

I continued my ascent up the stairs but didn't stop by my room because unlike most people, it wasn't my favourite part of the house. It wasn't the living room either. No, my office was the place I valued most in the house, the only place I could think clearly and where I had come up with every single idea that had gotten me to where I was today. So of course I didn't hold back on its design. It was larger than every single room in the building providing me with enough space to breathe and think. Comfort was a very foreign concept to me but if I could link anything to the feeling, it would be this place.

I took off my Brioni suit jacket and placed it gently behind my chair, then I sat down and got to work. I needed to secure a piece of land for my next project but my new father-in-law wasn't making it easy in any way for me. To think one would value family over everything else, not that I had given him a reason to. If I were in his shoes and someone I didn't like married my daughter without my knowledge, they'd be lying dead in a ditch by the end of the day. Unfortunately for him, I had my own ways to get that piece of land off his hands. It'd only take longer than I would have liked but still.

So I blocked out every other thought clouding my head and focused on the one task I needed to achieve, a skill I had mastered since I took my first steps.

*****

It had taken me longer than anticipated but I had successfully secured my land and taken another thing belonging to Alvize successfully from his venomous hands. The world had never felt lighter.

It was nearly six and I needed to have my dinner. I would rather miss it entirely than take it a minute later.

I left my office and walked down the stairs cautiously. My wife was a walking ball of chaos and I needed to be prepared for whatever I walked into. The only sound filling the house was the one coming from the TV. I wondered how long she had been watching it for.

However on reaching the living room, I stumbled upon a rather comical picture of Maria and Antonio staring so intently at the TV that they didn't even notice my arrival. Well, I had at least solved the mystery of why Antonio didn't end up joining me in my office then.

“Hey! Clara don't fall for Lorenzo!” Antonio shouted embarrassingly at the TV. “She's making a mistake isn't she?” He asked Maria whose facial expression matched Antonio's perfectly.

“Mhmm. I read online that he was the one who murdered Fernandez.”

A dramatic gasp erupted from Antonio. “I knew something was up with the guy. You can't be that handsome and not have some hidden agenda.”

“That's what I say all. The. Time.” Maria replied very seriously. I would've hoped she didn't mean it but that would be a waste of my limited supply of hopefulness.

“It's a great minds thing.” Antonio concurred.

“Of course.”

I realised then, that I was tired of being an audience to such a high degree of silliness and put a stop to the whole thing.

“Not to be a killer of joy but I'd prefer we move to the kitchen for dinner.” I spoke over the sound coming from the television then I watched both of their heads snap towards me in sync.

“We didn't see you there.” Maria pointed out. Her large, beady eyes were still red and puffy from earlier.

“Clearly.” I muttered as I headed for the kitchen, leaving them to take the hint and follow me.

I was hungry against my will, I wasn't going to wait around for my incompetent wife and stupid cousin as well. I wondered if this festering bond between them was going to be a problem I would have to address in the future.