Chapter Three: Mr Milano

Camilla's POV

The estate was exactly how I remember it.

The gates opened before the car even slowed down.

That was the first thing I always noticed when coming back home, how the mansion responded like it was a living thing.

The drive through the grounds was long and lined with trees so old it got use to the isolation.

The manor sat at the end of it, warm light and pale stone, placed far enough from the city so the noise didn't reach here.

My father had built this distance deliberately after my mother died.

The world had kept moving and he simply decided he didn't want to be near it anymore.

The car stopped and the butler opened the door.

There he was, Elias Rico Voss.

Sixty-one years old, silver at the temples and shoulders that had never learned to drop. He stood at the top of the entrance steps in a dark house robe like he hadn't slept, like he'd been watching the gates since I called.

The moment my feet touched the ground he came down the steps.

I didn't plan to cry but when he opened arms and I walked into them, something I had been holding for three years finally put itself down.

“There she is," he murmured into my hair.

He hugged me exactly like this after I packed my things to settle with Nathaniel, believing I was doing everything for love, believing my father was only trying to control my life.

After I left, he cut off my credit cards and my inheritance on hold in hope that I would come to my senses.

I pulled back from him before I fell apart. "You didn't have to wait outside”

"And miss watching my daughter come home?" Reaching for my face with both hands, he held them and looked at me, analyzing every change and every misfit. “Go inside, change and then we'll talk."

The sitting room was exactly as I remembered. Dark wood, Floor to ceiling shelves along with the faint smell of leather and his pipe tobacco.

I went into my room, everything well placed and arranged, like I had never left, I took a quick shower and dressed up before joining him back in the lounge.

The butler brought in tea without being asked as I curled into the corner of the settee and my father sat across from me, unhurried.

"Tell me, how bad was it?” He said as he dropped his phone after a call.

I knew my father and there was no way he would sound so calm on the phone if he didn't know I was already coming, if he hadn't hired spies to watch his only daughter.

" You already know,” I replied.

"I want to hear it from you.”

I took a deep breath and then pressed my lips together.

"I ran so many tests, I couldn't get pregnant and all the while..” my voice broke "I thought I was the problem, I thought if I had just given him a child then he would… he would love me" scoffing “guess I was stupid for three years"

My father listened without interruption, his fingers laced together.

" I was seventeen when I was betrothed to your mother, you could say we were confused…. I could say you were both confused" he tilted his head.

"But a man who accepts a woman's love and returns nothing for three years isn't confused, Camilla. He's decided." His jaw tightened. "I should have dragged you home myself."

“Then maybe I wouldn't have understood, it was better this way" I stared at my tea. “I wasted three years"

“You were twenty and in love, you've got a whole life ahead of you… a whole empire “

I almost smiled despite myself. “I just…” pitching the space between my brows "I promise to listen, I promise to take over the empire you've built. No running off” I sighed "I'm done using my heart before my head.”

He studied me for a long moment and then nodded once, not brushing off the change in his expression, like he pushed the father aside and let the patriarch step forward.

“Then I have one request.”

There was this shift in his tone that made my brow arch.

At that moment the sound of the automatic gates open and my ear caught the faint sounds of engines.

“You can…"

“A marriage."

I blinked back, almost scoffing “ Daddy? I literally just ended one fifteen hours ago…"

“This would be different, a convenient type of love” his voice was steady and intentional. “A connection between two families that would expand what I've built be you anything.

I opened my mouth.

“You said you'd listen,” he reminded me quietly.

I closed it.

He was right.

I had nothing left to lose and I knew that.

Arguing was pointless since I knew love had already taken its shot and I had the bruises to show for it.

At least this way I'd walk in with my eyes open with no foolish hope mistaken for certainty.

“This isn't about you Camilla, it's about what you're meant to become"

I rolled my eyes slightly in defeat.

“Fine.” The word tasted strange. "Who is he?”

My father rose with a smile "or, where is he?..... Follow me”

I looked at him. “Hold on, now?"

"You didn't think you would dilly dally immediately you came back when you abandoned your duty for three years”

" Daddy I just got home, I haven't even…."

“Camilla." He called curtly.

I set my cup down and stood.

He led me through the east corridor past the library then towards the living room to meet our newest visitor and I was still pulling my coat tighter around me, still composing myself, when it reached me first.

Cologne.

It hit my nose and I could tell how dark and expensive it was.

I slowed almost without meaning to.

He was standing with his back partly to us, having one of his hands in his pocket while the other holding a glass, his attention on the figurines like he'd been reading them.

He had his guard positioned at the edges of the room like they were pieces of furniture that had eyes which tracked everything.

Then he turned.

I took a quiet exhale as my eyes fed on him.

He was…..

There was no soft way to put it.

He was striking, not handsome or proper.

Sharp jaw with dark piercing eyes that moved towards me and settled.

He was tall, I was sure of him being at least six foot three.

“Camilla." My father's voice was calm. "Meet the man you'll be spending your successful life with"

The latter set down his glass and crossed the room in three strides to stand before me and extend his tattoe filled hand.

“Luca Xavier Milano."

His voice was low and controlled.

I took one small breath in before I reached for his hand and shook it, though I felt something passed through me that I had absolutely no language for, I brushed it off and ignored it.

"Diva Camilla Voss” I said.

His dark eyes held mine for a beat longer than necessary.

“I know who you are."