Chapter 6

Daphnée and Alessandro walked hand in hand into a woman’s shoe store. An attendant walked over to them and the first thing she thought was, ‘This fat bitch caught herself a handsome man.’

“Welcome sir, how may I help you today?” She asked. 

Alessandro’s brows knitted, and he said in a not so pleased tone, “The customer is here and she speaks English.”

She turned to Daphnée after getting a glare from Alessandro and said, “How may I help you today, madam?”

Daphnée was already offended that she ignored her. She walked past her up to another attendant and took off her shoe. She handed it to her and said, “Bring me all your shoes in this size and they better be able to compensate for my weight. She already pissed me off, and I am a few seconds away from closing this place down.”

She walked over to one of the couches and sat down. The attendants looked at her confused then the one holding her shoes looked at the shoe size and heard Alessandro say, “She is a VIP client and I suggest you bring out your VIP treatment, and send the manager down, Mrs Bardi does not want to be kept waiting.”

He walked over to her as the attendants scrambled to get things done. Alessandro stood beside her and asked, “May I sit please?”

She looked at him confused, then nodded her head. “Sure.”

He sat down and started, “You should never let anyone disrespect you.”

She turned to him and smiled. “It will take me time to learn Italian, so I will need you to translate shit for me so that I don’t look stupid. Isn’t there one of those listening devices that the FBI agents use that is like a two-way communication device?”

He smiled at her and said, “There is, and I will be happy to arrange that for you.”

She saw the attendants walking over with boxes of shoes and said, “I don’t think the SUV has enough space for me and all those boxes.”

Alessandro smiled as he got up and said, “Leave that up to me.”

The attendants followed behind the manager, who had a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket on a black tray with a box of handcrafted chocolates.

The manager smiled and said, “Mrs Bardi, welcome. If I knew we would receive you, I would have welcomed you myself. I am Claudette Russi and I will be at your service.”

Daphnée smiled. “I’m here to buy shoes.”

Claudette poured a glass of champagne and said, “We have the best shoes here.”

“But they will not be the best if they do not fit my feet and accommodate my weight. They are not the best,” Daphnée said with a smirk.

Claudette nodded slowly in agreement then turned to her workers and clapped her hands together, “Come, start presenting the shoes to our client.”

Daphnée nodded her head as she tried the shoes on and walked around with them. She turned to Alessandro and asked, “What do you think?”

He looked at her considerably and nodded. “Perfecto, but we need more diamonds.”

Claudette looked at him and couldn’t agree more. She sent her attendants to bring their most expensive pairs of heels that had diamonds in them and she instantly fell in love. She looked at Claudette and asked, “Why didn’t you bring these out before?”

“These shoes were designed for a celebrity here in Milan and hearing that you like diamonds, I thought of them,” she answered.

“Well, won’t this get you into trouble?” Daphnée asked.

“Oh no madam Bardi…”

“Please call me Daphnée, madam Bardi is my mother-in-law,” Daphnée interrupted her.

“Miss Daphnée, these are not in your size. We will have them designed for you and sent to you as soon as they are done,” she explained.

Daphnée stood up and said, “Okay, and please design thigh-high boots for me as well.”

She turned to Alessandro and said, “I think it’s time to pay.” She turned to Claudette and said, “Pack all the shoes up. I agreed on. I look forward to hearing from you.”

“Certainly,” she answered.

Daphnée headed to the till and received her card from Alessandro. She looked at it, then said, “I do not want to pay with my money. Is there any way possible that you can get hold of Mr Bardi’s money?”

Alessandro smirked and pulled another card out and whispered, “I’ve always thought that it is not a woman’s place to pay for things and thus I stole something.”

She looked at the card and saw a strange name on it. He whispered the pin into her ear, and she couldn’t help but smile. The total was rung up and Claudette said, “Your final total is thirty-three thousand euros.”

Daphnée tapped the card against the card machine and entered the pin. The card machine said, ‘pin accepted’ and the slip came spiralling out. 

They walked out of the store after leaving her address. She looked up at him and asked, “Where to next?”

He looked down at her and said, “Since we have the boss’s card, let’s buy jewellery. It was scheduled for the end of the week, but there is no harm in emptying your schedule.”

“What are we going to buy there?” She asked.

“The boss ordered the designs of your wedding ring. We will go view the designs and you’ll choose which one you want and you can buy whatever jewellery you like,” he answered and helped her into the car.

They arrived at Diamante Grezzo and she saw two vehicles similar to the one she was riding in outside. A man came up to the car and Alessandro got out. They spoke briefly, and he handed him two silver briefcases. 

Alessandro climbed into the back, sitting beside her, and locked the car from inside. She looked at him and asked, “Why are we not going inside?”

Alessandro opened one of the briefcases and said, “I told you I will organise it. This is the two-way listening device, and if I may?”

“Go ahead,” she said. He placed it in her left ear and covered it with her hair. He placed the second device into his ear and said, “Now we can hear what we say without being in the same place.”

She nodded her head and said, “Okay, so what is in the other briefcase?”

“Your guns,” he answered, and her eyes widened. He raised his finger as he opened it and explained, “You do not need to worry about this now, but you will need to know how to use one. Just because you are his wife by name does not actually mean so. You need to put your life down for him and be his bodyguard when you are with him. And as his queen, many should fear you, and being able to use a gun has its advantages.”

He opened the briefcase and showed it to her. She glared at the guns and asked, “Why would I need five guns?”

Alessandro chuckled. “One you’ll place under your pillow. Another under your desk at work and one you will keep in your purse, another I will keep on me and the fifth you can place anywhere you like. You will also have knives delivered and will learn how to throw them.”

“Okay,” she said, and closed the case. Alessandro chuckled and said, “Shall we head inside? They know we are here.”