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Chapter 10

Riot purses his lips but I can see in his eyes he understands.

"What if Leo or Alessia talked to her?" Nico suggests.

"Leo would never try talking her into staying and Alessia needs to be kept out of it. If she figures out our intentions for the twins she'll help Nolani get away and that can't happen." Riot insists.

Nico's brow furrows. "Your intentions? What are your intentions?"

"What are you three in here plotting, hmm?" Alessia asks as she enters the room and narrows her eyes at us.

"Giovanni's finally picked your husband to be." Riot replies the lie smoothly.

Well it's not technically a lie, except the part about me choosing him.

Alessia's face hardens and her eyes zero in on me. "Who?"

"I can't say yet, we're still in the middle of negotiations." I answer simply.

She arches an eyebrow. "And if I wanted a wife instead of a husband?"

"Then that should've been disclosed previously, Alessia." I tilt my head curiously. "Would you prefer a wife?"

She contemplates the question for only a moment before her shoulders sag in defeat and my stomach clenches. Hurting her is the last thing I want, she has no idea our father had already signed a contract with with the Di Salvo's before she had even hit puberty. Raf prolonged the marriage as long as possible and I'm trying my best to do the same but the Di Salvo's are growing restless and Dante Di Salvo will be taking over for his father soon.

"No." She sighs and leaves the room without another word.

"Don't look at me like that, you can't coddle her. Unless you want to go back on Papàs word and dismantle life as we know it." Riot snaps at me as I glare at him.

I know he's right but Alessia deserves better.

"Out of all things you could've said, why remind her that she's being married off to someone she hasn't even met?" I snap back in frustration.

He crosses his arms defensively. "Because I knew she wouldn't question whether or not I was telling the truth."

He knew she would leave the room without being asked and without digging into our conversation.

"I'm surprised it's been put off this long." Nico mutters.

I sigh. "Thanks to Raf, I don't know how he did it or even why but he did."

Rafael was the most like Pàpa out of all of us, sticking to doing things the way they'd always been done. Arranged marriages happened often in our world, especially if it links two strong families together.

"He was looking for a loophole in the contract." Riot says. "He couldn't find one, he gave up a week before the wreck."

I run my hand across my jaw. "They're giving her time to grieve but that won't last long. I pushed the fact that she lived with him, she was the closest with him so she's taking it even harder than the rest of us. Edoardo said he would give Alessia some time but he wants a date set for the engagement party."

Riot frowns. "There's no way to get around it, Alessia knows that. She's known she wouldn't get to choose her husband since she was a teenager. She just didn't know her husband had already been chosen."

Nico chuckles. "She's going to kill you, G."

I can't help but laugh along and soon Riot joins in. Dio mio she's going the throw the awfullest fit, sometimes I think I'd rather deal with a war than the wrath of my little sister. She's got a temper to rival any of ours.

(Dio mio: oh my god)

Riot smirks. "Glad it's you and not me."

I wince. "She's going to kill Dante." The thought is a sobering one. "We need to prepare her or she'll go into the engagement party half cocked with her claws out ready for an argument."

She's the only girl among us so we've allowed her temper to be let loose more times than we should, the Di Salvo's won't.

"If they touch even one hair on her head..." Riot warns, his brows dipping down angrily.

"They know better. Just because there's rumors about Edoardo Di Salvo putting his hands on his wife doesn't mean Dante will do the same. Then he would be the one starting a war. It would be an ignorant way to start his reign." Nico says.

"If I thought for even a second Dante would hurt Alessia in any way I'd break the contract even with the threat of losing everything." I demand, pissed Riot would think for even a second I would allow that to happen.

Nico's phone vibrates on the coffee table and he picks it up with a curse. "I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow at the warehouse, G."

He leaves the remainder of his cigar in the ashtray to go out naturally, jumps from the couch and exits the room.

Riot sighs as he places his cigar by Nico's and rises from the couch. "I'm gonna call Toni, see where he's at with everything. Maybe he has a theory as to who's helping our mole get away."

"Let me know of any updates." I reply.

He gives me a nod and leaves.

I relax back into the couch, spreading my legs and stretch my left arm across the back while my cigar remains in my right hand. Rafael left a mess behind. Drama with the cartel that I think I've smoothed over, possibly two kids, prolonging a marriage my sister doesn't want, and two moles amongst our men. I always wanted to be like him but I never realized how tiring it was, how stuck I would feel. I thought I had years before I'd have to take his place but here I am smoking a cigar by myself like a brooding king who's kingdom is close to being in shambles. I won't let anyone else see my crown slipping, I'll figure this shit out.

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Hey babe's, shew it's been a day. Figured I'd change it up and throw a Giovanni POV in there.

Yep, Giovanni played Nolani 😅

We learned a decent amount of information in this chapter. 🧐

Thoughts & theories?

Next upload is friday!

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— Katy