The only sound in the room was Malcolm's fake train choo-chooing around the house.
Sylvia, Luca, and Valerie were silent, they all exchanged somber looks with each other.
Valerie had no idea what to say or do.
"Luca... I... I'm so sorry." Sylvia offered, walking towards him and trying to hug him. Luca tried his best to return the sentiment to the emotional red head, but you could tell he was uncomfortable.
Valerie didn't move from her spot on the couch.
She helped the fall of one of New York's longest enterprises.
Wiping at her nose even though it wasn't running, Valerie couldn't bring herself to look at Luca. If she did, she'd cry and right now she was not the one who should be. His father was going to have his head.
"We should leave." Luca announced and Valerie didn't protest, she grabbed her purse and began to walk to the door. Sylvia squeezed her hand as she passed her. "You call me if you need anything."
Valerie's brow furrowed at that, "Aren't you still Michael's girlfriend? I don't understand. Aren't you afraid?"
Sylvia gave her a sad smile, cupping Valerie's cheek for a second as Luca went out of the door.
"Baby, I was only his to make sure you stayed alive. Once he found out I had a son, he fired me from his service. There is no me and him." She revealed, and that was some good news for Valerie's day.
Pulling her into a hug, Valerie squeezed Sylvia all she could without hurting her. She owed this woman her life ten times over. Sylvia returned the hug doubly, sniffling a bit herself.
"You guys can get through this. Luca is a brilliant man. He won't stay down for long." Sylvia pressed, holding both of Valerie's hands. Valerie looked out the front door and saw Luca already in the car. His head downward, she knew he was on his phone.
She could only imagine the news headlines coming about right now.
"I hope you're right." Valerie told her, bringing her face back Sylvia's. She hugged her one more time before leaving and going to the car with Luca. When she got in the passenger seat, she didn't even dare to look at him. She didn't know what emotion to expect from him and honestly she was afraid.
Jumping in surprise when she felt his hand reach for her thigh, Valerie's head whipped towards him. His eyes were radiantly golden in the sunset of evening, he was so beautiful in the light. "A-are you okay?" Valerie worked up the courage to ask.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. There was a deep sadness in them she could tell he was fighting to keep hidden. Her lips pursed as she ached to comfort him, but in a time like this she knew words were just not enough.
"We will see." Was his simple answer and it caught Valerie very off guard.
Luca started the car and drove off from Sylvia's house.
He was not a man to leave things up to chance. He... he was Luca Giovanni. He made the decisions. He called the shots and called everyone's bluff. He was not a "we will see" type of man.
Where was the man who had blackballed her to read a stupid marriage contract or the man who stripped her down to nothing trying to humble her?
Luca Giovanni is cutthroat.
Luca Giovanni was cutthroat.
As Valerie scrolled through the hundreds upon thousands of new news headlines from the market closing. Each and every one had at least one excerpt on the Giovanni Stock Massacre if it wasn't on the front page already.
"Giovanni Heir sets the throne on fire. Business is bankrupt!"
"Lending Giant Giovanni Ent. Huge Fall From Grace"
"When The Chickens Come to Roost: How Luca Lost It All"
And dozens and dozens more were there to read by one google search, all appearing in the last thirty minutes. One thing people did love was to watch someone else's world burn.
Luca's phone also hadn't stopped buzzing, Valerie took the luxury of turning it off. He chuckled a bit at that.
He has to be losing his mind.
Valerie thought warily. Now was not a time for laughter for sure. She wondered what the AAA would do to him. He wasn't going to be the richest man in the room anymore, hell he didn't even have a company to his name!
Why was she freaking out more than he was?!
He was driving quietly on the expressway, he'd already passed the exit he should've used if he was going to his office building— where Valerie felt they should've been going to do damage control, but no he kept driving. His hand was still resting comfortably on her thigh as well.
When they were out of range of going back to the inner city completely, Valerie began to get worried.
She'd been in enough crazy situations with a Giovanni man to know better.
Please don't let me have to roll out of this man's car or fuck us both up in. I really like this one, God.
She silently prayed as she kept watching familiar exits on the road pass them by.
"Luca where are we going?" Valerie asked him, a bit warily. Her hands were fidgeting in her lap. Luca glanced at her before answering, patting her thigh in an attempt to calm her down. It didn't work at all.
"Just trust me. You'll love it." He told her softly, and Valerie wanted to believe him. She did. However, so much had happened to her in the last few months her anxiety was through the roof and the only way she could keep herself from throwing herself out of the window to escape was to talk.
"You know... I didn't think things would end up like this," She began, looking down in her lap at her twiddling fingers. Luca said nothing, the wind hitting the car was the only background noise she had under her.
"If you would've told me a month and a half ago that... that I would be sitting in this car with you as New York fell at your feet. Sitting in this car with you at all... living in your damn house?! I would've had you locked up in a hospital somewhere." Valerie dramatically exaggerated, but that's truly just how she felt.
How her life had changed so drastically was mind boggling to her.
"Is that so?" Luca chimed in, still driving. His eyes solely on the road.
Valerie nodded even though he wasn't looking at her. "Yes, for fucking sure. And-and, I never... pictured myself actually letting you in. Luca you were an asshole for blackballing me and your dating methods are fucking crazy." She continued, although her commentary was scathing, Luca simply smiled as she ranted.
Looking out the window, Valerie saw lots of trees passing by their car. The lush green the perfect distraction as she continued to speak from her heart.
"But I was a bitch to you. A stubborn one at that. You were the person I should've been the least scared of, but I don't know. I got control problems! The more you pushed, the more I wanted to push back and The Armata just scrambled my head even more. I should've just let you ball gag me to be honest..." She drawled to herself, setting her forehead on the cool glass of the window.
"You know it's not too late for that." Luca smugly cut in, causing Valerie to slap his head playfully. He shook it off in good spirits, his mood seeming to lift and so did Valerie's heart.
"What I'm trying to say is, Luca I'm sorry. I've come clean to you, but I haven't apologized to you for running you through the mill like this, and now Michael has your shit. I hate that he has this over you and I promise if I can help you, I will."
Luca had gotten off of the freeway and was now driving on a dirt road that was running along a small lake. He parked the car just a few feet from the shore of it and sat back in the driver's seat.
Valerie hadn't even noticed the car had stopped moving, too wrapped up in finishing her apology speech as she stared at the ceiling of the car.
He didn't interrupt her, he watched quietly. Her vulnerability something that was not revealed to him often.
"I know I came into this marriage thing for the stipend, for sure. It was for my best friend, b-but I want to let you know, even though she's... she's probably dead," Valerie struggled to continue, her voice cracking. She took a sobering breath, choking back a sob.
"Even though she's probably gone, I want to stay with you. Fiancé or not. You have had a million chances to leave me at my lowest points and I'll be damned if I turn my back on you now. We can get through this. I'll help you build from the ground up, but I want you to know I'm here for you, Luca. I..."
Valerie wasn't used to Luca being this quiet for so long, so she'd stopped and looked over to him. He was there still of course, looking at her so intensely her heart skipped a beat when their eyes met.
She felt her face heat, softly smiling to break the intensity of the stare. "Sorry, I was rambling." Luca just returned her smile and looked out onto where he'd driven them.
"We've just reached, Kingston, New York. A little over an hour out from the city. This is where I was born—"
Valerie's brow furrowed at that, looking around at the wildlife, trees, and lake around them. This caused Luca to laugh.
"Not the forest, Val. Just the city."
Her face heated another degree, laughing at herself and slapping her forehead. She tried to play it off as a joke, "Duh. I totally knew that!"
Luca then got out of the car and opened Valerie's door for her, he popped the trunk of the car and brought out a blanket that he laid on the hood of the car. Without even asking, he hoisted Valerie up onto the hood then followed right behind her. The clear blue sky and lake in front of them.
"I brought you here to do the same thing you just did in the car, almost." He revealed, pulling Valerie closer by wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her into him, his chin resting on the top of her head.
"Ramble stupidly?" Valerie offered, humor in her voice even though her heart was beating so fast right now. She'd realized she and Luca had never been out on a proper date before and this... this damn near qualified as their first one.
Luca's laugh vibrated on the top of her head, she could imagine him nodding.
"Precisely, babygirl."
Rolling her eyes at the answer, she took Luca's hand and held it in her's. "Well, I'm all ears." She assured him, watching birds skim over the water. The sky now dusk, a beautiful array of oranges and pinks.
"Valerie, I also never expected to be where I am with you right now. However, the moment I laid eyes on you— even before you'd spilled your sickeningly sweet drink on me— I knew you were mine." Luca began, the hush in his tone was heart stopping-ly intimate. Valerie was at a loss for words.
"Then it was like to fate had plucked you just for me to end up in my office after you ran away from the coffee shop. You had me as soon as you introduced yourself. You surprised me. A groveling mess turned fiery minx. I was mystified already, and then you denied me the opportunity of a lifetime. Without a second thought." Luca chuckled wistfully, like the day had just passed.
"If you weren't such the arrogant asshole, you may have had something!" Valerie grouched as her body heated up from reminiscing on their first encounter. Luca kissed her temple and that fizzled her right out.
"Well, because you did that. I couldn't just let you walk out of my life. I felt like I had already lost you thinking the contract would keep you in my world right away. I pulled a few strings with some colleagues to tell most businesses in New York that if you applied to turn you away. I said you were a disgruntled employee already and I'd sue if they took you on without my say so..."
Valerie's jaw dropped. The secret was finally revealed to what the hell he told all those people to turn her away!
"Disgruntled employee?! I'll show you a fuckin' disgruntled employee!" Valerie screeched, the forest air echoing her disdain around them. Luca softly shushed her, making her sit back in her original position under him.
"Show me tonight, love. I promise to put you right back where you belong." Luca easily responded, and Valerie just huffed. She couldn't think straight when he talked like that.
"But as I was saying," He continued, not missing a beat, "every time you ran, it seemed the universe would deliver you right back to me."
"In the grocery store, at the meeting, and then finally you came to me for good. Whether we needed each other for ulterior motives as well or not, you chose to come to me. You'd fought me long enough to say no."
Valerie nodded her head thoughtfully at his synopsis of everything. He was kind of right. Luca was always the safest option, she just was too stubborn to see through her angry haze at the time.
"And, I was skeptical of you. So adamant on being on your own then delivering yourself to me like a lobster on a platter. It wasn't you."
"That's why I made you sign the contract, so when you came clean the other day I was surprised, but everything finally made sense. Then, today... you recommitted yourself to me even though you literally saw my net worth go from one point five billion to five hundred thousand." Luca had the audacity to chuckle at the humongous wealth drop, Valerie felt sick just thinking about it again.
She squeezed his hand and shook her head. "Well, somebody has to stick around and teach you how to be broke. I can help you apply for your food stamps." She joked, but definitely was more serious than she let on.
Knowing he was rolling his eyes at that, Valerie smiled. The cool air around them did wonders for her heated skin. The heart to heart really was making her feel like she was sitting in a sauna.
"It's my turn to come clean, actually." Luca spoke up, slicing through the warm moment that was created.
Valerie turned her head towards him and squinted her eyes at him. "What the hell are you talking about?" She'd dropped his hand from hers, and sat on edge.
Please don't say you have a secret baby. Please don't say you have a secret baby.
Valerie mentally crossed her fingers because she knew she was not step mom material.
Luca smirked at her expression and kissed her, but she did not return it; expectantly waiting on him to fess up.
"I didn't lose the company."
Valerie's jaw dropped again, she audibly gasped in surprise as her hands came over her mouth. "So you still have Giovanni Enterprises? Everything?" She pressed for more, she couldn't even feel her toes at this point.
Luca thoughtfully nodded, gesturing "kinda sorta".
"You could put it like that, but it's not under my name. I bought out the company before Michael could tank us completely. It was a marvelous attempt on his part, but I have had money saved for long enough to fight the inflation. I have all of the company's stock, but it won't be Giovanni Enterprises when the market reopens tomorrow morning."
Valerie was flabbergasted. Absolutely stunned.
Like she had said before, Luca Giovanni was cutthroat.
"Well what on Earth will it be?!" She asked incredulously, hanging off of his every word. Her heart was so happy. The guilt from earlier dissipating by the second.
"I've decided to go back into business under S&G Corp. We can start a foundation to undo all the damage the AAA has done with it's years of auctions. I've had the plans drawn up for awhile now, I just hadn't had the momentum to strike." He told her, and once again Valerie was taken aback. Her brain felt like it was running computer code, running a string of 1s and 0s.
"S and G?" She repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. Her hands were shaking softly as she looked up at him.
"Stevens and Giovanni. Although, I don't plan on you being Stevens for too much longer... I want you to stay too, Valerie. I love you."
Valerie felt like the world had disappeared from under her, she launched herself onto Luca and began to kiss him like mad all over his face.
"Oh my gosh! I love you too! You fucking maniac! Why would you scare me like that?! I thought you'd lost everything!" She squealed in between kisses, Luca held onto her like she was evaporate into thin air, she was caged between his arms on his chest.
He returned as many of her kisses as he could before smiling through the rest. "I had to be sure you were staying. You've always been the only investment I wasn't completely in control of, and now I'm sure. Or maybe I'll draw out another contract?"
"Don't you fucking dare." Valerie growled, although she was hugging him like she never wanted to let go. She felt him moving under her, his hand reaching into the pocket of his jacket; he produced a ring box.
After today I'm going to have to get my heart checked.
Valerie sat up to watch in awe as he opened the box. It was a new ring, and this time it truly was perfect. Just for her.
"Oh my..." Valerie breathily exhaled, tears springing to her eyes as Luca took her left hand and slid the ring onto her still softly trembling hands. She was at a loss for words as she looked up at him, Luca's eyes were soft as he looked down at his sniffling fiancé.
"You are worth the hearts and flowers you demanded from me months ago, and I'm going to give them to you every single day we spend together; for the rest of our lives."
The tears began to fall after that of course.
Valerie hugged him again, looking at her new ring as she embraced him. She truly felt like a princess and this was something she could finally write home about.
This is was what she wanted all along.
When the two had got done kissing and making up just a bit more, they looked towards the horizon and saw that the sun had finally set and the moon was now on full show in the sky. Luca packed up the blanket they were on and they got back in the car.
Valerie got back into the passenger's seat, still marveling at her ring. She was on cloud nine.
"Fuck." Luca cursed in the driver's seat.
Valerie's head whipped to him and she saw he'd just turned his phone on and whatever it was, was really bad.
"What's wrong?" She asked, adrenaline already running.
"My father has seized control of the AAA, he's acting as head again. There's a meeting tonight, and from the look of this email... there will be an auction to remember."
It was if the world had turned on its head once agin.
Luckily,
Valerie Stevens was cutthroat too.