Tears are the summer showers to the soul.
Alfred Austin
Haven Pierce's POV
Have you ever experienced planning your summer traveling to places that you've never been before and enjoyed your newfound freedom only to be taken away by some strangers claiming to be your new guardian?
Well, that's what happened to me earlier today.
I am so excited that the semester ended and I have a few weeks of freedom before I start looking for an internship. I was supposed to be backpacking in Asia or Europe but everything went down the drain because Santino Marchesi—my new unwanted legal guardian was taking me to his homeland in Sicily to spend my summer vacation under his care!
Like I want to have something to do with him. From the moment I met him in the parking lot of the university, I already sense the unmistakable danger from him. He was in no way just an ordinary businessman who fortunately knew my Dad very well. Yep, I knew that his filthy rich from the expensive car he used to his magnificent modern mansion in Malibu and now his damn private plane...
I felt my irritation take over me once again as I unwillingly reminded myself that I was strapped inside his damn plane and we were bound to Sicily. I still remember vividly how he put me over his shoulder as he did back at the parking lot of the university ignoring my protest he was used to getting his way that's why it's only fitting to call him 'the brute Sicilian'.
I still didn't understand how my Dad got associated with the likes of him. I mean, Dad made no mention that he has a business partner in Sicily or that he had millions in his bank account and several properties and even businesses when we live in a three-bedroom bungalow in the middle-class area in Los Angeles.
I am not complaining that my Dad didn't tell me this. We were happier even if we lived in modest lifestyle below his means. My only complaint was why he entrusted me to the care of this guy I don't even want to trust. I am sure Santino Marchesi thinks of me as nothing but a hindrance to his busy life I could see it on his face every time he looks at me. The disdain and annoyance on his face were more than obvious.
And what I don't understand even more is why he bothered to take me to his birthplace and honored Dad's last wish when he could just let me stay in Los Angeles.
"Are you done cursing me inside your head?" He asked with a smirk on his devilishly handsome face.
I shot him a gaze and then I avoided his piercing eyes. "I don't do such a thing, Mr. Marchesi."
"Santi," he replied casually, sitting across from me with a glass of whiskey on his table. His bodyguards were sitting at the far back of his private plane having a small conversation with themselves but I knew that they were keenly listening to us. "Mr. Marchesi is too formal. You can call me Santi for short."
I wanted to snort but stop myself from doing so. I pointedly look out my plane window refusing to stare at his face. There was something about him that compels you to stare at his face like a magnet. There was something about him that intrigues me more than I should care. "I was just wondering, Mr. Marchesi, how did you manage to get my stuff in our house? I don't remember giving you my keys."
From the corner of my eyes, I saw him discreetly cover his mouth with his hand to hide the smile formed in his mouth but I saw it, nevertheless. "I instructed my men to do the job and they did it."
I couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief. "Don't tell me your men broke into our house like common burglars?"
"Then, I am not telling you."
A frown formed on my face while studying him. "What kind of man are you? It seems not a big deal for you knowing that your men are capable of ransacking someone else house."
He chuckled darkly which made me shiver. He crossed his leg over the other while looking at me with a tilt of his eyebrow. "Interested in me now, are you?"
I grimaced. I shouldn't have asked that stupid question because I knew very well that he wouldn't give me an honest answer. From what I could perceive of him, he likes to play with people's minds and I have to be very careful with him. "Forget it," I heard myself saying dismissively. "I am not remotely interested in you. In fact, I don't have anything to do with you."
He was silent for a moment. I thought that I hit a nerve but when I allow myself to spare him a glance I felt that my breath was caught in my throat when he was looking at me with such intensity in his eyes with a dark aura that surrounded him. "Soon enough, you'll learn something about me and my work, Haven."
"I told you—"
"I will call you however I want." He cut me off with an icy tone, his eyes were hard on me. "You are now my charge and whether you like it or not it will not change the fact that I will be in your life for the next four years."
I gasped at the thought. "You can't be serious! Don't tell me you intend to drag this thing until the very last end."
"Of course," he answered with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I have to honor my mentor's final wish and a Sicilian never breaks his promise you have to remember that."
Closing my eyes, I rubbed my forehead warily. This was getting out of hand with each moment passing by. I couldn't possibly allow this man to be in my life for the next four years! That's damn too long for some stranger to be in my life. I was half-tempted to demand from Dad from his grave what kind of nonsense he did to me.
I was more than okay to be left in the dark about the secret wealth my Dad have left if only I wouldn't be in this situation I am in right now. I stared at the man in front of me who was probably in his late twenties or early thirties. I glanced at his ringless finger I don't think he's already married. I tilted my head to the side slightly. "What about your girlfriend, Mr. Marchesi? I don't think she will like the idea that her boyfriend's twenty-something ward will live with him for the entire summer."
He flashed me an arrogant smile. "I don't do relationships, my dear. I fucked. And when I do it I do it thoroughly. Besides, I don't sleep with the same woman twice."
I could feel that my cheeks were burning the way he casually mention his sex life to me. I shouldn't have expected some morals from him because he's a walking red flag the kind of man you should avoid at all costs so your heart will not be broken.
"So should I expect to see different women coming in and out of our home during my stay?"
"Yes," and then he paused for a moment, a cynical smile fit his mouth. "On the other hand, I might not do so since there will be an innocent little girl in my house from now on. Maybe I should conduct my affairs elsewhere."
My face heated once again but this time not from embarrassment but from undisguised anger that he openly admitted that he thinks of me as nothing but a little girl. It was so freaking insulting! I'm already a grown woman but I may not have a boyfriend yet, certainly, I am not as innocent as he thinks of me.
"I don't care if you paraded your women in your house for all I care!" I snapped at him angrily. "I am nothing but your houseguest, after all. So please, don't mind me, and just continue to live your life the way you want to be."
He chuckled deeply, enjoying baiting me and I enjoy myself being baited, damn it! "If you say so, little one."
Little one. Those two simple words made my resentment boil to top-notch. Does he know how insulting it was for him to continue to address me like that? I knew that he didn't see me as a woman but he doesn't have to keep reminding me.
With such irritation, I pointedly look out my plane window completely ignoring him but I was still aware of his intense eyes focus on me. I squirmed inside because I felt uncomfortable with his burning gaze. I don't know what's going on inside his head but I don't like his stare. I looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "What? Do you want to say something?"
He permitted himself to smile slightly before shaking his head ruefully. "I am just looking at your bright pink hair."
"Why is that? Too bright for your dark soul?" I asked sassily. I didn't know who was more surprised by my answer me or him since I never thought that I should say something like that to a person however rude he or she was to me I even heard his men from the back of the plane clear their throat nervously. I guess this man has already reached the limit of my patience and surprisingly I didn't regret it.
I thought he was going to get mad at the insult I just threw in his face but I was surprised when he smirked devilishly in my direction. "That's correct, I have a dark soul. You don't know how dark it was—maybe I don't have a soul, after all."
I bit my lower lip while watching him cautiously. I wasn't sure if he being sarcastic or what all I knew was that there was a hardness in his eyes while looking back at eyes. "And you're proud of it?"
He shrugged callously. "I am not sure. I just don't care if I would be burned in hell after my death."
"You can't possibly be that bad if my Dad trusted you to leave me in your care after his unexpected death," I informed him, I don't understand why I bother trying to convince myself that he's not that bad guy when everything he showed me since we met a few hours ago tells me otherwise.
Maybe I was just trying to find good in every person just like what my Dad taught me. Not everything was just plain black and white.
"Little one," he mocked, his eyes filled with cynicism in their depth. "You don't know me yet or even your father to say something like that."
I frowned at him questioningly. "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing."
I wouldn't let this slide that easily. It was so easy for him to brush off the questions he didn't want to answer but not this time. "What do you mean when you say I didn't know my father that well? For your information, Dad and I were close when he was still alive maybe he didn't tell me how big his bank account was but Dad will never lie to me."
He nodded in agreement. "I see."
"Stop playing games with me, Mr. Marchesi," I told him hotly. I hate it when he reminds me that I might not know my father's secretive life after all. He might be correct and the thought made my heart twitch in agony.
He was studying me for a long moment probably mentally debating if he would enlighten me or not. I assumed that he decided on the latter. "I don't think you're ready to learn about it yet. I hate to be the one to break the sweet image of your father in your mind when you learn about the truth in our business, Signorina."
That made me confused even more. There was something shady about him and his association with my Dad the way he talked about him as if he knew my father that well and I am not.
I took a deep breath while playing with my fingers in my lap. "Like a said, I am already a grown woman I can deal with the rash reality you can tell me now. How on earth has my Dad got a secret business and an insane amount of money in his bank account while he lives modestly?"
He cocked a brow in my direction. "Are you sure you can handle the truth?"
"Yes!" I nearly snapped at him.
"Your father lives his life below his means with a secretive business you didn't even know while he hired bodyguards to protect you from time to time," he paused for a moment. "You are smart you can complete the puzzle."
I was silent for a moment staring at him as if he had grown horns in his head. I refused to believe what my brain was telling me. No! It couldn't be possible... "A-Are you saying..." I cleared my throat because it feels it went dry all of a sudden. "My father..."
"Si," he answered unsympathetically. "That's the answer you're looking for." He smiled callously in my direction. "Welcome to the underground business, Haven."