“Then, Dad, I have a feeling I may have met him, and I hope you can find it in your heart to accept that.” She knew it was too soon, but everything he described was everything she felt.
****
Pocketing his cell phone, Diego joined the table where his father and his father’s current fuck interest were waiting, along with Charlotte and her family.
“Is everything okay?” his father asked.
“Perfect.” He’d been forced to come to this lunch at his father’s request. All that he did was at either his father’s or The Boss’s request.
“The date of the wedding has been brought forward,” Charlotte’s mother said.
“Excuse me.” Diego looked toward the woman who would be his future-mother-in-law. She looked like she sucked on lemons in her spare time.
“The wedding. The Boss wants to speed things up. He believes morale has been at an all-time low, and to help lift the darkness, he wants the wedding by the end of the month,” his father said.
“Why wasn’t I notified about this?” The end of the month was just over a week and a half away.
This wasn’t what he wanted.
“We did send an email,” Charlotte said.
“I didn’t get it.” He glared toward her mother. “Anything else I need to know about?”
“Yes, we hired the chef at Angelo’s Place. We’ve been told it’s where you like to eat.”
This made Diego pause. “By who?”
“Angelo. He’s been helping to contribute to the wedding.”
Diego’s hands clenched. It wouldn’t do him any good to kill every single person at this table. The Boss would make him answer for the crimes, and none of them were worth it.
“There won’t be a honeymoon immediately after the wedding, but in two months’ time,” her mother said.
The woman kept on talking even though he lost interest. The woman he wanted wasn’t sitting at this table, and she shouldn’t be.
“Well, it would seem you have everything planned out, and seeing as you’ve done well enough without me, I will leave you to continue the preparations.” He got to his feet, throwing down some money before turning on his heel and walking out.
He should have known Angelo would be part of this in some way. That asshole had been playing with him for years.
Running a hand down his face, to clear the mess from his mind, he stood outside the restaurant, waiting for his car to be brought around.
“Diego?”
He looked toward the door to see Charlotte had followed him. Nodding in her direction, he stayed perfectly still.
“I know a lot is happening so fast,” Charlotte said.
“It’s not going to change what is happening though, is it? You’ll be my wife, and whatever The Boss wants, he gets.” He checked the time and saw it was a little after one. He needed to check in with Richard before he met up with Belle.
Shit, Belle. She wanted to take him out, and now he knew Angelo knew about Angelo’s Place. Was it a taunt? A challenge? He needed to deal with his fucking wayward cousin once and for all. For too long he’d been in hiding, and it was time to seek him out.
“Do you want to get married?” Charlotte asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“What?”
“In the past couple of weeks, you seem to have lost all interest when it comes to marriage with me,” she said. “I understand. I’m not exactly the best pick.”
“No, I don’t want to get married to you, Charlotte. I don’t love you. I don’t care for you even a little bit. The idea of having to fuck you sickens me. Not because of who you are. I’m just not interested in you.”
“You found someone else?” she asked.
“I’m not talking about this with you.”
“I understand. Men in our world don’t seem to think we understand anything, but we do. We understand love and loyalty and needing to do what is right. It’s not easy for us.”
“Are you telling me you’re in love with someone else?”
This would make it easy for him, and a lot more interesting.
“No. I’m not in love with anyone. I don’t even know if I’ve ever known what love is.”
All he had to do was think about losing Belle, and he got a really good fucking idea.
“I know what love is.”
“Is it worth it? The pain? The suffering?”
“For the right kind of person, anything is worth it,” he said. “I’m going to ask you again, is there someone else?”
“No. There’s no one else. I don’t know how to help you get out of this wedding. If I refuse you, it’ll cast me out even more. I can’t do that.”
“There is no way out, Charlotte. Don’t you get that?”
“I’m sorry, Diego. I really am.” She went to put her hand on his arm, but he pulled away. He had no desire for her to touch him at all.
“Goodbye, Charlotte.”
His car arrived, and he moved away from her, with no interest in continuing a conversation.