Chapter 3 His Rival

"W-what?" Andrea asked.

"So, you're basically being forced to marry her?"

Aurora asked.

"No, I chose to marry her" Andrea replied.

"What do you mean? I'm confused" Aurora said.

"Dad wanted me to choose a bride to marry to continue our family's name and I chose her. Now can you please leave?" Andrea tried to ask nicely.

"Stronzo!" she shouted.

"What does that mean?" I asked Macro.

"It means asshole. Now can you please stop shouting!" Macro shouted, walking up to them. I still had no idea who this girl is, whether she was his friend, or girlfriend.

"Macro you do realise I'm your boss, and you don't demand me to do things" Andre said, turning his attention to Macro.

"Well, your shouting was giving me a headache.

And I'm sure Elena is confused about who this girl is"

Macro said. And he was right, I was very confused. I walked closer to them.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name Aurora, and this is my older brother Andrea." She replied, with a cute smile.

Oh, I was so wrong. This isn't his girlfriend; this is his younger sister. I mean I didn't really care if she was because if she was his girlfriend, I wouldn't have to marry this guy and it would make my life a whole lot simpler.

"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Elena" I said, handing out my hand for her to shake as a kind gesture. Instead of shaking my hand, she pulled me into a tight hug.

I was shocked at her hug, but I hugged her back.

"I haven't seen a girl here in ages!" she shrieked.

"Seriously?" I asked, shocked and in disbelief of what she just said.

"Yeah, I'm so happy to see a girl here. Oh, we're going to best friends, we're going to go shopping, go to a spa day together, go to the cinema. Ah, I can't wait!" she rambled.

"Aurora, you're scaring her!" Andrea said, sharply.

"I'm sorry, I just- I'm too excited" she said.

"It's fine, I'm happy to see a girl too actually, I thought I was going to have to live with only men for the rest of my life" I said, with a laugh.

"I know. But trust me you'll get used to it, I mean I did, unfortunately" she said.

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Macro said, in defence.

"You're not, you're the only guy I like after my brother" she said.

"What?" Andrea asked. I think we all thought she meant as in she liked him in a romantic way.

"Not like that! I like him as a friend!" Aurora said abruptly.

"Good, because he doesn't deserve you!" Andrea said.

"I thought you loved me" Macro said, looking over at Andrea.

"I do, it's just I want the best for my sister, and I definitely don't want her dating one of my men!" Andrea said.

"Hey, I wanted to ask, can someone show me a tour of this place, I can barely even make it back to Andrea's room, I think" I said.

"Aurora can give you a tour, I have work to do. I need to go see if the shipments arrived here" Andrea said, walking off.

"Okay, let's go!" Aurora said, grabbing a hold of

my arm.

"And this is the library, which in my opinion is the most boring place in this whole mansion" she said.

She had given me a full tour of the house in less than thirty minutes which was fast, because this place is huge.

"No, I actually like this place, I like reading a lot." I said, walking in the library.

"What, but how?" she asked, following right behind me.

"I like reading because it lets me escape the real world, and I don't have to face reality when I'm reading, because you imagine yourself in a completely different world, you see yourself in the main character so much and wish if you could only have her life. Because you know that life would be much simpler and have much more meaning to it if you had... her life" I explained.

"Wow, that's deep" she said.

"I know, it's just my way of how I see books" I said.

Maybe I'll try it someday, see if I can relate to what you just described it as" she said.

"You should, I think you'll enjoy it" I said.

"Well, anyways I should get going, because I just got back from New York and I still need to unpack, but if you'd like you could stay here and leave whenever you'd like" she said.

"Sure, I'll stay maybe read a book or two and then I'll head back to my room" I said.

"Speaking of your room, where is it?" she asked.

"I share it with your brother. He wanted me to share it with him so we could get along better, knowing we have to get married" I said.

Saying that makes me feel uneasy, never in my life did I ever imagine myself getting married. I never believed in love, so how was I supposed to get married. How am I going to get through this?

"Okay, I'll leave you alone then, bye" she said, walking out of the library and shutting the huge double doors of the library behind her.

I made my way to my favorite section of the library, the fantasy bookshelf. I lightly ran my finger along the books, they were all different shapes and sizes, all having amazing covers and names. I couldn't pick so I continued running my finger along the books and coming to a stop. My fingers stopped at a book, with the name 'The secret we share'. I grabbed the book and walked over to a bench and started reading it.

"Wow, I already finished it" I said out loud, closing the book. I walked back to its bookshelf to put it back, when I noticed that it had a second book to it, so I grabbed it. But it was too late to read now, so I decided to head back to Andrea's room and shower and then continue reading this book.

I made my way to Andrea's room, when I was about two rooms away from his, I saw a man walking in my direction. He had brown wavy hair and dark and mysterious eyes, he wore a light blue buttoned up shirt and dark blue jeans and a leather jacket draped over his shoulders. Who is he? We made our way closer to each other.

"Hi" I said, with a polite smile.

"Hello"

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Leonardo, and you?" he asked.

"My name is Elena" I replied, with a smile.

"A cute name, for a cute girl" he said, with a grin.

"Aw, thank you" I said.

"I should get going he said.

"Wait, where?" I asked.

"I need to speak to Andrea" he said.

Why didn't he address him as boss? Were Andrea and him close, like he is with Marco? I just shrugged it off, and waved goodbye and made my way to Andrea's room.

I walked into Andrea's room, and saw that Andrea wasn't in the room, I didn't really care, all I wanted to do was shower, read this book and go to sleep. I made my way to the walk-in closet to grab my pajamas, but there still weren't any clothes there, I had no clothes. Didn't Andrea say his men were going to get me my clothes? I'll go ask him. I walked out my room and made my way to his office, which I knew where it was now, thanks to Aurora.

I didn't even knock, and walked straight in, which was quite rude of me.

"Oh my god" I gasped, as I clenched my book to my chest from shock and fear.

I saw Andrea held by his neck by the guy I just spoke to in the hallway, Andrea had several bruises on his face, and he had a gush wound on his forehead, that was seeping blood from it. The guy was holding a sharp blade to his neck. Why is he doing this? I thought he only wanted to talk to him, not kill him. And if he were here to kill him, what was his reason for wanting to kill the most feared mafia boss?

"W-what are you doing?" I stuttered.

"Get...out of...here" Andrea said, heavily breathing.

"I thought you only wanted to talk to him!" I shouted.

"Oh, but I had to lie to get to him, why would I tell you that I was here to kill your boyfriend" he said, sinking the blade deeper into Andrea's throat.

Why isn't Andrea fighting back? Isn't Andrea the most feared mafia boss? So why isn't he doing anything? I thought carelessly and decided to do something and help Andrea, although I knew he had a blade, and that he could fight, whereas I can't. I ran over to the guy and kicked his leg which made him wince in pain and loosen his grip on Andrea, I then hit him with my book on his head, which made him fall and roll on his side. I suddenly saw three men come running into Andrea's office, including Marco. The guy quickly got back on his two feet and grabbed me from my wrist and pull me towards him, which made me drop my book.

He held me by my waist with one hand and held the blade to my neck with the other hand.

"I will live up to my promise Andrea, remember that!" he said. What promise? What is he talking about?

"Let her go! She has nothing to do with our rivalry!" Andrea shouted. Marco and the two other men drew their guns out and pointed them at the guy.

"Let her go!" Marco shouted.

"This isn't over Andrea, I still haven't lived up to my promise!" he said, letting me go and running out past the three men.

Andrea collapsed to his knees when the guy ran off.

Macro quickly ran to help Andrea.

"What the hell was Leonardo doing here?" Macro asked Andrea. The two other men stood at the door as our protection.

"La promessa" Andrea replied. Did he seriously reply in Italian so I wouldn't understand him? (The promise)

"Stronzo!" Macro cussed out. (asshole)

"Shouldn't we call a doctor?" I asked, still in shock.

"No, go and get Aurora!" Macro said, helping

Andrea up to his chair.

"What? But why?" I asked, confused.

"Just do it!" Macro shouted. I did as he said, and ran to Aurora's room, she wasn't asleep, but she was in her pajamas.

"Andrea...needs your... help!" I said, panting in between breaths.

"What?" she asked.

"He's hurt, come on!" I shouted. We quickly made our way to his office and Aurora ran in before me.

"What the hell happened?" Aurora asked.

"Leonardo, he came here, and I wasn't ready for his attack, and he got the advantage of a surprise attack, and his attack was quick and sharp which showed he was preparing for it, and next thing I know he was holding a sharp blade to my neck" Andrea explained. Aurora started examining his wounds.

"Then how did you live?" Aurora asked, getting up and grabbing a first aid-kit from the drawer and came back to Andrea.

"Elena saved me, she hit him with a book, and he fell to the floor" Andrea replied.

"I didn't save you, because when I did, he had also almost killed me" I said, honestly.

"Wow girl, you fought him off" Aurora said, applying alcohol to Andrea's wound.

"I don't even know what I did, I just did what first came to mind, which was stupid because he had a weapon, and I didn't" I said.

"But if you hadn't done something, Andrea would have died" Aurora said, wrapping a gauze over the cleaned wound.

"Thank you" Andrea said, smiling at me.

His smile looked so sincere, I didn't even think he was capable of smiling because of his rude and distant self. I just smiled back in response.

"There and next time please be prepared to fight someone, stronzo!" Aurora said. (asshole)

"Yeah, I know" Andrea said. "Now all of you out of my office!"

Everyone left but I stayed because I still hadn't asked him the question that brought me to saving his life.

"What are you still doing here? You should go to bed, it's getting late" he said, shuffling through papers on his desk.

"The reason I came to your office in the first place is because I have a question, I need to ask you, and then I will go" I said.

"What is it?" he asked, his eyes never meeting mine, but still focused on the papers.

"Why do I have no pajamas? I thought your men got me everything" I said.

"They did" he said, finally looking at me. His eyes were as blue as the ocean, so clear that you could see your reflection in them.

"No, when I was about to grab my pajamas to go shower, they weren't there!" I said.

"I'll ask them tomorrow about it" he said, looking back at his papers.

"What am I supposed to sleep in tonight?" I asked.

"You can borrow something from mine" he replied.

"Fine. Am I bothering you or something?" I asked.

"No, why would you be bothering me?" he asked, looking back at me.

"I just feel like you don't want to talk to me" I say lowly.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. Why did that guy want to kill you? I'm sure he had a reason, right? I mean he wouldn't want to kill you for no reason" I said.

"Even if he didn't want to kill me, he still would have a reason to kill me" he said.

"So, he does have a reason? And why would he still have a reason?" I asked.

"I can't tell you the exact reason until I can trust you with it, just know that we are rivals." He replied.

"Don't worry, I get it. And my second question, why would he still have a reason to kill you?" I asked.

"Elena, I'm the most powerful and feared mafia boss from the mafia kingdoms, everyone would try to kill me to get my place and be at the top of the kingdoms" he replied.

"Reasonable, I guess" I said, with a yawn.

"You should go to sleep, El" he said.

"Yeah, I will. Good night" I said, walking out of his office.

Andrea POV:

I felt so weak and empowered by Leonardo, he was only the second most powerful mafia boss, how did he manage to beat me in a fight? We always fought before, but he never managed to win, was I that unprepared for a fight, or my shock to him getting into my mansion? Or was it something else? But what could it be? I have always been stronger than him, since we were kids, so what the hell happened today? I was so lost in thought that I didn't even notice someone walking into my office.

"Andrea, Che Cazzo?" my dad yelled. Oh great, what does this asshole want now? (what the fuck?)

"Hmm?" I asked, looking up at him.

"I just found out that you lost a fight with Leonardo.

How the hell did this happen?" he yelled. I was scared he was going to wake someone up, but I had to answer.

"I didn't expect him to come here and decide to fight me" I replied.

"You're always supposed to be ready! This isn't how I trained you! I trained you to be the best, to not be a coward, to not be weak!" he yelled. I was bursting with anger and rage when he said that last sentence.

"Oh really, is that what you think you did? Because I can assure you that it didn't work out for you. You fucking treated me horribly my whole life, you made me keep training even when I told you that I was tired and was about to collapse, and needed a break, you abused me, thinking that it would help me grow stronger, well it didn't! It only made me weaker, because I'm scared of trusting people because of you, I'm scared of loving someone, scared I'll do what you did and hurt her, just like you did to mum. Why are you such a cold-hearted bastard!" I yelled, slamming my hands on the table.

He simply stayed silent, and when he did, I thought that I had won this argument when he spoke again,

"And you think I'll care if anything bad happens to you?" he asked, with a smirk his face.

"Of course, you won't, because you're blinded with money and power, but those things will never bring you true happiness! Love is what brings you true happiness in this world, not how much money you have or how powerful you are, love is what makes us human, but you robbed me of that emotion when I was only a child, and now I will live my whole life never understanding the true meaning of it because of you!" I yelled one final time, hoping this would do it and he would walk away.

"You are no son of mine, you mistake!" he yelled, before leaving my office.