Chapter 3 Three

Matteo

"She's beautiful."

Black had always been my favourite colour.

Hidden. Silent. Deadly.

I felt at home with it, like siblings whose bonds grew stronger every day.

Yet in the span of a second, Valentina had upended that as she had every other thing in my life.

Heat poured down my body as Valentina mixed various colours in a flat disk, creating a mixture to paint across the canvas. She was colour and chaos, a whirlwind of unpredictable energy I should have stayed away from.

I hated it.

I hated how she made me question everything. How she made me wish I didn't give up on my search.

And I hated how much I wanted her.

She wasn't supposed to be mine. She wasn't supposed to be anyone's.

But fate had always been cruel.

The art gallery in the estate was small, almost quaint, but it had become a place of refuge for her. A sanctuary where she could lose herself and hide from Caterina, I guessed.

Isabella had been the brain behind the idea. She thought it would be nice for me to have a place where I could stay and paint whenever I felt the urge to disappear.

It was supposed to be our place. A little room we could stay in without anyone watching us or trying to harm us.

Just her in front of the canvas as my muse.

Isabella had been everything I thought I wanted.

Carefree, strong, rebel.

Everything I could never be. The ideal partner.

Perfect match on paper. And I had convinced myself she was going to be my future.

Then she ran away.

"Stay away from her." I growled, my voice low and dangerous, the warning hanging in the air like a loaded gun.

Valentina was a wide card. She wasn't a rebel like her sister, and I was pretty sure she had never broken a single rule in her life.

Graceful like the Swan. The perfect wife.

She was chaos.

And she was mine. Even if she didn't know it yet.

Ethan's smirk faded, replaced by a flicker of understanding. "Careful, Matteo. Possessiveness can be a double-edged sword."

My cold smile showed him how little I cared. "Perhaps if you channel that energy to your wife, you wouldn't be on time out."

Satisfaction filled my chest at his narrowed eyes. If Valentina was my weakness, then Valerie was his.

I wasn't interested in anything that happened in his relationship.

After being a fuckboy for most of his life, he finally showed interest in one of the ladies who worked in the Nevaro mafia gang, and like a gentleman, I introduced them.

Now, she was about to give us a little Ethan.

"Point taken." He said with a tightened jaw. All humour was gone now, leaving behind the asshole I was used to. "But I didn't come here to discuss Valentina or Valerie, so let me get to the real issue at hand. When are we going to attack the Greens? I swear, their heads get bigger every time."

I forced thoughts of blond curls and grey eyes out aside at the mention of the rival gang.

Romanos, the mafia that had been the bane of my existence even before I was born. For reasons no one talked about anymore, the Nevarros and the Romanos hated each other.

"No one told you to attack them in broad daylight." I walked to the bar at the side and got myself a drink. Ethan, that bastard picked up my Ipad the moment I walked away. "I told you they did not kidnap Isabella."

"She happens to be Valerie's best friend, so I had to try. Unlike you, who just forgot her and hooked up with the little sister." Judgement flowed heavily from his last statement.

"You have a problem, I explain why." I gave a careless shrug. "If Isabella had been taken, I would give my entire life to get her back.."

And I had not hooked up with the sister. I avoided her at all costs.

Secretly anyway. As far as everyone in the estate and beyond knew, I met up with Valentina every night to provide an heir.

The Nevarro family was a nosy bunch. The whole lot. And I would be damned if I allowed them to know much about my private affairs.

He examined me over the top of his glass. "You act like you no longer care about her. You got what you wanted, then cast her aside like trash." He added. "Everyone on the street wants to know."

"I have my reasons."

Just one to be exact. But he didn't need to know that.

***

She sat on my chair, her legs planted squarely on my desk. If someone else had tried that, I would use my gun on them without asking for an explanation.

"She's different, Maverick." Isabella had said, her eyes searching mine for some reaction. "She's not like me."

"No one is like you."

She chuckled. "Not what I meant. She's a rebel in her own way, hidden from our parents, and I'm scared she'll hurt herself one day." She added. "Especially with the sickness."

*****

Ethan made an impatient noise, but he was smart enough to keep what he thought to himself.

"Fine, but I'm not waiting forever. It's ruining my reputation as a man who kills his enemies." He grumbled.

"Everyone thinks Isabella would be back now that I married Valentina. You're fine." I said dryly.

In reality, they wouldn't.

Questions would always be asked, and fingers would always point.

"I'll go deaf from Valerie's complains." Ethan rubbed a thumb over his upper lip. "Speaking of complaints, Adrian was officially murdered last night."

The atmosphere shifted with the weight of the new topic.

"I wanted to kill him."

I had no love lost for the man who tried to marry my sister last year, only to be caught cheating on her with some lady.

Adrian had always been a slimeball. This was just the first time something happened to him.

Ethan and I talked about Adrian some more before he excused himself to make a call.

As the CEO of Blythe Enterprise, a luxury tech company that prided itself in making the best tech products, he was always in the business of making and taking calls.

In the absence of conversation, my mind moved towards a certain blond.

Did she realise how much she had taken a life that was meant for her sister?

Did she know that despite everything, I couldn't get her off my mind?

The memory of her walking down the walkway, dragging that bag behind her because I had instructed everyone to stay clear, lingered in my brain.

I shouldn't have agreed to her mother when she told me she would let me have the sister, and I damn well shouldn't have allowed her to know just how well I cared for her sister.

I didn't care about the arranged marriage our family had planned for us.

I raised my head up as Ethan walked into the office again.

"I have to go to Paris." He grabbed his jacket from the chair close to me. "Something....happened."

"Sorry to hear that." I said mildly.

I waited until he was close to his car before I added. "The something wouldn't happen to be a certain friend coming to meet Valerie, right?"

Surprise coated his eyes, followed by annoyance. "What did you do, Nevarro?"

"I merely facilitated the reunion between old friends." One message from Valerie and the said friend came running. Pathetic if one asked me. "Since you enjoyed fucking with what's mine so much, I figured I'd return the favour."

I slammed his car door in his face.

Brutal, but effective. He was my best friend, but I didn't appreciate people talking about what's mine.

I straightened my shirt sleeves and returned to the library, where my gaze travelled the length of the driveway until it landed on those fucking grey eyes.