Emilia (Part 1)(47)
Marcello shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I’d like to make sure your daughter and I are on the same page. That’s all.”
My father turned the force of his attention on me, his eyes communicating silent threats not to mess this up, or maybe it was my imagination. “I’ll be back soon.”
When the door closed behind him, I flinched, and my heart ground to a momentary halt.
“Let’s sit.” Marcello waved a hand in the direction of the camel leather sofa.
“I’ll stand.”
He chuckled and grabbed my hand. When I tried to pull it away he tightened his grip. “I’m not your enemy, Emilia, but that will change if you fight me.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, hoping to appeal to the man from the letters, not this cold, hard person in front of me. Surely, that man would free both of us from this barbaric bargain.
He cocked his head to the side, one inky brow arched and his startling blue eyes skewering me. “This?”
“Agreeing to marry me? I’m sure there are plenty of women in Chicago that’d be happy to have you. I don’t understand what would possess you to marry someone you’ve never seen.”
He released my hand and lifted his glass to his lips, drinking the last sip and setting it onto a side table. “I’ve seen you. Or have you already forgotten that I caught you spying on my conversation with your father years ago?”
“That doesn’t count.”
“I’ve seen you since then.”
When?”
“I watched a piano performance about six months ago. I think it was your last one.”
“Why didn’t you approach me?”
“You were otherwise engaged.”
“Otherwise engaged? You mean performing?”
“No. I came backstage afterward.”
“Oh, right. Someone approached me about studying at a music conservatory. I guess I was preoccupied that night.”
He smiled, but nothing about it was friendly. “I heard about that. I was talking about the man kissing you though.”
My entire body froze, and I struggled to draw enough air into my constricted lungs. “I think you’re mistaken.”
“Am I?”
My attention bounced around the room looking at anything other than him. Fessing up would probably be the best course of action right now. It’d smooth things over, earn me some honesty points, and in the long run it wouldn’t matter since I was never going to marry him. Something inside of me blocked the confession from surfacing, and I settled on a whitewashed version of the truth.
“Hmm. Maybe you’re right. I can’t remember that night all too well. I was excited about a scholarship offer, and it’s entirely possible I kissed someone in celebration. You know, now that I think about it that’s probably what you saw.”
His lips quirked and then smoothed out in quick succession, leaving his face too blank for my comfort. “That’s an interesting assessment of the situation.”
“Assessment?”
He perched on the edge of my dad’s desk and scooped up a clear Lucite paperweight, transferring it from one hand to the other while he looked off to the side, likely considering his next move. Second after second passed, my ears honing in on the steady tick of the grandfather clock behind me. Pinning me with his icy blue irises, he finally asked, “Do you want to know my assessment of the situation?”
“Not particularly.”
His lips twitched again. Damn him for finding this situation funny. “Too bad. I’m going to tell you anyway.”
“Great. I can’t wait,” I grumbled, feeling like a child caught in a lie, and perhaps that’s what I was.
“You and Salvatore D’Amico are having an affair.” I opened my mouth to contradict him, and his hand sliced through the air. “Don’t interrupt me. I’m not finished. As I said, you two are having an affair. While I’m not happy about it, I’m not going to punish you for it. However, I won’t permit it to continue.”
My teeth locked together. “How gracious of you. I’d hate for you to be forced to punish me.”
“Esattamente! I’m glad we’re in agreement. I want us to start our marriage with a clean slate. Until today I was a faceless man you were told you’d marry. I tried to remedy that and alleviate some of your uncertainty through our correspondence, and hopefully, I was successful. Now that we’ve met and we’re announcing the engagement, I expect you to act like an engaged woman, which means no more alone time with Salvatore. No more longing glances, kissing, or whatever it is you do with him. All of it stops as of today. I don’t want other people whispering about my fiancée’s history with another man. Are we clear?”