Mattia

"Lana, call ms. Artist. Tell her to come see me." I ended the call before Lana could say more than 'okay'.

My hands were sweating and my feet tapped away at the floor as my impatience could no longer stay hidden. There were only two things on my mind, the same two things that had prevented me from having a good night rest; Emmanuelle moving into Marco's room and my meeting with Rafael. Thankfully, I had unknowingly given myself the space to have a talk with her before my meeting with Rafael at ten o'clock. I had woken up at three in the morning and had come into the office at seven. For two hours I had rehearsed what I was going to say to her and to Rafael.

The only thing I needed to do was to get Marco out of the office. Luckily, I had a meeting scheduled with a potential client that I could ask him to handle. We were used to filling in for each other which is why this particular meeting did not seem fishy. As soon the clock showed that it was ten past nine, I rang up my assistant to arrange for Nuelle to come see me. A few seconds after I called her, she called me back.

"Lana."

"Sir. Ms. Artist isn't available at the moment."

"Wh– what do you mean she isn't available. Is she not in?"

"She is, sir."

"Then call her directly and tell her that it's urgent."

"I did call her directly, sir. She's the one that told me that she isn't available."

I took a breath before I chose my next words. It was not Lana's fault but I sure as hell wanted to go off on her. "Well, call her again. Tell her that it's urgent and that I'm not taking no as an answer. " I slammed the phone against my desk. Either, she was going to come see me or I would go up to Marco's office and see her. After what seemed like hours of waiting Nuelle finally walked through the door.

"Mattia," she stood with her hands behind her back, an unhappy expression resting on her face.

"Not available? I know you're mad at me, but NOT AVAILABLE?" I said the complete opposite of the opening line I had rehearsed for this conversation.

"I'm not mad at you," she spoke without any emotion. "I just have a lot of work. So, why is't that I'm here?"

I took a deep breath as I ran my fingers through my hair, pushing it backwards. "What do I have to do, Nuelle? Please, just tell me because I'm clueless as to what I have to do. I've told you how I feel, I—"

She shook her head as her eyebrows pinned together. "There really isn't anything you have to do."

"Then, why are you with him?" I snapped at her which automatically made her step backwards.

"I shouldn't be here." She was about ready to leave.

"No, please," I practically begged once I realized that I almost lost the grip I had on the rage that was slowly taking control of me. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. Stay. I just want to talk."

She stood with her side facing me, clearly unsure about whether or not she should stay. "Marco wouldn't like me being here."

"Well, he isn't here, is he? I know, because I set up the meeting he's at so that I could talk to you."

"Right. Of course you did." She sighed.

My heart raced. "Are you happy with him?"

"I'm the happiest I've been since we came back here." Her eyes stared directly into mine.

Her words stung at my heart. I was aware of how badly I had treated her. It was what I regretted the most. "Do you love him?" I finally managed to ask this question after a brief moment of silence.

She nodded, "It's not hard to fall in love with someone like Marco."

I wiped away the sweat beads that had formed on my face."But, it's that easy to fall out of love and move on? Is it that easy to forget—"

"I only moved on because you told me to!" A flame of rage burned in her eyes. "Do not for one second try to play the victim, Mattia. I looked after you when everyone pushed you aside. You took advantage of my feelings. You made me believe that you cared about me, but then that moment that bitch walked through the door you told me to get out!" I had never witnessed her talk with so much anger before. She spoke so loudly that Lana had surely heard her through the thick walls.

"And I regret doing that. I'm done with Gia. She's out of our lives."

"Oh, I'm quite sure that you'll work it out."

"I'm not going back. I want to be with you."

"Did you leave her for me?"

"No," I answered truthfully, knowing that my answer could potentially make the situation even worse. "I left because she cheated on me."

Emmanuelle sarcastically smiled, "So, you're only sure about me now that you've find out that she has cheated on you? Right. You know, you almost had me there. You almost tricked me into believing that you actually chose to be with me."

"I am! What do I have to do to prove this to you?"

"No," she shook her head. "You would've never chosen to be with me if Gia didn't fuck up. You would've kept lying to everyone, including yourself and lived a miserable life with her before you would ever even mention that you like me. So, whatever it is that you think of doing— don't bother. Marco was never scared or ashamed or— unsure about me. He chose to be with me regardless of what other people would say. That's all you ever had to do to prove that you wanted to be with me."

"Nuelle—"

The door was pushed wide open as Rafael walked into the office with Lana rushing behind him. "Sir, sir. I—" she spoke fast in an attempt to apologize for not being able to keep him from entering without notifying me about his arrival.

"Am I interrupting something?" Rafael grinned.

"You happen to be right on time. I was just about to leave." Nuelle stated as she turned towards Rafael, leaving straight after.

I sighed. "It's okay, Lana. You can go." I sat down in my chair, Rafael did the same in the chair in front of my desk.

"I'm guessing that things didn't go too well with uhh— isn't she with Marco? he was following her around like a puppy at the party. Speaking of the party; how is the future Mrs. Mattia Mulaney?" He smiled from ear to ear.

"I'm not in the mood for your shit, Rafael. I just want to get this over with."

He was just about to utter another one of his snappy comments when Lana came into the room with two mugs of coffee which she placed on the table and left within a blink of the eye. Rafael suspiciously looked at the beverage.

"Have a drink, It's not poisoned. Though, it should've been."

He shook his head 'no'.

I opened the first drawer to my desk, pulled out my cheque book and handed him one of the cheques that was already written out and signed.

"What do we have here?"

"Your share. Take it and disappear."

He scratched his jaw as his lips curved into a smile. "This is my share?" He held up the cheque. "This is five million. Who the fuck do I look like? A beggar?! I'm his biological child and you mean to tell me that this is all I get? Three street rats that he brought into his house have hundreds of millions to their name. And I get 5?" He ripped it to pieces. "Secondly, I don't do cheques."

"It's far more than you deserve. You didn't do shit for him when he was alive and you haven't done shit to help this company. Five million, that's it. Cash it and leave. I don't have that kind of money laying around in cash, I'm not a fucking dealer."

"I feel highly offended," he sarcastically looked how he said that he felt. "I actually remember doing a lot, especially for you and those," he motioned with his hand. "Those people you consider your siblings. If I remember correctly, which I do, it was my idea that kept Marco out of jail. Now, what will happen if Marco finds out that the young girl he got pregnant– what's her name again? Riley, is't? What if he finds out that she had the child he thinks he killed?"

My fists balled and my energy heightened at the thought of all the horrible things that I could do to him.

"No, even better. What if Emmanuelle finds out about this? It would ruin them. I'm sure that you'd like that, but how would she cope with finding out that her boyfriend got a seventeen year old girl pregnant and then put her in the hospital because of his bad temper?" He shook his head, pretending to be concerned.

My blood was boiling hot. I hated being on the receiving end of the conversation.

"Sexual molest, isn't that what the James' wanted to report it as to the police? Good thing I was by your side to help you convince them of this partnership. Sure it ruined your friendship with Tobias, but at least the partnership works really well. Pity, about Marissa and him though, he told me that he genuinely cares about her."

"Who else have you corrupted?"

"Oh, just him. Well, and Gianna. Both, easy targets. They hate you with all their gut. I do believe that love might be involved when it comes to her but, uhh you haven't been the best to her. She is capable of amazing things, so I absolutely understand why you kept her around. Such a feisty little thing." He smirked.

"I'm going to kill you." Were the only words to leave my mouth.

"Counting on it. Because, if I don't have what's worth at least 50 shares of this company, I'm going to kill you. After I make sure that everyone abandons you of course." He said in all seriousness, getting up afterwards and leaving me alone to think.

I had only one choice left; to tell my side of the story.