The Substitute Bride

Chapter 3: The Arrangement

People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.

- Don DeLillo

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Laila Fiorenza's POV

I walked out of the kitchen without waiting for the reply of Leila's fiancé. Cursing myself, I entered the guest room of the penthouse of Nikos Pallis.

Idiota, I told myself as I slumped on the bed. How could I spurt the truth to him like a half-wit that I was?

What was I going to tell my Patri now?

Ciao, Patri. I am coping well on my first day in New York. By the way, I've already blurted that I wasn't Leila to Nikos Pallis.

I cringed at the reaction I envisioned my father would have when I tell him my bad news. The best way to do that was face-to-face with my father. I did it last time when I came home with news that Marco Orsini decided to get married—not to me but to the woman who was with him when they went to the Palazzo di Fiorenza.

That's right. I will go back to Sicily tonight and explain to my father what happened today when I met my sister's fiancé. I don't care if the available plane in coach class only as long as it transports me back to the Sicilian soil. I knew this arrangement would have never worked. If Patri just listened to me, I would never have been in this kind of situation.

I was prepared for the wrath my father will unleash once I get home with another bad news to him. I could handle his fury. What I couldn't handle were the accusing eyes the Greek billionaire had thrown in my direction when I looked at him.

Goodness, what madness had possessed my Patri to marry off my twin sister to that heartless man? Now, I was pretty sure that Leila's decision to run away from home had been correct. Her life would be only miserable if she was to wed that horrible man in the kitchen.

I instinctively touched my lips. Damn him to hell, I thought furiously. Leila's fiancée stole my first kiss. How could he do that? I was expecting that my first kiss will be with the man I am in love with. And I am thinking that man will be Rafe. Not him!

I felt like I betrayed my love for Rafe by kissing him back a while ago. That shouldn't have happened. I was sure that kiss meant nothing to him. I would do the same.

I stood from the bed and started to pack my things again. Funny, I thought with slight amusement. I spent hours unpacking my things and now I was stuffing them again in my suitcase.

Half an hour later, I was finally done. I stepped out of my bedroom with the dignity of the century-old Fiorenza family. I wore again the black coat dress that love, as I held my luggage.

I saw him on the couch, drinking liquor with his laptop open on the coffee table. Like he's finishing some paper works. I snorted silently. What a workaholic.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked sternly.

"Home," I answered abruptly. Right now, all I want to do was go home and never see his handsome face again. I miss Rafaelle so much. "I'll explain to Patri that you accidentally discovered that I wasn't Leila."

His eyes blazed with fire. "Sit down. You're not going home until you explain to me everything."

Dio, aren't we yet done talking to each other? "Is that necessary?"

"Yes."

After a long-suffering sigh, I took the opposite sofa across him. I don't think I could conduct a proper conversation with him when my knees were shaking badly. I sat on the settee like I always did when entertaining my father's visitor in his cold palace. "Where do I start?"