I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen my wife so truly at peace. I watched as she slept away peacefully. I had thoroughly exhausted her, something we both enjoyed, but my mind was highly troubled, which would probably explain why I was working at four in the morning.
With my wife having easily accepted what Celine had to say, I was worried that it was her naivety leading her into this, and the last thing I want is for her to regret the decision she made. However, I would gladly admit that Celine did look distraught when she confronted us at the mall.
I'd yet to see my brother since they arrested Shelby, but he'd agreed to meet with me later. He had something important that I needed which was in regards to the Maestri crash. The information would help us get that much closer with figuring out what Daniel did to our servers.
It is no longer something I question. I'm one hundred percent sure that Daniel is behind everything that has happened with my empire, and I'm going to enjoy taking him down for it. The comeback plans we have will be enough to push him the edge.
But we need to execute them carefully.
"Caro," my wife mumbled. I turned back to see her searching for me with her eyes closed.
"I'm here cara mia," I chuckled.
"Why aren't you in bed?" she whined.
"I can't sleep," I admitted.
"Probably why I'm awake now," she sighed before opening her eyes. They dropped right back down, making me laugh.
"Go back to sleep mi amore," I told her. Instead she got out of the bed and came towards me, dressed in the sin she insists is a nightdress.
"I can't sleep when you're not there and you know this. Now what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm looking over the company's finance records," I replied nervously.
"At four in the morning Raphael?" she scolded.
"I'm worried Ari. I know we have a plan in place, but this server thing hit us harder than I expected. I got this report last night from our finance department," I explained as I showed it to her.
"A deficit?" she asked, surprised.
"Exactly! The problem is that the numbers don't add up, which is what the finance team is trying to point out to us. There's money missing, but it's there, and then where it is meant to be, it isn't," I said, hoping I wasn't sounding crazy.
"I have no clue what that means, so I'll ask the safer question. What's our next move?" she asked.
"We're going to negotiate to get Lewis back to you," I replied.
"What? What does that have to do with this?" she asked in confusion. I pulled her onto my lap.
"Absolutely nothing, except for the fact that here you are, putting everything else first. I know you're afraid Ari, but we need to get Lewis back as soon as possible," I pointed out.
"And how do you hope to do that? It's not like Eva is just going to hand him over unless if I go to her," she reminded.
"I know, but you haven't at least given it a thought," I countered.
"You think I haven't thought about it? Raphael, it's all I can think about whenever I have a silent moment. It's driving me absolutely insane knowing that every plan I come up with is a dead end. I refuse to risk anyone's life to save my son's," she said fiercely.
"But cara mia, you've been planning alone. Of course you're going to reach dead ends. You need to involve us so that we can help you too. Do you think you can do that?" I asked her.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt Rafe, but at this point in time, I'm ready to move heaven and hell to get my son back," she admitted.
"Then heaven and hell we shall move," I told her.
"Really?" she asked with teary eyes. I kissed her softly.
"We're going to get him back mia moglie," I promised.
"How though?" she asked.
"We're going to give Jordan what he wants," I told her.
"The black diamonds?" she asked. I nodded as I pulled them out of the drawer.
She took them out of the bag to evaluate them and the look on her face was that of pure fascination. There are ten of them, and they're all worth millions each. I could easily understand why Jordan would want them.
"They're beautiful," she whispered.
"Not nearly as beautiful as you are, so I'd say they're alright," I shrugged.
"Charming," she giggled, smacking my chest.
"I know that if we can negotiate with Jordan, he'll agree. Unlike Eva, I think he just wants money. Eva is the one with the sentimental crap," I pointed out.
"What you're saying actually makes sense, except you can't negotiate with a man who wants you dead," she argued.
"I won't be doing the negotiations. I'm pretty sure Sven wouldn't mind doing the negotiations. Before you say anything, he is qualified to," I told her.
"But that puts his life in danger," she shook her head.
"Mi amore, there will always be risks involved in this. If that's what keeps you from getting Lewis back, then we're never going to get anywhere," I sighed.
"I just don't want to lose anyone," she said, laying her head on my chest.
"And you won't. If there's anyone who can get Lewis back without getting hurt, it's Sven," I assured her.
"Fine! We'll do things your way, but only if you agree to my solution for this whole Daniel trying to take us down thing," she bargained.
"I'm listening," I said warily.
"I know we had said that we're not ready, but I highly doubt we'll reach a point where we are actually ready. I say we accept my father's offer," she said.
"You mean take over Hartley Incorporated now?" I asked. She sat back up.
"Think about it. Hugo Corp just released their new product line yesterday. The papers are ready with my father, so we could have the announcement banquet tomorrow night. Since money isn't an issue, it shouldn't be hard to get everything arranged. This way, we drown out Daniel's big range reveal, while ultimately trumping his little company. With a takeover as huge as this, his company would never be able to compete in the same league as us. We'll officially be established across the globe, while Hugo Corp only reaches three continents," she explained.
It's not like I hadn't thought about what she was saying. I actually found myself resorting back to it, but much like when we first met, I didn't want her to think I was using her for a business deal, so the fact that the suggestion was coming from her was major.
"Are you sure cara mia?" I asked her.
"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.
"Because the takeover would raise a lot of questions which would only be answered by revealing one truth," I hinted. It took her a while, but I watched as it finally dawned on her.
"He'd have to reveal that he's my biological father," she said.
"Exactly! As much as I love my empire, I love you more, so I need you to be the one to have the final say on this. Are you ready to be revealed to the world as Gerard Hartley's first child?" I asked.
She was quiet for the longest time, and I didn't blame or interrupt her. Whereas I have become accustomed to having my life blasted in the media, whether I like it or not, she hasn't. The little bits that have come out have always been linked to me or the empire, so this would be the first time she was exposed on a personal level that has nothing to do with either.
"If you could do it, I'm sure I can," she finally said.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"You let me help you to expose yourself to the media through our wedding. I'm sure that with your help, I'll be able to do the same," she explained.
"Only if you're sure Ari. I don't want you to feel like you have to save us," I said sternly. I was surprised when she kissed me.
"I can't say I've known many men, let alone women, who are like you; people who would make one hundred percent sure that someone is doing what they want to do out of their own free will. I respect that about you," she admitted.
"I just don't want you to regret your decision and hate me down the line. I don't think I'd be able to handle you hating me over something I could've found a way around," I replied.
"You know, for someone who wanted me to accept my new life so much, you're very against me helping to keep it going," she teased.
"I know what I said Signora Maestri, but I never want you to feel forced into doing anything. You've already been through too much already," I rambled.
"Ah, there it is! I knew there was something more to your insistence than you were letting on," she smiled.
"I can't help it Ari. You are my wife and my equal. I never want you to feel like you ever have to submit to me," I told her seriously. She lowered her mouth to my ear.
"Even in bed?" she whispered, making me twitch.
"Ari," I warned. She giggled before kissing below my ear and sitting back up.
"There are no words to truly describe how much I love you, my stubborn and extremely sweet and considerate husband. I have never felt forced into doing anything with you, and I'm confident in that that's not going to start now. As much as I love the fact that you're looking out for me, I also want you to let me look out for you. Now, I know you have that meeting with Ralph later on, so I'll spend the day putting together everything for the banquet. Having it tomorrow night seems a bit hasty, so let's say the day after," she said.
"Alright fine! I know there's no arguing with you, and you've clearly made up your mind about this. I'll talk to Ralph about helping in getting Lewis back, but we have one more task to do," I pointed out to her.
"And that is?" she asked.
"We have to let the girls know about their little brother, and then figure out where we're going to take him once we have him back," I responded.
"What do you mean where we're going to take him?" she frowned.
"Mia moglie, our goal is getting Lewis out of Eva's grasp, but unfortunately, you cannot bond with him just as yet. We still have danger coming at us, and it will be safer to make sure he's protected," I elaborated.
My heart damn near broke when tears filled her eyes. The last thing I want to do, is to keep her away from her son any longer, but the reality is that Eva is a crazy woman. If my plan works, and Jordan gives Lewis back, she might want to retaliate, so having Lewis with us wouldn't be the smartest idea.
"I understand," she whispered, a big fat tear rolling down her cheek.
"Oh mi amore," I sighed, bringing her into my chest as she sobbed.
A few tears left my own eyes as she continued to cry. I could only think about how far I had truly come with this woman. Before her, other people's emotions were of no bother to me, and yet here I was, my own heart breaking at seeing her so broken.
"I have to be strong Rafe," she hiccupped.
"You don't have to be anything but what you are cara mia. You deserve to cry for your son," I retorted.
"But he needs me to be strong if I'm going to get him back and actually keep him. Eva can't know that I know that he's back with us, and neither can I let her use him as a weakness against me," she said.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" I asked.
"Get him back Rafe, but don't tell me about it. Don't tell me if you succeed, and definitely don't tell me where you take him. The lesser I know, the better it will be for me to pretend I know nothing," she confirmed my thoughts.
"Are you sure?" I caressed her cheek.
"I am," she nodded.
"I promise I'll do everything in my power to get him back," I promised.
"I know you will. I wouldn't trust anyone else with this," she said with a small smile.
"Good! Now are you ready to call the girls?" I asked.
"What do we say to them?" she asked.
"We tell them the truth, but not in so many words," I said as I set up my laptop.
"Whatever that means," she laughed a little.
"Just leave it up to me," I chuckled.
"Let me guess; you've thought this through, haven't you?" she asked knowingly.
"I would be lying if I said no," I admitted sheepishly.
"You are too adorable mio caro," she smiled before kissing me.
"Eeuw! Mummy! Daddy! Not something your kids want to see!" Caprice shrieked. Her sisters looked equally disgusted.
"Sorry," we laughed.
"Why'd you call? We thought you were busy," Camilla said.
"And isn't it like five in the morning over there?" Calinda added.
"We need to talk to you guys about something important," I told them.
"Sounds serious," Caterina commented.
"It is! Now girls, I know that you're smart enough to have already figured out that there's some danger in our lives," I started off.
"The extra security was a dead giveaway, as sweet as your original excuse about us being princesses was," Caprice nodded.
"Well, we're still dealing with the danger, but we're also going to be doing something very important soon. The four of you don't know much about your mum's life, and you're still way too young to, but your mum has had a rough past. Anyway, I'm not getting into that. Instead, I'll get to the point. A very bad lady has kept your mum's son away from her for the longest time, and we're working on getting him back," I told them. I waited and watched as the news settled on them.
"We have a brother?" Calinda was the first to finally speak.
"Yes you do. His name is Lewis and he's younger than you. His father is a terrible man, so just like I did with you guys, daddy is going to adopt him too," my wife told them.
"That goes without saying! We would disown you if you didn't!" Caterina glared at me.
Hell curse the soul that taught them what the word disown means.
"So you're going to get him from the bad woman?" Caprice asked.
"Yep," I nodded.
"When will we get to meet him?" Camilla asked excitedly.
"I can't tell you as yet since there's stuff we need to sort out, but we hope it's soon," I replied.
"This is so exciting! We've got a little brother!" Camilla squealed.
"Honey, calm down," I chuckled.
"Are you guys ok though?" Caprice asked us.
"Not really, but we're getting there. How about you guys?" my wife asked them.
"We're having a great time. Ava and Eve are so much fun to be around, and Aunt Nina is the best, as stressed out as she is," Caterina replied.
"What do you mean she's stressed out?" my wife asked.
They were about to reply when the door to the room they were in opened. We could see two little adorable girls run in, and something about them struck me. The thought was gone as quickly as it came as a beautiful woman walked into the room.
"Hey girls! The twins were looking for you," she informed the quads.
"Oh! We're just video calling with our parents. Come say hi Aunt Nina," Camilla told her. She looked reluctant, but obliged anyway.
"Hey guys," she said softly.
She's really shy.
"Hey Nina! I guess introductions shall be done via video call. Nina, this is my husband Raphael Maestri. Mio marito, this is one of my closest friends, Midnight Harding. Those pretty little girls are my godchildren Avalon and Evelyn Harding," my wife introduced.
"It's lovely to meet you all," I told them.
"Same to you Mr Maestri," the twins beamed.
"I'm sorry I missed your wedding. I was writing an important exam," Midnight apologized quickly.
"It's fine! What are you studying towards?" I asked.
"I'm doing my Masters in Finance and Economics. It's kind of hard raising the twins while studying, but I manage," she said sheepishly.
"Well, I commend you," I commented.
"She refuses to work for us," my wife told on her.
"I'm not going to be a charity case Aretha. I already told you that," Midnight said sternly.
"But you're qualified already," my wife argued.
"And the two of you are not having this discussion right now," I told them when I noticed the concerned looks on the children's faces.
They probably thought the two were fighting.
"Sorry," they apologized.
"Girls, we'll see you as soon as everything has been cleared ok?" I told our daughters.
"Alright! Take care of each other. We love you guys!" they said.
"We love you guys too. Take care of each other too," we replied before they ended the call.
They must be eager to get back to whatever they were doing before we called.
"That didn't go half as badly as I thought it would," my wife admitted.
"That's what happens when you have smart kids," I reminded.
"Right!" she giggled.
"Now Signora Maestri, rumour has it the best way to start the day is with good sex. Mind if we test out that theory?" I asked. She ground into me, making me grunt.
"I believe I just gave you your answer," she said seductively.
Five hours later, we were both leaving the hotel. We'd agreed that I would drive myself around with the security detail following behind me, while she would take the car with the driver, also with security detail following behind her.
As far as I knew, she was meeting up with Celine, who had surprisingly gotten us what we wanted from her. I will applaud the woman on her timeliness. She's clearly as desperate as they come, but I'm not as stupid as they come, so of course I sent an extra team with my wife in case this is a set up.
I had my own things to attend to. I'd emailed Gerard about the takeover, to find out that he'd actually followed us to Washington and was actually available. I'd asked Chang to join us because I was about to pull a move that I hadn't even told my wife about.
"Maestri, what is this about?" Chang asked as he joined Gerard and I. We were meeting at Gerard's headquarters here in Washington.
"I can't say I know why you've been called down here either. I thought we were meeting to discuss the takeover," Gerard said to me in confusion.
"You're taking over Hartley Incorporated?" Chang asked in surprise just as Fabius walked in.
"No, we're taking over Hartley Incorporated, but only if you agree to my terms," I told him.
"What?" the three men in the room asked.
"Brother, have a seat so that I can explain myself," I told my brother. He took his seat and they waited for me to get on with it.
"When I dropped out of college, my goal was to build an empire, and it is very much obvious that I have achieved that goal. I wanted to build my legacy, and I have. My dilemma now is that I have a new legacy I want to build," I started.
"You want to be home more," Chang said knowingly, to which I nodded to.
"This takeover is going to add even more onto our empire, but I know my wife. She's going to tire of this corporate side very quickly. She's going to want us to slow down and build our family, and I'm actually on board with that. I want that. I want that to be my new legacy, but wanting that means shedding a whole lot of the load with the empire," I explained.
"That's great and all, but I don't see what my role is here," Chang commented.
"I want this to be a takeover as well as a merger," I responded.
"For a second I thought you said you want to merge companies with Chang," my brother laughed.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. When I look at my businesses, I run them the same way Gerard does, but they will never advance under my leadership. What they need is Chang's innovation, and now that he has his own empire going, the only way to get him on board is to merge," I explained.
"Say I actually went with this, would that mean that I would also be involved in the spreading that you'll be doing with your company?" Chang asked me.
"Yes, you would. I plan to make Luigi head of Maestri Telecoms and everything related, while everything else, will be split between Fabius, Bianca, Katherine, my wife, me, and should you accept, you. I want to make sure that by the time my wife and I make the decision to reduce our participation with the empire, we'll be leaving it in capable hands," I explained.
"And what about Maestri Industries?" my brother asked. Now that we knew about the truth about our father, we obviously couldn't leave him hanging.
"He's on board with merging," I shrugged.
"Let me get this straight! You want to pull off two mergers and a takeover, all in one go?" Gerard asked me.
"Yep!" I nodded.
"You're talking about the impossible here," Chang pointed out.
"It's not really impossible. It will involve a lot of work yes, but I have the three most capable men in the room with me," I said confidently.
"Don't leave yourself out now," Fabius glared at me.
"Never!" I smirked.
"Does my daughter know about this?" Gerard sighed.
"She knows about the takeover since she's given the go ahead, but that's all she knows about. I honestly want to surprise her with the rest," I admitted.
"Why can't you just be a normal man for once Ambrosi? Buy the woman a bunch of fucking flowers and call it a day. Your big romantic gestures are exhausting for the rest of us," my brother joked, making us laugh.
"Fabius has a point. Why can't you be normal for once?" Gerard questioned.
"I married an extraordinary woman, and we have an extraordinary love. Nothing about that deserves normal or mundane," I said proudly.
"Yeah, yeah, we fucking get it!" Chang rolled his eyes.
"Does that mean you'll consider it?" I asked him.
"You're asking a lot from me here, but I accept. We'll obviously have to have more meetings to discuss how we're truly moving forward, but I'm on board, especially since this will most definitely sink that son of a bitch Hugo," he replied.
"That's the bonus with this plan," I agreed.
We worked around a skeleton plan of how everything would work out. The merger papers for Maestri Industries, and the takeover papers for Hartley Inc were ready. Our only problem was announcing the merger for Maestri Industries. With that announcement, Mariya would know that we're working with my father.
We agreed to let that merger happen silently. We all know that Mariya doesn't bother herself with anything to do with the company for as long as my father is making money for her. We would just be keeping that up.
By the time we were done, I was already late for my meeting with my brother. He'd already called me once. I got into the car and got onto my way to the hotel. I was caught at a red light and patiently waited for it to turn green. When it did, I moved off.
Except the last thing I saw was the black speeding car coming at me.
**********
Sorry it took so long and that it was shorter than normal. Prepping for the next chapter!