Chapter 193

The next afternoon, Daniel gets ready for the party with me in my room, and we’re alone for the first time since Alessi and Natalia arrived. He stayed up late with Alessi, drinking and laughing, while I begged off to bed by myself to be alone for a minute.

Today, Daniel and I had taken our guests out to see the sights, as Daniel promised. Natalia was, predictably, unimpressed and kept calling our beautiful city a “horrible cage of rats.” I’m finally relaxing from the experience now as I do my hair, curling it gently in the way that Fiona showed me so that I can let it sweep down over my shoulders like a femme fatale. My makeup is already done to match, and I’m starting to feel powerful – exactly how I’m going to need to feel if I’m going to stand next to Natalia all night.

“So, what’s this all about, Daniel,” I ask him, looking at his reflection in the mirror so I don’t have to turn around. “Why are they here, really?”

Daniel sighs and looks at me seriously. “Something’s up, Fay,” he says, shaking his head. “They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. Don Bianci – my grandfather – he hasn’t sent anyone to check on dad since mom died. We must seriously be in hot water if he’s sending Natalia and Alessi here together.”

“Oh,” I say, my eyes going wide. Don Bianci – finally I have a name to put to Alessi’s father and Natalia’s boss. I had gleaned, through our conversations the past day, that he’s an incredibly wealthy and powerful boss in Italy – and Kent’s father-in-law. If he’s getting upset with Kent...

“This could go really well,” Daniel continues, buttoning up his white shirt, “or, it could go terribly. A lot rides on what happens tonight. Alessi and Natalia want the whole family together so they can get a real picture of what dad is doing. And then, whatever they learn,” he shrugs, shaking his head. “They’ll decide to either support him in whatever way they can, or...”

“Or what,” I say, my hands going still as I stare at Daniel.

“Or they’ll replace him,” Daniel says, looking at me seriously in the mirror. “My grandfather has a great deal of capital invested with my father. Dad is the boss and grandpa generally lets him do what he wants,” he continues, “but if they decide that dad is seriously messing up...”

I nod, understanding him. “Grandpa,” I murmur, grimacing a little. “Crazy that you call the most powerful mob boss in Italy grandpa...”

“Not to his face,” Daniel says, grinning at me. “Then, it’s nonno.”

“Nonno,” I say, laughing a little and wrinkling my nose. “That’s even weirder.”

Daniel laughs with me, shrugging, and then starts to put on his tie.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” I ask, finishing my hair and lifting a can of hairspray to set it just the way it is now.

“Just...make dad look good,” Daniel says, turning his eyes back to me. “Which, I think, means presenting a united front to Uncle Alessi and Natalia.”

Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father Chapter 0192 “United front,” I say, turning to him after I finish spraying. “By which you mean...”

“It would be better, Fay,” Daniel says seriously, pausing with his tie and turning to me. “If we were...engaged. And nobody knew, at all, about...

whatever’s going on with you and dad.”

I sigh, understanding and nodding. Then, seeing him struggle further with his tie, I stand up and cross the room to him, batting his hands away and taking the tie in my own hands, beginning to knot it for him. “But you know,” I say quietly, looking up into his face after a second. “That us pretending to be engaged for appearances doesn’t...actually change anything.”

“Fay,” Daniel whispers to me softly, looking down into my eyes. “You should let it change. Let me change it for you. We can go back to what we had –“

“Daniel,” I interrupt, pausing my hands and then wrapping them around the tie itself, using my frustrated grip to pull a little on Daniel’s neck. “Even if I wasn’t...” I hesitate, not wanting to say it to him aloud, “with your dad... you and me? It’s not fair to either of us.”

“Fay,” Daniel sighs frustratedly, shaking his head at me, “I’ve said it before – we could be so good together –“

“What about Jerome?” I ask, looking up at him, my expression serious. “It’s not fair to Jerome either.”

Daniel freezes for a second, staring at me – honestly, as if he’s never thought about it before.

“Are you in love with him?” I ask, genuinely wanting to know.