Chapter 28
It would never end
brOOKLYN
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Shelly told me you were here, but I was caught in traffic coming back from a studio,” Maria said, walking into her office where I sat. She unloaded her bags and dropped her coat. “So, tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure, Brooklyn?”
“You’re obviously very busy, so I won’t take up much of your time.” I removed my hands from where they sat folded over my knees and stood up from the loveseat. “I wanted to talk to you about Marco.”
Maria smiled, and her eyes dropped to my stomach. When she noticed I caught her, she bit her lower lip. “I suppose I haven’t seen you in quite some time.”
Nodding, I looked down and placed a hand under my belly. “Since Elio announced my pregnancy over dinner.” It was a night I wouldn’t soon forget. It reminded me exactly who I was dealing with when it came to this family.
She cringed, and I knew the feeling well. “He’s—”
I put a hand in the air. “Please, don’t.”
She chuckled as she poured two glasses of water and brought one over to me. “I was just going to say he can be a little short-sighted and insensitive.” Her use of the word little was most certainly inaccurate, but I wasn’t about to say that.
“Yeah, well. It’s all in the past.” But it wasn’t forgotten or forgiven. Just brushed under the rug momentarily because I promised Marco I wouldn’t cause any more trouble. “Anyway, Marco…”
“Yes, Marco.”
“He told me about your…predicament.”
Recognition dawned on her, and she nodded, slinking into a chair at a small table off to the side of her office. Apparently, Maria obviously wasn’t big on being the boss because she had a lot of other places to sit in the office, and she clearly preferred them.
I walked over and decided to sit with her. “Don’t be mad,” I said when she hadn’t said anything.
She shook her head. “I’m not mad.”
“I think Marco could really help. I think he really wants to help.”
Maria was quiet for a second, her hands fidgeting with the papers on the table. “My father-in-law…” she said finally, her eyes downcast. “I never thought I’d consider handing over my mother’s magazine to his company.”
“That’s just it, you wouldn’t be.” If Marco got the CEO position like he wanted, then Santo wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I just wasn’t sure how much Maria knew, so I didn’t want to say anything.
“Marco would be CEO,” Maria said next, much to my surprise. So, she knew… “But he can’t have control over an arm of the company when he’s running the whole thing.”
“That’s where you’d come in.”
“Will I?” She wasn’t realizing she was going to have to do something with the magazine, and anyone else she sold it to was not going to put as much care in it.
They were not the Delucas, an extension of her own family, and she would be out on her ass.
Management was never kept. In fact, they were usually the first to go.
While they weren’t the most honorable bunch, Dom was one of them, and no one would do anything to hurt him and his wife’s family.
“I’m sure of it.” I doubted very much Marco would want to eliminate her or her family.
“But for how long would Marco be CEO anyway? How long until Vito or another brother decides it’s their turn? I can see that happening, you know? They wouldn’t care about Marco’s acquisition. In fact, what if they tried to erase everything Marco did and Bellissima with it?”
I honestly wasn’t sure how to answer her.
I never gave it much thought. But it wasn’t unreasonable to think that Marco’s actions, if successful, would send a message to his brothers that it could be done again.
It would never end. I just couldn’t say that to her.
“Dominic wouldn’t let that happen, and Marco would protect Bellissima,” I said instead, sticking with a truth I felt in my heart.
I wasn’t sure how, but I knew he would. For all his flaws, he was a man of his word, and if he said he’d protect the magazine, then he would.
Nodding casually, Maria picked up a stack of papers and swiped at the table. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Maybe there’s a way we can both get what we want here. I need to talk to my lawyers.”
“Sounds reasonable.” I pushed the chair back and slipped my purse over my arm.
“I said I wouldn’t take up much of your time, so I’m going to go.
I just wanted you to know that I think Marco could be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Ultimately, you need to do what’s right for your family and the publication, but trust Marco. I do, and he hasn’t failed me yet.”
Maria nodded again from where she still sat, otherwise unmoving.
As I got to the door, her words stopped me.
“Brooklyn, thanks. And, for what it’s worth, I agree with you.
Marco is the answer, and I’ll be talking to him next.
I just want to make sure the magazine is protected, and if he acquires it, I have control over it.
If the day ever comes when he is ousted as CEO, I want to make sure control of it goes to him and me equally. ”
I thought back to what he’d told me in bed about his current role with the company, and a smile tugged at my lips. “I have a feeling he’d like that very much.” She didn’t know it, but she was actually solving a problem he had too.
Walking out, I felt good about my conversation with Maria.
What was more was that I felt good about how I’d handled it.
I hadn’t resorted to any unsavory tactics I might’ve once tried, like blackmail, to get her to see my way.
Instead, I had stuck to presenting my case using logic.
In the process, I think I made an ally, someone who understood what it was like to be with a Deluca man as well as the risks and rewards that came with it.