Chapter 12
Tiziano Constanzo
I kept watching as she disappeared down the hallways, walking as if her shoes were burning her feet.
It was almost comical, but at the same time, there was something intriguing about that awkward posture.
A faint smile threatened to appear on my lips, but I quickly suppressed it, hardening my expression as I turned to face my soldiers, who were still watching the scene.
“What are you looking at?” I growled, and they immediately looked away, pretending to be busy with something important.
That was when I heard firm footsteps behind me.
“Is there a problem, Tiziano?” my uncle Luigi asked, entering the room with his usual calm demeanor.
“Arrange a dinner with the Ferrucci family,” I ordered, ignoring his question.
Luigi’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm, and a smile I knew well formed on his lips.
“Have you made a decision?” he asked, trying to hide his excitement.
“Not yet. Just arrange the dinner.”
He seemed to consider it for a moment, tilting his head slightly.
“At their house?”
“No. Choose a restaurant. The best one.”
Luigi’s smile widened, almost too pleased for my liking. He knew that dinner meant some progress on the issue that concerned him so much, marriage.
“Very well, Tiziano. I’ll take care of it personally.”
I watched him leave, probably already planning every detail of the meeting.
I turned my attention back to the table, where maps and weapons lay scattered, remnants of the planning that had been interrupted.
“Continue what you were doing,” I ordered, cutting through the silence in the room.
My men obeyed immediately, but no matter how hard I tried, my mind stubbornly kept drifting away from what really mattered. Against my will, Bianca’s face kept invading my thoughts.
Something about her had caught my attention, and that irritated me deeply.
Why the hell was a shy girl wearing a modest dress and shoes that clearly didn’t fit her taking up space in my head? It made no sense. She wasn’t the kind of woman I would notice. Too young, too thin to fit the standards I preferred.
I wasn’t looking for passion, much less emotional involvement. I wanted someone who could fulfill a simple role: give me heirs and maintain appearances. Nothing more. So why did that awkward, uncomfortable figure keep haunting my thoughts?
She didn’t have Giulia’s striking charm or the exaggerated confidence of the other candidates.
Bianca was insignificant. That was when the answer became clear.
It wasn’t her beauty, or lack of it, that caught my attention.
It was the way she seemed perfectly moldable.
Too innocent to question anything, too broken, like someone desperately searching for a way out.
She was exactly the kind of person who would surrender to the situation without resistance, without complications, and without demanding anything from me.
And that was all I needed right now. Someone who would accept the role without causing problems. Bianca wasn’t a conventional choice, but maybe, in the end, she was the most convenient one.
Bianca Ferrucci
I woke to the noise coming from the living room. Laughter, excited voices, a commotion that pulled me out of my daze. I rubbed my eyes, trying to reconnect with reality as I opened my bedroom door.
“I knew it!” my mother’s shrill voice rang out, almost deafening. “There was no way he could resist your beauty, Giulia!”
Still not understanding what they were talking about, I stopped in the doorway and watched from a distance. It didn’t take long for the reason behind all the excitement to reveal itself when my father walked into the room with a triumphant smile.
“I’m going to be Tiziano’s father-in-law!” he declared as if he had won the lottery. “Giulia, you’re going to give birth to billionaire heirs!”
Giulia, however, didn’t seem to share their enthusiasm. She forced a smile, but the lack of excitement was written all over her face. I couldn’t help thinking that if I were in her place, I wouldn’t be happy either.
My mind went back to what I had seen at the party, to the man they now treated like some glorious prize. What kind of person was he? That cold stare, the authoritarian tone, the way he seemed to see everyone as objects.
Not wanting to hear any more, I left the room, leaving them to their excitement. I went straight to the bathroom, took a quick shower, and got dressed, trying to ignore the constant buzz of voices still coming from the living room.
When I came back, they were still talking about it. It seemed as though every sentence, every breath they took was devoted to the subject. I sighed, tired of the endless chatter. A playboy looking for a trophy wife, how could that possibly be so interesting?
Deep down, I knew what they were doing. They were selling Giulia so he could use her however he wanted. And from the little I had seen of Tiziano, he didn’t strike me as the kind of man who cared about anyone else’s well-being.
I felt a pang of pity for Giulia. She could be cruel, but no one deserved to be used that way. I sighed again, heading toward the dining room, where Rosa was already setting the table for breakfast.
“So, girl, how was the party?” Rosa asked, drawing my attention as she set out the plates.
“Boring and predictable,” I replied with a shrug.
“You didn’t meet anyone?” she asked, visibly disappointed.
“No one who would be interested in an accountant’s daughter who doesn’t shine like the others,” I shot back, a hint of bitterness in my voice.
Rosa looked at me for a moment, but before she could say anything, I added:
“But that’s a good thing. I don’t want to get married. I’m still too young for that, and having children at my age is far from a blessing.”
She sighed but didn’t insist.
As we set the table, I could still hear my mother and father talking.
“Just the two of us will go,” my father said. “I’m sure he’ll finalize the marriage agreement.”
I looked away, trying not to let the conversation affect me. Giulia was the chosen one, and I was far from the kind of person someone like Tiziano would ever consider. Maybe after she left the house, I would have a chance to be noticed, to finally be seen as something more than dead weight.
“Maybe when Giulia gets married, my parents will start seeing me as profitable and let me study,” I murmured to myself as Rosa glanced at me from the corner of her eye, not knowing what to say.