Free Romance: Marriage of Convenience Romance: Billionaire's Inheritance Bride ( Billionaire Bad Boy BBW Romance) by Amanda Horton Page B
Authors: Amanda Horton
his father again, and of how proud he would be of his son. That was all Claudio wanted in the world. He’d always been given love, but to make his family proud and lift them out of poverty in doing so, that was the dream to which he aspired.
A wave of noise filtered through the air, as Claudio let the outside world back into his awareness. Just for a moment. He wanted to savor this moment, as he knew that it would change his life forever.
The anticipation was palpable. Each feverish stride pounded on the ground as his heart answered in kind. As he crossed the goal line, he slammed the ball onto the ground and looked up, not to the sky, but to where his father was sitting in the stadium.
Thousands cheered Claudio’s name. The final whistle sounded, and the place went wild. His teammates ran to his side and lifted him up on their shoulders. But none of that mattered. There was only one person’s applause that he sought.
As Claudio was carried away through a rain of confetti and to the sound of music, he never took his eyes off of the stand where his family sat. Finally he saw them, his father clapping and on his feet, his grey hair ruffled by a breeze. It was a sight Claudio would never forget, one he would turn to when times were rough.
And so Claudio was happy. Yet dark clouds were brewing ahead, and soon those scenes of joy would be lost in an uncertain cloud of pain, loss, and love.
***
Two years had passed almost as quickly as Claudio could run. In that time the New York Giants had snapped him up. They’d been floundering for the previous few years, but Claudio had taken the league by storm, winning them the NFC and a Super Bowl in the process, almost single handedly.
His face was known throughout the USA. Posters adorned walls, books were being written about his rags to riches story, and legions of fans followed his exploits as he was now generally accepted as the world’s greatest competing sports person. It was a great time for Claudio and his family. He had been able to lift his family out of a slum and buy them a fantastic house in a more prosperous area of Rio De Janeiro, even a villa on the outskirts of New York. He had been able to help his brother, Cristiano, not only by buying him and his wife a house also, but having him work as an advisor on his training team.
More than all of that, however, was the pride his father had in his son’s exploits. Wherever he went he wore his son’s team colors it brought him even more joy than it did Claudio.
After Claudio’s first game for the Giants, his father, Maxwell, had said to him: “I wish my father and his father were here to see how you’ve restored our family name. Remember son: above all else wear the name Vega with pride, because family is more important than anything else in life. I’m so proud of you.”
Claudio had carried those words in his heart across two years of playing for the NFL. Yet there was a price to his success, and with the focus and worship of his feats, it was only a matter of time before someone realized he was a mutant . There had been whispers among fans and the other players that Claudio had an unfair advantage, yet no one had been able to prove it.
Claudio was the first case of a high profile person with mutant abilities, and it was getting hard to hide that fact, especially considering the records he was breaking across the league.
***
The hotel room was small, seedy, and cheap. Not the type of place that some of the NFL’s team owners and backers would normally meet; but this was no normal meeting. It was a plot. Wilfred Samuels was the ringleader. A stout, balding man in his 50s, he sat at a small table, the sweat from the summer heat dripping from his double chin. Several other men in suits sat or stood in the room, waiting with anticipation for Wilfred’s suggestion.
“We need him out of the picture. I’m convinced Claudio Vega is a mutant,” Wilfred said.
Staring out of the window before
A wave of noise filtered through the air, as Claudio let the outside world back into his awareness. Just for a moment. He wanted to savor this moment, as he knew that it would change his life forever.
The anticipation was palpable. Each feverish stride pounded on the ground as his heart answered in kind. As he crossed the goal line, he slammed the ball onto the ground and looked up, not to the sky, but to where his father was sitting in the stadium.
Thousands cheered Claudio’s name. The final whistle sounded, and the place went wild. His teammates ran to his side and lifted him up on their shoulders. But none of that mattered. There was only one person’s applause that he sought.
As Claudio was carried away through a rain of confetti and to the sound of music, he never took his eyes off of the stand where his family sat. Finally he saw them, his father clapping and on his feet, his grey hair ruffled by a breeze. It was a sight Claudio would never forget, one he would turn to when times were rough.
And so Claudio was happy. Yet dark clouds were brewing ahead, and soon those scenes of joy would be lost in an uncertain cloud of pain, loss, and love.
***
Two years had passed almost as quickly as Claudio could run. In that time the New York Giants had snapped him up. They’d been floundering for the previous few years, but Claudio had taken the league by storm, winning them the NFC and a Super Bowl in the process, almost single handedly.
His face was known throughout the USA. Posters adorned walls, books were being written about his rags to riches story, and legions of fans followed his exploits as he was now generally accepted as the world’s greatest competing sports person. It was a great time for Claudio and his family. He had been able to lift his family out of a slum and buy them a fantastic house in a more prosperous area of Rio De Janeiro, even a villa on the outskirts of New York. He had been able to help his brother, Cristiano, not only by buying him and his wife a house also, but having him work as an advisor on his training team.
More than all of that, however, was the pride his father had in his son’s exploits. Wherever he went he wore his son’s team colors it brought him even more joy than it did Claudio.
After Claudio’s first game for the Giants, his father, Maxwell, had said to him: “I wish my father and his father were here to see how you’ve restored our family name. Remember son: above all else wear the name Vega with pride, because family is more important than anything else in life. I’m so proud of you.”
Claudio had carried those words in his heart across two years of playing for the NFL. Yet there was a price to his success, and with the focus and worship of his feats, it was only a matter of time before someone realized he was a mutant . There had been whispers among fans and the other players that Claudio had an unfair advantage, yet no one had been able to prove it.
Claudio was the first case of a high profile person with mutant abilities, and it was getting hard to hide that fact, especially considering the records he was breaking across the league.
***
The hotel room was small, seedy, and cheap. Not the type of place that some of the NFL’s team owners and backers would normally meet; but this was no normal meeting. It was a plot. Wilfred Samuels was the ringleader. A stout, balding man in his 50s, he sat at a small table, the sweat from the summer heat dripping from his double chin. Several other men in suits sat or stood in the room, waiting with anticipation for Wilfred’s suggestion.
“We need him out of the picture. I’m convinced Claudio Vega is a mutant,” Wilfred said.
Staring out of the window before
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