Free Her Sicilian Arrangement by Hannah-Lee Hitchman Page A

catch!”
    “ She
hates me,” Marco finally admitted, rubbing his forehead and
flipping the sunglasses slowly in his hands.
    “ Wait…let me guess—oh, I know…you thought marriage was the best
way to solve those differences!” Felipe chuckled, obviously amused
at Marco’s situation.
    “ She’s a journalist, Felipe. She wants to interview me for a
story because she believes those lies about me…but I want
her.”
    “ You
want her? As in, you really want her as your lover?”
    “Sí. I had to
buy time so I told her that I would give her a story if she agrees
to pretend to be my fiancée. It’s the only way I saw fit to have
her close to me at her will.”
    Felipe sighed, looked across the lawn and back. “Then you know
that your secret is safe with me, brother.”
    “Grazie !”
Marco sighed and massaged his temples. “What have you been up to
since the past couple months?”
    “ A
little of this and that,” he responded. “I’ve been sorting out the
food packages for this month’s delivery to Libya. I don’t think
that you should come accompany this time. I will travel alone with
the crew. I am leaving in two days.”
    “ Very well.”
    “ I
think you should go have a word with Father. You two need to settle
this feud before it gets any worse,” Felipe advised. “Listen to
your older brother for once.”
    Marco sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “That is a hard
thing you are asking of me, Felipe.”
    “ But
it is the right thing, no?”
    “I
don’t even know what the right thing is anymore. I will talk to
Father…today, I promise. But right now, I need to get to discussing
something very terrifyingly important. I think someone is trying to
sabotage me.”
    “Che
cosa ! Are you sure?
Why?”
    “ The
thought had only occurred to me an hour ago. I had initially
thought that people had misunderstood our journeys but then—the
type of lies that they tell—seems calculated.”
    “I
see…,” Felipe muttered. “But who could it be? Who could have done
that to you? I don’t know of you having enemies.”
    “ I
don’t either. But I must find out.”
    “ Marco, you should really think this through properly. If the
person—or persons—who constructed this slander had the resources to
turn some of your own employees against you, then I suggest you be
careful. They might be very dangerous.”
    “ I
might be very dangerous when I catch them!” Marco
snapped.
    “ Calm down. I shall keep an extra eye out for you, and don’t
worry. I have a feeling everything will work out just
fine.”
    “ Okay.” Marco eased off the chair and then straightened his
pants. “I want to ask Meagan something—.”
    “ Uh,
I think I heard Maria saying that they all were going for a walk so
Father might be the only one you will see in the house. You should
to talk to him…now.”
    Marco sighed and ruffled his thick dark hair. “Okay…here I go
to my death.” He heard Felipe chuckling as he walked off and then
moved at a mediate pace across the lawn towards the main building.
It was as if God had been whispering in his ear at that moment,
when he raised his chin to look up at the window of his father’s
office to meet the eyes of the man who had technically disowned him
socially. Marco clenched his jaw fiercely and then walked through
the empty sitting room, through the oversized living room and began
to embark the long spiral flight of steps. He could not remember
when the last time was since he had climbed that staircase. He had
always chosen to vacate the Guest House, which he and Meagan
currently shared, just to avoid his father’s gruesome
words.
    Felipe had moved out when he was only twenty-three years old
but Torre Mussolini had not found any problem with that since
Felipe had welcomed the running of his own vineyard, exactly
according his father’s liking. Marco had decided to embark is own
success ladder at the same age when he had moved out as well to
keep a ‘healthy’ distance between