The Man Who Always Won Lost at Love Chapter 03
Paula’s voice caught. “Leona, we’re begging you. Whatever’s going on between you and Dante, please don’t drag the rest of us into it.”
“What did Dante say?” I asked.
I was already on edge. If our relationship was hurting everyone else, how could I just sit back and do nothing?
“He said… Leona, you should ask him yourself.”
Paula hung up in a hurry.
As I drove to the office, I kept calling Dante. He finally picked up on the fifth try. In the background, I could hear the wind off the ocean and Mireya’s laughter.
“What? I thought winning and losing didn’t matter to you. Now you’re worried?”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. “Dante, Grand Aurelia isn’t some private competition between the two of us. The whole team worked on that account. You pulled everything you handled, and we don’t have time to recreate it all from scratch.”
Dante gave a short laugh. “I made those files. I’m on Mireya’s team now, so I took my work with me. What’s the problem?”
There was plenty wrong with it.
But Dante knew our department head wasn’t going to challenge him openly for my sake.
It wasn’t just because he was Orsatti’s best closer. It was also because he was the son of Gian Vescari, the Orsatti family’s Underboss.
In the business network controlled by the Orsatti family, nobody wanted to go head-to-head with the Vescaris over a few files.
Dante knew it, and he knew he could get away with this.
He was forcing me to cave, completely certain that I would.
I closed my eyes for a moment. “Fine. I admit it. I lost. Put the files back. Whatever is between us shouldn’t hurt everyone else.”
Dante sounded pleased. “Should’ve done that from the start.”
Then Mireya came on the line.
“Leona, we really didn’t think this through. By the way, my mom just called. She fell at home, and I can’t get back right now. Could you go check on her for me?”
“No.”
The line went quiet.
Dante spoke immediately. “You lost. You don’t get to set the terms. Go check on Teresa and make sure she’s okay. Then I’ll put the files back.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “Dante, this is work. You’re using the entire team as leverage to make me deal with Mireya’s family emergency?”
“Don’t make it sound so dramatic. Teresa practically watched you grow up too. What’s the big deal about checking on her?”
I didn’t have a choice.
Dozens of people were waiting on those files, so I had to agree.
Teresa Salvi lived in an older neighborhood.
She was sitting on the floor when I arrived. She had hit her lower back hard, but she was alert.
I wanted to call an ambulance, but she flatly refused. “It was just a fall. I’m not going to the hospital. Just help me onto the couch.”
I helped her sit down, and Teresa took my hand.
“Leona, I’m sorry you had to come all this way. When Mireya gets married, I owe you a drink.”
I went still. “Married? Mireya’s getting married?”
Teresa blinked. “You didn’t know? Dante. They came to see me together a few days ago.”
I froze.
Tomorrow was supposed to be the first time Dante sat down with my family as my fiance so we could finalize the wedding plans, the engagement announcement, and the arrangements for the house we were supposed to move into.
He’d forgotten.
But he’d already gone to the Salvis’ with gifts.
Teresa had no idea what was going on. She smiled and pulled me down beside her.
“You three have always been so close. When Mireya goes wedding-dress shopping, you’ll have to go with her.”
I couldn’t bring myself to explain. “I still have work to do. I should go.”
Teresa quickly waved me off. “Go. And really, you don’t need to take me to the hospital.”
Then she suddenly brought out a heavy wooden case.
“Take this too. Whiskey this expensive is wasted on me. Dante really shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”
I stared at the case, my breathing slowing. “This was from Dante?”
“Yeah. He brought it when he came over with Mireya.”
I reached out and touched the familiar private-reserve label.
It was the same case.
I had called in favors for that whiskey, waited forever to get it, and planned to have Dante personally give it to my father at our engagement dinner.
Teresa kept talking. “He said it was incredibly hard to get and told me I had to keep it.”
I tightened my grip on the case and smiled.
“It was hard to get. I should know—I’m the one who bought it.”
