Marco

In any other circumstance, I would be sure that Yamato would win the staring contest but meeting Grampa who wants this time to appear as a menace, makes me doubt this.

He seemed ok with everything before I left for Brazil. Not delighted but accepting and I felt also an ounce of respect from him because I made and stood by my own choice. What the fuck changed?

"Well, if the house of Yoshida doesn't want to stay in our estate I take it as a sign of distrust and that's not a good premise for an impending wedding. Tell him that," he says in Italian. He could speak to him directly in English but doesn't to irk him, and me, and assert dominance.

"Yamato has gone through five assassination attempts before the age of twenty. There are reasons why he doesn't sleep in places he doesn't know."

"But this is not any place. This is where his sister is going to live."

"Grampa, you don't do sleepovers either..."

"Yes, but, I am an old man, have arthritis and such... It's difficult." He manages to say it with a straight face.

"Hitomi is staying here. It's her who matters. Let it go. Please."

"But she is not a capo. She can be viewed as expendable. Kamikaze and all that... You know."

"Come on... Don't be like this; it's my engagement day. Lorenzo, please don't make it more difficult than it needs to be. You just want to stir havoc, admit it. I told you, I am not changing my mind, so I would prefer your support..."

In the end, he gives in but now Hitomi is irritated. Strangely, Yamato isn't. He understands.

"He is a pain."

"Just sometimes. And you must admit that without him we wouldn't be standing here."

Something in my mind whispers that without fortune and power, I wouldn't be of interest to her and that is mean. It is indeed so that these things matter to her but only because she was raised with the wish, bordering on obsession to please her family.

"I need to talk to Yamato. See you at the party? Like this, you will be surprised by my sexy dress."

I want to ask why I can't come but it would only complicate a complicated day for nothing, so I just kiss her and agree.

Surprisingly, I am left alone with my thoughts before the party. That's not good. Alex said I should stay put. Everybody with half a brain would say I should stay put, so I do what a normal person with a tendency towards bad decisions would do. I google Thiago Mendes da Rocha and recent news.

Roxi's boyfriend is sort of famous. There are several articles in Portuguese about the big drug bust. He is pictured as a hero, I mean fair enough, but there are no words about her. Why? She was there too. A kidnapped foreign citizen. The press must ask questions unless they were bribed preemptively which is admittedly smart.

Then there is one... Video?! On national TV where she is very obviously pictured. I put the volume up. It's a masked campaign interview. Thiago absorbed all the questions though some are addressed to both. Not sure if that is smart or he is being a jerk. The interview lasts half an hour. I should do something better with my life. I should get dressed for the party but I keep staring at her. She looks uncomfortable and sad, at least to my biased eyes.

And then the TV anchor asks her explicitly a question. My Portuguese knowledge comes mostly from Spanish, meaning I understand a lot but can't speak a great deal, but she is doing a rather good job answering the questions in a language she is learning for barely a year.

And the answer... Oh lord, you are being... very kind, Pebbles but I don't know if people would understand. I didn't expect it and neither did he, but unlike me, he doesn't like it.

"Sir, are you ready?" asks one of the maids. Shit no, I didn't even start.

"Right away, give me some minutes," I answer and finally turn the video off. Is it ok to be fashionably late in this situation? Probably not.

I drive to the venue with Grampa. His mood isn't great.

"Come on... Why are you doing this?"

"What?"

"The air in this car is so thick you can cut through it..."

"This is me trying to accept your wish."

"What can possibly go so wrong?"

"The sabotage of our house on the hands of a megalomaniac girl. Maybe I should have invested more into... Nevermind."

"Yeah, never mind. Let's embrace it, and Hitomi would never do anything to hurt me. I am sure of that."

"I am not."

"Lorenzo!"

He rolls his eyes and doesn't change his mood till we arrive, but as soon as the door of the car opens he seems a different person. He is a damn good actor. Why am I even amazed?

Like at my 'raise from the dead' party, there are a lot of prestigious gangsters and business persons present, the very few friends I have and some potential enemies.

Do I know all of them? Yes, mostly, even the abundance of East Asians. Grampa said it's important. He isn't wrong; he insisted I memorise Hitomi's guest list first of all.

Is he really telling the whole truth? Is he being paranoid? I will need to check this after tonight.

Hitomi is not here yet. She is very punctual unless business gets in the way or she wants to make a very dramatic entrance. I try to find Alex in the crowd but he seems to not be here yet. Well great, not one friendly face but a hell lot of fake smiles.

"Sir, a girl at the entrance claims to know you. She is not on the guest list." My heart skips a very stupid beat. "She is here with Mr. Al Rashid as his partner."

"Oh." Not at all what I was thinking, not sure what it was, however.

"We gave her a quick check and she is a journalist, so one imagines why she is here. If you don't know her, we will send her away. But we had to ask because Mr. Al Rahid insisted."

"He did?" How odd. "You didn't tell me her name."

"Karyme Abadi. It's real." What does this mean?

"Let her in."

"So you do know her?"

"Yes. I will be right there."

Kary is here. There is a chance she is here for work but... I can ask her to check on Roxi without it being too suspicious. And she is friends with Aziz. Weid. Interesting. Both.

My eyes linger on them a bit. He... poor sucker. And yes, Kary, now that you are here, maybe we should indeed have a conversation. Did you know about what Roxi was planning to do? My bet is no; Roxi would not endanger her.

She is gripping his arm and looks at him... weirdly. This is so strange.

"Aziz, welcome. Thank you for honouring the invitation. I appreciate that." Especially because Alex is here too. I could bet he would sit this one out too but he is here; with Kary. "Kary, I am glad yet surprised to see you here."

"Marco, I..." She seems to be at a loss for words.

"Marco, your brother is harassing Karyme. If you want him to stay in one piece, talk sense into him," says Aziz.

Okay, this is yet another surprise.

"I had no idea they knew each other. Yes, Stefano can be a bit intense."

"He should relax forcefully if needed because if he touches her once again I will chop the hand off," states Aziz very calm and almost smiling politely.

The fuck did I miss here.

"Kary, I am happy you are here, I want to..."

"To introduce me, I hope," says Hitomi who comes up from behind me, putting a rather territorial arm around my body. And here goes my chance to say something for the time being. Hitomi is wearing a long syren shaped, black designer dress. She looks exactly as she aims to: beautiful and dangerous.

Kary also looks at her a bit stunned, maybe losing the colour in her cheeks to some extent.

Hitomi enlaces her fingers with mine and kisses me affectionately on the cheek and then on the mouth. That is the most PDA that I got from her in... ever.

Well yeah, Karyme is a very attractive girl and if she is here one can easily assume that from a good family. Is she actually jealous?

"Hitomi, my fiance. These are Aziz, one of our business partners and his... date, Karyme."

"Date? I hope she will be promoted to girlfriend soon. One doesn't bring just a date to this type of event." Again, very true.

Yamato and his wife, concubine and younger brother step forth from behind Aziz and it's now definitely too crowded.

Kary gives them a strange look and then stares a bit conflicted at Aziz.

"父は祝福を送ります。/Father sends his blessings," says Yamato and gives me a half smile.

"これは私にとって大きな喜びです。私は彼が私を嫌うのではないかととても心配していました/This brings me great joy. I was very concerned he would hate me."

"なぜそうするのでしょうか？彼にとってあなたは息子のようなものです。」Why would he? You are like a son to him."

I linger a few seconds over what he said. A part of me always thought he would mind. There were legitimate reasons for that. I have had sex, though very much consensual, with his daughter when we were both very young and knew we shouldn't have because I didn't have any pleasing perspectives. A part of me still wants to explain myself. Yoshi Yosinda has been a father figure for me despite everything.

"My love, you said you would finally introduce me to your friend, Alexei," says Hitomi and drags me away.

Kary and Aziz are already lost in the crowd.

For the rest of the evening, Hitomi doesn't leave my side. It's rather delightful while everything else is only exhausting. I don't like these events but as a capo you must attend them rather often and this one was meant to show our alliance to the world.

But when I give Hitomi the engagement ring I try to blend out the crowd, to pretend it's only the two of us. She smiles and for the first time this evening, it seems genuine.

"It's probably worth a fortune. A beautiful ring from a beautiful man."

"It is. And it's lotus-shaped."

"Oh. you drew it yourself, didn't you? Looks very time-consuming."

"Well, it's for a once-in-a-lifetime event."

"You still are the same deep inside, such a dreamer," she says with a faint smile on her lips.

All the faces blend in together after a while and all the voices share the same platitudes. We wish you happiness... No, you don't. We wish you a long life... I am not really sure you do.

I catch Kary's eye after long hours. I want to walk to her, but Hitomi doesn't leave my side. Ah fuck, maybe the universe is telling me to let it be.

There is a scream in the crowd that attracts a fair amount of attention.

"I fucking love you, what don't you understand!" screams Stefano. Oh, God. By the look and the pitch of his voice, he is drunk and high. And he is indeed looking at Kary.

Aziz says something I can't hear but it makes Stefano even angrier and he charges to punch him.

"What is this idiot doing?" Hitomi is silently furious. "Ruining my engagement party because why not."

"I will deal with it."

"No, security will."

"And he will punch security and make a scene. I know how to handle him."

She gives me an eye-roll and a 'do what you please'. I sigh and walk over.

"Stefano, calm down. Come with me."

"Why? You are engaged and shit now. And I want to be too. With her! Because I love her!"

"Let's go in the back and you can tell me all about it."

"No! I don't want to go because she will go away with Aziz and I don't want him to touch her because he is weird. I think he cannot even get it up. And I want her to have my babies!"

"It's okay, come on," I say and drag him gently yet firm enough for him to move.

"No! You don't understand. I want a kid with her! You don't understand because you got you balls cut off, well not that, those other things to not have kids. Does she know? The Jap girl? Is she ok with it?" Sincerely, fuck you, Stefano. He said that loud enough for at least a few people to hear. Not that it's the most important thing in the world but still yet another potential problem.

"Stefano, you are drunk and making a scene. Walk! Now!"

After a few attempts, I manage to bring him into one of the rooms in the back.

He sags to the ground.

"Here, drink this."

"What's this shit?"

"Water. So you don't faint or have a seizure."

"Did she leave with him?"

"I don't know, probably but it's none of your business. But for the record, Karyme is gay, so she isn't his girlfriend either. How did you even get to this idea?"

"I know she likes girls, but I like girls too and I love her. She came to me and it worked, because she drives me fucking crazy. But I know, if I get the blond one, Karyme will come too," he says.

He takes a phone out of his pocket. It's neon green and doesn't look like his at all.

"Whose phone is that?"

"Hers. And I can text blondie and she wouldn't know it's me. Brilliant, huh? And people say you are the smart one."

Most definitely not.

The door of the room bursts open and Hitomi comes in.

"I am almost done here. Sorry for this." I smile apologetically.

"Marco, I need to go."

"What? Where? It's our engagement party."

"Father was attacked. In the convent."

"Shit. Is he okay?"

"Seems so but we are not sure. I need to go there with Yamato."

"Ok, I come with you."

"No! The party is almost over, but if they notice that we are gone there will be whispers. I don't want us to appear weak. I will be back in a day or two, max. I promise!"

"It's okay. Dishearting but okay. Tell your father that I wish to see him well soon."

"Will do." She presses a fast kiss on my lips and leaves.

When I turn around, Stefano is asleep in a sitting position, leaning against the wall holding that phone.

Later that evening after the important guests left and the ones remaining aren't sober enough to notice I, return home.

It's almost five in the morning when I finally manage to get in bed. Alone and I can't sleep.

Hitomi texted that her father has only light injuries. I am happy and she did the right thing.

But I am not at this weird time, I keep staring at the neon green phone.

There are several text messages from her on it, from more than a months ago that Kary left unanswered. Likely, because this phone was with Stefano.

I knew why I took it when I did. I subconsciously knew.

It's only a text.

Kary: You okay, Pebbles?

Roxi Love of My Life: Typing...

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What happened in this chapter will have a few consequences. Any guesses?