Zachary Pov

　　"Sir Mr. Stephen has left the penthouse in a hurry. I tried to stop him but he said it's urgent and he took the next plane back home," Cosmina told me while I got up from the bed and looked back at a sleeping Juliette who faced the other side with her left hand on the bed on the pillow, while the other was on the back of her head while she slept on her belly. That's an uncomfortable position...


　　"I know! He had informed me about the last night" I said I sat on the recliner that Juliette had chosen from that furniture shop. And honestly, I love this recliner. Why did I not ever think about bringing one home earlier? It relaxes me so much that whenever I wake up in the morning or whenever I am tired I have grown used to sit on this recliner.

　　"Oh! Foarte bine (Very well). He just called me some minutes ago and told me to inform you." she said and my eyes averted to Juliette who stirred in her sleep and sleepily covered herself using the duvet.

　　"Hmm. It's early in the morning. You did your job very well but now you can sleep. I will not be coming to the office today! If you want you can take the day off too. If you do so, make sure to inform Marc. He will handle everything," I said and looked at the time to find its four in the morning.


　　"Oh! Thank you, sir! Yes, I will do that" she said sounding grateful. We hung up and I kept my mobile on the side as I raised my left leg and kept in on my right knee. Juliette's father told me yesterday that he had to leave for some urgent thing and he will be back within the week with his family. Out of the all the people in Juliette's family, only a few has the idea about what has been going on in Juliette's life. Juliette's mother Jessica knows everything and I think they have told only a few parts about Emmett being Nicholas to Jace and Juliette's friend.

　　That reminds me of that Nicholas.


　　Not caring what time it was, I dialed Max's number. He picked up after just two rings speaking or might I say whispering "Hello?"

　　"Where are you?" I asked after a moment of pause.

　　"Oh! Boss!" suddenly I heard shuffling in the background and then he spoke, "Yes Boss!"

　　"I am in my home now," he answered but again he was back at whispering.

　　"I want to know about Nicholas's whereabouts. Is your man doing the work properly?" I asked.

　　"Yes, Boss! He is constantly reporting me about Nicholas's whereabout. Last time I checked that he took a flight to Afghanistan and he checked into a hotel in Kabul. My people has been sending me his photos and even his movements. So, far he has not tried to contact his father" Max spoke and I nodded chewing the inner lip thinking what is he up to?

　　Nicholas took a flight to Afghanistan and yet he had not tried to contact his father. Why not? Does he know that someone is following him or marking his movements? Or is he not contacting Vito because...

　　"Tell your men to have their eyes on the people that he met. Let that be a woman or even an old man. Inform me everything! even if it's a child!" I said scratching my chin thinking about Nicholas.

　　"Yess Boss! I will do that!" he whispered.

　　"Why are you whispering?" I asked all of a sudden wanting to know why was he acting so weirdly, whispering in his own house. "Umm, I am in my bathroom," he said and that made me raise an eyebrow.

　　"Baie?" (Bathroom?) I asked.

　　"My girlfriend is sleeping and she gets irritated whenever I umm I pick up my phone in the middle of the night. So, I walked into the bathroom not to disturb her sleep." he said and I could hear the irritation in his voice. A small smile appeared on my face. I found the situation really funny though.

　　"Well! Don't disturb your girlfriend then! Sleep well." I said and hung up.

　　I looked back at Juliette, her back was facing me. "Well, she doesn't complain!" I thought as I kept my phone on a table next to the recliner.

　　But she isn't your girlfriend!

　　Actually, that reminds of that day when I cooked for her, just two days ago I was so tired because I had to drive back to the warehouse where I had kept Nicholas in order to set him free and then I had to attend a meeting and after that, I slept in my office exhausted. I intended on just to take a short nap and then I would have been in my car, driving back home because I was aware of the fact that Juliette was left alone in the house but then I was so tired to the point that without even having my dinner I slept on my office's couch. The next day, I woke up early in the morning and straight away drove back home thinking that she must be scared all by herself in the house because her father had told me earlier that she despised living alone. But the moment I saw her in that kitchen wearing that skin fit tank top with her wet hair I literally felt the ground slip beneath my foot as I felt my heartbeat racing against my chest so, I had to balance my body by leaning gainst the open doorframe just to look at her.

　　She looked beautiful and I even couldn't help those words slip out my tongue and I told it on her face "frumoasa" (beautiful) but thankfully she couldn't get it. It's so frustrating that I have been like this since the day I have started to have all these strange emotions for her. Are this emotions and feelings related to the fact that I am just trying to protect her from Nicholas or something else?

　　But whatever it is, I guess she will never like it. Nor will I. I must continue to have all my attention on Vito right now. I am just wandering off my ambitions. But.

　　She has this effect on me now. I have never been in any relationships nor have I ever dated any woman yet here I am straight away married to a total stranger whom I only knew from a simple plain photo just to had this on my mind that she was Stephen's daughter who would be walking down that aisle for Nicholas and whom I had to marry in order to save her. That was the deal and as soon as I get that Vito in my hand she will be going back home, to her normal life being her normal self. I knew it from the beginning that she despised criminals and I doubt that she ever had this dream to marry a criminal but much to her annoyance she is, she is married to a criminal must I say, to a mafia leader who has this already messed up life of playing two roles, one of being a mafia leader and another of playing a successful businessman.

　　This is what life has chosen for me. I never really chose this life for me. Who really wants a life like me?

　　It will be better if she gets back to her own life. She doesn't belong here and nor do I belong in her life. It will be better if she gets back to her life away from all this chaos, weapons and especially from my life because, in the end, she will end up hurt if she doesn't. And judging from her question that day while having her breakfast she did ask me if she could go back. This only indicates that she wants to go back. As much as it gives me an uneasy feeling but I understand that she doesn't want to have anything to do with my life. She even made it clear that day that she clearly has no interest in my life nor has any intention of staying here after all this is over.

　　I closed my eyes as I leaned against the recliner making myself comfortable.

　　I was as she stirred in her sleep and turned towards my direction. A mere sight of her does all these things to me. My hands formed into a ball thinking about that. And do I like whatever I was feeling? This woman...