Lola's View
I put my ear up against the tent's fabric to try to understand what Enzo was saying to the security guards.
My whole body was shaking. He would tell them right now that I took him. He would point to my tent, and they would arrest me and take me away. It was the end of my life.
Officers, there's been a mistake," Enzo's voice came through clearly. "No one kidnapped me."
I couldn't breathe. "One guard said, "Sir, we have pictures of you tied up in a tent."
"Many people have said, ' Enzo cut him off, "I know what it looks like."
"But I'm telling you right now, I was not kidnapped. The person who took those pictures took them out of context to make things worse for me. I'm making a complaint about invasion of privacy, not kidnapping."
"Are you sure, Mr. Marchesi? Because if someone hurt you or forced you."
"I'm totally sure. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make some phone calls to my lawyers about suing whoever leaked those private photos."
There was a pause. Then the guards mumbled something I couldn't hear, and their footsteps walked away.
I stumbled backward, my legs suddenly weak. He'd saved me. Enzo Marchesi, the man who destroyed my family, had just lied to security guards to keep me from getting jailed.
Why?
The tent flap opened, and Enzo ducked back inside. His face was hard to read. "They're gone," he said. "For now."
"You told them I didn't take you."
"Because you didn't." He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. "You were just as drunk as I was. Whatever happened last night, we both decided to do it."
"But your board wants you to press charges. You said"
"I know what I said." He rubbed his face with both hands. "I have forty-seven minutes to call them back and tell them what I'm going to do."
"And what are you going to do?"
He looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw how tired he was. How scared. "I don't know," he said quietly.
We sat in silence for a minute. Outside, I could hear music playing somewhere far away. People laughing. For them, this was just another fun day at the fair.
For us, it was a nightmare. "Why did you do it?" I asked suddenly. The question had been burning in my chest for five years, and I couldn't hold it back anymore. "Why did you buy my dad's business? We weren't in competition. We were small. We did small events, birthdays, anniversaries, and neighborhood stuff. You had casinos. You didn't need us."
Enzo was quiet for so long, I thought he wouldn't answer. "Your father's business owned a place," he finally said.
"A building in downtown Vegas that I needed for a growth project. I offered to buy just the property, but he wouldn't sell. He said it had emotional value because his father had bought it, and he wanted to pass it down to you someday."
My throat got tight. I remembered that building. Dad used to take me there when I was little, showing me where Grandpa had started the business with nothing but a dream. "So, you bought the whole company just to get the building," I said. "Yes." Enzo's voice was flat. "It was a business choice. I needed that site for my casino expansion, and he wouldn't sell. So, I made him an offer for the entire company. He accepted."
"He accepted because you offered so much money he couldn't say no! You knew he was trying. You knew we needed the money. You caught him!"
"I gave him fair market value."
"Fair?"
I jumped to my feet, anger bursting through me. "You think any amount of money was fair? That business was his whole life! It was the only thing he had left after my mom died!
And you took it from him like it was nothing!"
Enzo stood up too, his jaw tight. "He signed the papers, Lola. I didn't force him to sell. I made an offer, and he accepted it. That's how business works."
"Business?"
I laughed, but it came out more like a sob. "You ruined him with your 'business.' He fell apart after you took that company.
He stopped getting out of bed. Stopped eating. I was nineteen years old, and I had to quit college to take care of him because he was so unhappy he couldn't function!"
"I didn't know."
"You didn't care!"
Tears were running down my face now, and I didn't bother wiping them away. "You got your house, and you never looked back. You never thought about what happened to the people you crushed. My dad almost died, Enzo. He tried to kill himself six months after you bought his company."
The color drained from Enzo's face.
"What?"
"I found him in the garage with the car running." My voice broke. "I pulled him out just in time. The doctors said another five minutes, and he would've been dead. That's what your business choice did to my family."
Enzo sank back down onto the bed like his legs wouldn't hold him anymore. He looked sick.
"I didn't know," he whispered.
"Lola, I swear I didn't know."
"Would it have mattered if you did?"
He looked up at me, and I saw something in his eyes I didn't expect. Guilt. Real, painful guilt. "Yes," he said.
"It would have mattered. I'm not. He stopped, taking a shaky breath.
"I'm not a monster. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to build something. To show I wasn't like my father."
"What does your father have to do with this?"
Enzo was quiet again. Then, slowly, he started talking. "My father was a gambling junkie. He inherited a popular restaurant chain from my grandfather, five locations, all profitable.
By the time I was twelve, he'd gambled it all away. Every diner. Our house. My college fund. Everything."
I sat down on the opposite end of the bed, listening. "We lost everything because of his addiction," Enzo continued.
"We had to move in with my aunt. I watched my mother cry herself to sleep every night. I swore that would never happen to me. I swore I'd build something so big, so powerful, that no one could ever take it away."
"So, you took from other people instead."
He flinched as I slapped him. "I didn't see it that way. I saw business possibilities. Properties I could use. Companies I could buy. I never thought about the people behind them. I should have, but I didn't."
"That doesn't make it okay."
"I know."
He looked at me, and his eyes were red. "I know it doesn't. But I need you to understand I didn't buy your father's company to destroy him. I bought it because I needed that building, and I was so focused on growing my business that I didn't stop to think about what it would cost anyone else."
We sat there in silence. Part of me wanted to stay angry. To hate him forever for what he'd done.
But another part of me saw the truth: he wasn't evil. He was just broken in a different way than I was. "You said you've been paying my dad's medical bills," I said quietly.
"When did you start doing that?"
"About a year ago. I was going through old purchase files, and I saw your father's name. I looked him up and found out he'd been in and out of hospitals for depression and health problems. I started paying his bills secretly through a charity foundation."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to help. I couldn't undo what I'd done, but I could at least make sure he got the care he needed."
Fresh tears rolled down my face. "He never knew it was you."
"I didn't want him to know. I just wanted to help."
My phone buzzed, making us both jump. I looked at the screen, and my heart sank.
It was a text from my landlord.
Saw the news. I don't need this kind of attention. You have 48 hours to move out. "No," I whispered. "No, no, no."
"What is it?"
I showed him the text. "I'm being moved. Because of this mess, I'm losing my place."
Enzo grabbed his own phone, his face getting darker as he read something.
"What?" I asked.
"My assistant just sent me a story. Someone shared the story about me buying your father's business five years ago. The press is calling this whole thing a 'revenge marriage.' They think you married me on purpose to get back at me for killing your family."
I felt like the walls were closing in. "This keeps getting worse."
"The board meeting starts in thirty minutes," Enzo said, looking at his watch. "They're going to ask me point-blank if I'm bringing charges against you. If I say no, they'll want to know why. If I tell them we're actually married, they'll demand I get an annulment instantly and distance myself from you completely."
"So do it," I said, even though the words hurt to say. "Get the divorce. Press charges if you have to. Save your company. I've already lost everything else, what's one more thing?"
"Lola"
"I mean it. I don't want to be the reason you lose everything you built. I know what that feels like, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even you."
He stared at me like I was speaking a different language. "You'd let me press charges against you?
Even though you're innocent?"
"If it means you keep your company, yes."
"Why?"
I wiped my eyes. "Because I've spent five years hating you for taking my dad's company. But I just realized something, you didn't know what it would do to him. You made a terrible choice, but you weren't trying to destroy us. You were just trying to live, like I've been doing ever since."
Enzo's phone started ringing. He looked at the screen. "It's the board," he said. "They're calling early."
We looked at each other. In thirty seconds, he'd have to make a choice that would change both our lives forever. "Answer it," I said.
His finger paused over the accept button.
Then his phone buzzed with a text message from an unknown number.
He read it, and his face went totally white. "What?" I asked. "What does it say?"
He turned the phone toward me with a shaking hand.
The message had a photo attached. A picture of Enzo and me from last night, dancing together. Smiling. Looking happy.
Below the picture, the message said: This is just the beginning. I have videos of your full night together. Everything you said. Everything you did. If you don't do exactly what I say, I'll release them all. Your jobs will be over. Your names will be destroyed. You have one hour to wire $5 million to the account below, or everyone will see just how much you two "hate" each other. Vanessa wasn't just trying to ruin us.
She was blackmailing us,
And she had proof of something from last night that we didn't even remember.
The phone rang again. The board is still waiting.
Enzo looked at me, his eyes full of fear. "What do we do?" he whispered.