Adrian Diaz hated me.
Which made it extremely strange that he had just asked me out on a date.
For Context, just five minutes ago I was playing with my hair when someone knocked. Again.
I sighed and called, 'Come in'.
It was none other than Adrian Diaz.
He visited occasionally for one reason only: to remind me what a failure I was.
A burden. A pain.
Yesterday he had simply called me "an incompetent bitch."
Only it wasn't just him this time. Right behind him, his father walked with a lot more authority, as though he owned the room, and although he didn't, I knew he could have it any second he wanted.
Adrian started, "Nickolas", glancing back at his father as if unsure about how to proceed.
"Please, sit", I tried to make the atmosphere breathable.
Meanwhile, his father simply waited. At least it clarified, whatever this was about had nothing whatsoever to do with Adrian.
He continued, "Go on a date with me." His father frowned but stayed silent.
His father frowned but stayed silent.
So this wasn't the real reason they were here.
Not yet.
If his father wasn't here, this wouldn't be happening at all.
I wasn't going to let him lighten the blow, as though I needed to be coddled at all, much less from him. "May I talk to you alone, Mr. Diaz?" I said.
"Adrian", Diaz senior commanded and the man who says and does what he wants seemed dead. He up and walked out without a question, a look or hesitation. This was Diego Dias we were talking about.
Rumours said that he skinned his own wife, leaving behind bones and breaking one the richest, most powerful families of Italy. But nobody could lift a finger against him.
Why was the government obedient to a criminal?
Same reason I'm careful.
Questioning him is all it takes.
The Governor of the Bank of Spain tried. Prime Minister too. What followed was a tsunami of criminals, leading to millions of new problems, wreaking havoc in the whole country.
Finally, the man bothered to sit. But he looked even more intimidating this way. That might have something to do with how more of his attention was now directed at me. I just looked at him and waited. Except he didn't bother saying anything and we just stared at each other.
Knowing it was a battle I couldn't win, I started, "Well? What do you want from me?"
"To marry him."
My blood turned to ice.
"Why?"
This was worse than I thought.
I instantly understood why Adrian Diaz wasn't like his usual self today.
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't care to succeed me and I'm getting old. Whatever a man can do", he turned towards the window and chuckled, "he can't live forever." Looking back at me he said, "Not that I want to either, but I do want things to remain this way until… well, it's a long story that I will share with you in time. For now", he laughed, "well, you know."
He looked at me with a kind smile, one that crinkled his eyes just enough to hide the half-tear I knew was there. "Well, then why me?"
"You've made millions using your brain, haven't you? It must work well. I choose you to eventually succeed me. For now, you'll work with me for the next couple of years. For that to happen without you being family, you'd have to leave your business and… disappear. But you need your business intact if you're to be taken more seriously than just 'a random woman'."
"You could train him."
His eyes flashed with more pain and hurt than anger. ""You think I can train a boy who sees me as the man who ruined—and continues to ruin—his life? Turn him into the next me? Teach him to kill his wife?"
"Why can't you tell him that you didn't?"
You couldn't see it on his face, but you could hear it in the silence.
He was calculating how I had figured it out.
"Do you honestly need to ask that?" He said, showing more disappointment than he probably felt.
Actually…
No.
I didn't.
The timing of the rumours was so apparent that I knew exactly what had happened.
For his wife's safety, her identity had been changed, any trace of her deleted from the world.
She was sent into a happy life where she wasn't being hunted to get back at Diego.
The supposed murder had happened right after she was shot for the second time in the same week. They'd said he'd done it to prove he didn't care about her, that she wasn't the weakness they made her out to be.
But his son, a mother deprived 8 year old got treated like a monster from the beginning… To him, of course it was all his father's fault. And it was. He chose this life. And the reputation and politics that came with it.
Adrian hadn't.
I paused. A marriage. To control his… Empire?
"What exactly is my job description? And not as a wife." I added, just to avoid the laugh he looked he needed. Because as much as he might need some relief, I did too.
"The simplest way to put it," he said, sparing me the embarrassment, even as his lips curled slightly, "is that you'll meet a great many important people and keep them… amenable to your needs. Which, in this case, means keeping the country afloat until its foundations grow strong enough to hold themselves."
He gestured vaguely toward the window.
"If I vanished tomorrow, the markets would panic, the criminals would run wild, and the government would suddenly discover just how little control it actually has."
His mouth curved slightly.
"Until they learn to manage their own affairs, we do it for them."
He paused, seemingly finished with his explanation.
"Oh and", he continued, adding as an afterthought, "There's drugs and money laundering and such as well of course. The usual background noise."
"We?"
"Spain has five of us."
"And the rest of the world?"
"More than a couple thousand."
"So you're essentially… an administrative backup."
"That's one way to look at it," he said. "We're the control room. We decide what happens. Yes, one of the goals is that the world keeps functioning as it does. But that is more of a means than an end."
"And what is the end? What is your goal?"
"Ethelyn, I need my sleep, you know? I've had an entire day of work, I deserve a break."
I laugh, staring at his eyes shine, "I'll let you go for now. This whole marriage thing though? I don't know about this. Nor about the job. But I've had a full day of boring meetings and brain hammering arguments too. Let's not come back to this for a while."
He simply nodded in understanding. "I was hoping for an easier yes but I guess, then you wouldn't be who I need. So you two, you're gonna… go on a date then?"
"I'll…", I sighed, "I'll talk to him." He knew I couldn't say no to him, I valued my skin more than that.
He laughed and left.