Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.

-Alfred A. Montapert

The man was impossible, all right? He was the most arrogant and exasperating man I had the misfortune to meet! Lucca Cavelli wasn't talking no for an answer. He was so damn sure of himself that he could win any argument he battled—and he had!

I was sitting in front of him as he devoured his breakfast leisurely. The fact was that I intended to move out from his villa and make my way to New York as soon as possible. Now, I was stuck here sitting with him watching the waves of the sea below and the clearest blue sky above refusing my breakfast. The man didn't know how to ask—he just commanded orders as if he was a king and the world should move according to his will.

"Why don't you try to eat your breakfast?" He asked pleasantly. The man was dense, or he just didn't care about my dark mood. From the corner of my eyes, I could see that he was studying me as I remained my gaze fixed on the beautiful Amalfi coast before us.

"Don't want to."

"You know," Lucca Cavelli informed me, his tone was bored. "When you don't eat, tesoro, a slight wind can toss you back on the ruthless sea just like last night."

I gritted my teeth, still refusing to look at him—and his magnificent silver eyes. He was making fun of me, I concluded silently. I could hear the laughter in his rich sexy voice.

"Why don't you just ignore and ignore me like I do to you?" I snapped. The old Tatiana Rostova would never snap at people however rude they were. But that woman had already died last night, and the new Tatiana would scorn, snap and be rude to anyone when she wanted to.

"Are you ignoring me?" The laughter was still visible in his voice. His silver eyes gleamed with delight. "Forgive me. I wasn't aware, cara?"

"Don't call me that," I glared at him. "Anything but that blasted endearment."

"Ah..." A calculated smile flashed on his sexy mouth. "Some Italian guy broke the heart of Miss Tatiana Rostova. I wonder who?"

I cursed myself for the slipped. Now Lucca Cavelli leisurely opened the newspaper and blocked my view from his face—not that I care.

I let my gazed back at the sea. My stomach grumbled but I ignored it. I will not eat anything on this table. I will not let him prove that I was very hungry. I know it's silly to fight him in everything but I cannot help it.

"Why don't you look at it?" He showed me the page of the newspaper he read. I couldn't say a word of it because it's in Italian, but I recognized our yacht in the picture below the bold headlines.

"I don't understand Italian." I shook my head.

He translated the title in English. "The Heiress' Accidental Death."

I wanted to snort or laugh—maybe both. Sabrina had been serious in showing that was an accident, huh? That I stupidly drowned myself on the coast of Amalfi last night.

"Would you like me to read?" My host offered.

"Please." For the first time since I was dragged in this table, I gave my full attention to him.

"On one condition," he bargained. "Eat your breakfast."

I gave him a dirty look. "That's blackmail, you know."

The devil just merely shrugged. I gave a resigned sigh and started digging my food and forced myself to eat just for him to read the blasted article.

He gave me a guarded look momentarily before clearing his throat and began to read...

The world was stunned early this morning when the news broke-in that the sole heiress of the famous Rostov International Hotels, Tatiana Rostova, reported missing on the coast of Amalfi last night. The Guardia costiera are searching the vast water for the signs of the missing hotel heiress. Miss Rostova was on vacation with her fiancé, the well-known Italian businessman, Paolo Ranaldi and her stepsister, socialite, Sabrina Hunter. The three of them early celebrated the upcoming twenty-fifth birthday of Miss Rostova in the family's fifty-foot luxury yacht. Rumors are circulating on the hotel business that the missing heiress would finally take over as the new CEO of the famous hotel chains around the world after her birthday and upcoming nuptials a few weeks from now. Words are also spreading that Miss Rostova was reluctant in managing their billion-dollar hotel empire. People now began to speculate if this was really an accident or suicide? Had the reclusive hotel heiress committed suicide?

According to her grieving stepsister at an ambush interview, "Tati said she was suffering from a severe headache and drank too much alcohol than necessary last night. We tried to stop her but she said she was having a good time. She told us that she wanted to clear her head and went to the deck..." said a teary-eyed Sabrina Hunter. Mister Ranaldi couldn't give any comment about his missing fiancée. He was still in a state of shock and distress to answer any questions.

An inside source tells that Mrs. Amanda Hunter-Rostova—stepmother of Miss Tatiana Rostova would be flying in Italy to personally seek the search and rescue operations for her stepdaughter...

I let my expression remain poker face as Lucca Cavelli finished reading the articles. Paolo and Sabrina were one hell of actors. Grieving? What a laugh! Undoubtedly, I was played by their deviousness. The last thing they'd been doing right now was mourning for my death. They were probably in my penthouse celebrating the fact that I was finally out of their lives.

Well, I have some surprising news for them. I will come back and avenge my supposed death, God has given me a second chance to pay the people who tried to kill me. I will take back what was rightfully mine. Everything that belongs to me—the whole thing and more! I will not rest until I have the whole lot back including the hurt, I'd suffer because of them. I will not give them the satisfaction of spending my family's fortune for their selfish needs.

Just wait and see—soon they'll realize it is not a good idea to wrath a member of one of the oldest and most powerful families in Russia.

Just wait and see...

I was blindly staring at the news on the television—all news was the same about...Tatiana's death. My conscience kept me awake last night, remembering the pleading voice of my fiancé as I tried to close my eyes. All I could see is her struggling in the water. I killed her! I never killed people before in my life.

I should be burned in hell.

"Why aren't you eating your breakfast?"

I glared at the beautiful blonde who wore nothing but a bathrobe inside the spacious living room. "Seriously? Sabrina is that all you can say...? Breakfast? While my conscience is eating me alive?"

I never thought that this woman would be so heartless. "Aren't you worried about Tatiana?"

She gave a snort and continued to eat her buttered bread. "Why should I be worried? Aren't you happy that she's finally out of our lives forever and the Rostov's fortune would be ours? Besides, we didn't kill her, darling. She accidentally fell on the deck."

That's it! I stood from the sofa I've been sitting for the past hours and stalked towards her. I wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. "Why are you so indifferent about our mistake?" I demanded. "Why do you dislike your stepsister that much?"

"Dislike was not the word I'd used in describing what I felt for her." Her pretty blue eyes turned coldly "What I feel about her was hatred. Pure and simple."

I gaped at her. She hated Tatiana? But the woman was her best friend, wasn't she?

"Why?" I whispered, searching for her face.

"Why?" She repeated that her eyes were like the coldest night of winter. "Because she's simply her—the blessed Tatiana Rostova, the woman who had everything in life but stupidly threw it away. The woman who always refused the invitations of the upper-class society for some reasons she only knew. The same woman who was constantly asked by famous designers to dress her up and repeatedly refusing them. I only dreamed of what she threw away in reality."

I never thought that Rina was so consumed by her jealousy about her wallflower stepsister. Jealousy could turn a woman into a bitter being.

"You know what's worst?" She continued with a brittle laugh. "She also took away my mother's love for me. Mother always looked after her first before her own daughter. I genuinely liked her at first but growing up she started to hide with those bedraggled clothes and behind the huge library of our house and as she tried to face in the background the more curious attention she got. If she doesn't want the attention, I will gladly replace her."

But that was not entirely true. During the time I'd been courting Tatiana, I saw the glimpse of a woman who was hiding herself inside a library and those hideous clothes. It's not like she didn't like social gatherings, but she was just shy to talk to other people.

In fact, when we were alone Tatiana was fun to talk to. She had a great knowledge in everything, and I was genuinely enjoying her company.

"So, don't feel guilty about her." Sabrina dragged me out of my reverie. "She's gone now. And you are now mine, alone." She hooked her arms around my neck and kissed me.