“Thanks a lot for abandoning me last night, Adri."

Adriano chuckled, as he switched lanes. He was currently on his way to his father's house, who had summoned him early in the morning. He wasn't too happy about the idea, especially since he had to leave Amanda all alone back at his condominium.

"Sorry, Santi. I know how much the opening of your club meant to you but I told you I already had plans. Besides, you should be happy that I even showed up. You knew I had plans."

Santiago paused. "You know, one of these days I'm going to find out about these plans of yours. This isn't the first time you've bailed on me. What's going on with you, bro?" he asked curiously.

Adriano remained quiet, for once not really knowing what to say. Santiago and he had been friends since they were very young and they considered themselves brothers despite their lack of blood relations. They never kept secrets from each other yet there he was, holding onto some information and he felt really guilty. Maybe it was time to let the cat out of the bag.

"Do you remember Amanda?"

"Of course. She's that smoking red head you never shut up about, right? What about her?" he pushed, nothing but curiosity clouding his thoughts.

The traffic light ahead of Adriano turned red and he brought his car to a halt. "Well, we're kind of seeing each other-"

Santiago almost shrieked in astonishment, causing Adriano to roll his eyes. "I knew it! To be honest, I was quite surprised you just wanted to be friends with her. If I were in your shoes, I would have hit that as soon as I laid my eyes on her."

A second later, the light changed from red to green and the Bugatti was back in motion. "If you could do me a favor, keep your dirty thoughts to yourself. Also, stay away from my woman," he added as a warning, but more as a joke. He knew Santiago would never cross that line.

His friend laughed heartily. "Possessive much. So, she's your woman huh? Already putting labels on it I see,” he teased him.

Soon enough, Adriano was just one right turn away from his childhood house. Sometime in the morning, he had been requested to have brunch with his father and he couldn't decline since he had insisted it was urgent. He had left Amanda alone, much to both their chagrin since they had planned on spending much of the weekend together before their hectic schedules dragged them back into their respective workloads.

"We haven't put labels on it yet. She's mine and I'm hers, nothing more nothing less."

"Sounds serious. I'm glad you've found someone you like. I guess I'm the only one left out," he remarked sadly and chortled to himself. "Anyway, I saw some very interesting women last night."

Adriano leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I'm sure you did. Any luck?"

He exhaled deeply. "None. I did approach these two vixens. One was talk, dark and gorgeous. Her legs went on forever and she moved fluidly on the dancefloor. I can't get her out of my mind, man."

"Sounds to me like you got rejected," he laughed at his friend. Women typically turned down Santiago's ludicrous offers and he never took it well each time.

The iron gates leading to the Dos Santos residence were a few meters in front of his car. Almost as soon as he saw them, they languidly slip open, allowing him to swiftly speed past them. The guards gave him a small salute, which he returned with a simple nod and proceeded down the winding driveway.

"She didn't even acknowledge my existence. It definitely bruised my ego. But that's not all. She had a friend. Slightly shorter than her, and from her skin tone I could tell she's a Latina. Electric blue eyes, curves for days and the purple number she was wearing left little to the imagination-"

Adriano brought the car to an immediate stop just in front of the humongous mansion, but not purposefully. An all too familiar image of a certain raven haired lady popped in his mind. He knew who Santiago was talking about and for some odd reason, his palms became a bit sweaty.

How could he forget her? Heaven knows he'd tried but had failed miserably. She was the same woman he'd bumped into last night and a few days back. There was something about her that made him feel things he shouldn't feel, which is why he'd cut down their chatter on those two encounters to just simple exchanges. He didn't want to know her name, no. That wouldn't do him any good.

He cleared his throat and succeeded in cutting of his friend. "Santi, I'll talk to you later. I'm here," he didn't let him respond as he ended the call and switched off his car. He exited the vehicle and was welcomed by the valet to whom he handed his car keys. Next was his father's annoying secretary.

He rolled his eyes in irritation. "Where is my father?" he asked, not bothering to exchange greetings with the pest.

Carlton smiled derisively, looking like the devil himself. "He's by the pool. Come on, let me take you to him," he stated and led the way.

They made their way to the pool via the backyard, not bothering to enter the house which Adriano was immensely grateful for. Being in there brought back unwanted memories that he had tucked in the furthest corner of his brain. As they approached the luxurious pool, Humberto looked up from the paper he was currently reading and flashed his son a smile.

Adriano arrived at the table and took a seat as far as possible from him. "This better be important, padre. I don't appreciate having my time wasted over trivial things, especially on non-working days."

Humberto laughed, his green eyes crinkling with delight. Even though the grays were increasingly becoming dominant in his head, anyone could tell Adriano was the spitting image of his father in every sense of the word. Their only visible differences were their contrasting personalities. One was gentle and the other was cold, calculating even.

"I didn't raise you to be an impolite hombre, hijo. This is very important in fact. It just might be how our company becomes one of the most powerful in the whole country. No, the world!" he exclaimed, eliciting a bored huff from Adriano.

"I knew this was work related," he tsked and took a grape from one of the trays, then pushed it into his mouth. "What are you even going on about? Have you finally lost it, dad?"

From his peripheral view, Adriano saw a young Indian woman saunter over to where they were and she audaciously took a seat on his father's lap. He couldn't help but feel disgusted by his father's obscene behavior, seducing women old enough to be his daughters.

"Samara, have you met my son?" he asked arrogantly, his arm snaking around her waist in a possessive grip.

The girl turned her gaze from the older man to his son and flashed him a wolfish smile. Adriano, however, gave her his signature stone face, the one he'd taken years to master.

He leaned back in his seat. "This is your new flavour of the week?" he remarked rudely, causing Samara to turn her grin into an acidic scowl. "You know what padre, if you just called me here so that you could prove to me you're capable of getting girls, then I'll be on my way. This was a total waste of my time," he added curtly, stood up and turned to leave.

"I wasn't joking about what I said ealier. In a couple of days time, something big is going to happen and I hope you're prepared for it."

The younger Dos Santos did not dignify him with a response but simply took his leave from the pool area. On his way to his car, his mind pondered furiously about what his father had just said.

Just what do you have up your sleeve, father?

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