The Devil's Masquerade: The Poison Read Online Free PDF Page B

to see my father.” He nods and shows me to my father’s office. “Thank you, Rabbie. Please have some refreshments prepared for me and my son.” Rabbie nods and leaves us.
    “What is wrong with Rabbie?”
    “My assistant is now perfect. After you left, there was no reason for him to be here any longer, but I hated to let a good man go. So, I turned him into my new aide,” he says, looking up at me with no concern of how I would feel about that. My punishment. He seeks to cause pain to everyone around me to punish me. My anger builds, and I have a difficult time speaking. “I assume that you have left that woman and are ready to do as I say?”
    “No, I have not left her. I love her, but I have come to make a deal with you since you feel it necessary to suffocate everyone around me.”
    “I don’t make deals.”
    “You don’t make deals that don’t benefit you. I know that, and I have come to offer you a deal that will benefit you. I will come back and work for you, offering the benefit of my intelligence and negotiation skills to use as needed for the family. In exchange, you allow me the family I want and you leave Sophia and I alone with any children we may have.”
    My father instantly stands. “Children? She’s pregnant? Oh wonderful Dante! I swear, you will be the death of me.” He sits back down, swearing at me under his breath. “The child will need to go through judgment.”
    “No, not my child,” I say, causing him to sit back with wide eyes. “We work together, but you leave my family alone, all of them, or else …” I feel my mother taking me over, and her spirit within me forces my father to accept my terms.
     
    With my deal with my father behind me and my accounts available, I withdraw some money and buy a ring. Before I finish my plans for the night, I make one call to Sophia and ask her to accompany me on a special date. She meets me at the door in a red dress that nearly brings me to my knees. Our dinner is set up on a private balcony where we can feel free to do as we please. The dinner is perfect, but she is even better. There isn’t much room on the balcony, but we manage to dance together to the music flowing from inside the timelessly charming restaurant. I breathe in the scent from her neck and rest my heavy head against hers, her velvety hair cushioning the pain of my heart as it begins tearing its way through my chest to get to her. “Who are you?” I whisper through the foggy night air.
    “Sophia, Sophia Simone. And you, who are you?” she asks, looking up into my eyes, awakening a soul within me I didn’t know existed.
    “I am, yours. Forever and always, your Dante.” I reach into my pocket and get down on one knee. Looking up at her with pleading, loving eyes, I profess, “I love you Sophia, marry me, and be forever my Sophia?”
    Her tears nearly drown out her gasping, “Yes, a million times, yes.” A thousand kisses from another could never equal one from my Sophia. I am sure my father must be wrong about her. There is no way someone that gives me such amazing feelings could be harmful to me. Yes , he must be wrong, and if he isn’t, then I will die never regretting loving her.

    Working for my father is not difficult, except I do find myself debating him often on how to handle things. His frustration with me is building, and he continues to persuade me to rid myself of Sophia before it is too late, before she completely takes over my thoughts and turns me into her servant.
    I love waking up with Sophia in my arms, but today, we are awakened by my father. I ask her to stay in the bedroom while I deal with him, but she wants to argue with me, suggesting that, maybe if he met her, things would be different. She doesn’t know him like I do though, and I insist with a kiss that she stay out of sight for her own good. When I open the door to him and his new aide, Rabbie, he looks over me with disgust. I nod in his direction while blocking him from entering our