Katarina was putting on her seatbelt and responded weakly, dripping rejection.
Antonio sighed and leaned toward her, running his hand through her long hair. Katarina looked away, staring out the car window at the orderly line of cars.
-Katarina, let’s have a nice meal, okay? After we eat, I’ll tell you what you want to know.
Antonio’s voice was low, soft, with a touch of humility.
Katarina immediately felt a fire burning inside her, and she had to wait to explore it for herself before she came to say that she had long been disappointed when he had told her, and what could telling him save?
She turned her head to speak, not wanting Anthony to seize the moment and capture her lips fiercely, the hand stroking her long hair clutched at the back of her neck to prevent her escape.
Katarina tried to break free, but he did not relent. Slowly, Katarina lost herself in the familiar scent, went from struggling to soft and submissive as he claimed her, turning into a puddle of water and snuggling into his arms.
After a good while, Antonio, fed up, gave her two pecks on the red lips, feeling better, and seeing her annoyed face, he knew she was cursing herself for not having been able to refuse him.
During the meal, the atmosphere was quite cordial. Antonio was a little surprised when he saw Katarina eating her second dessert of strawberry mousse.
-Katarina, what’s with the sudden sweet tooth?
Katarina took a long look at the mango mousse, broke away from his hand, put down her fork and looked at Antonio.
-When people are in a bad mood, they want to eat sweets because the sweetness receptors in our mouth are directly connected to the place in the brain that secretes endorphins, and when sweets are eaten, they can make people happy, does this answer satisfy Mr. Antonio?
Antonio stopped and looked at the woman in front of him. When he started to court her, she was like that, cold, arrogant, like a rose with thorns.
She has this capital to be proud of, because she is Miss of the Carballo family, a Teladia powerhouse only surpassed by Natalia in terms of ability.
Antonio clenched his fists and spoke slowly.
-Katarina, can you believe I fell in love with you at first sight?
Katarina shot him a look and her eyes shifted to the last mousse on the table.
-I used to believe it, but not now.
That’s what he said when he started pursuing her, and she was foolish enough to believe it then….
Antonio’s thin lips hooked.
-Well, that was me lying to you.
Katarina raised her head to look at him, her chest instantly burning, finally not pretending?
She stood up angrily, picked up the glass of water on the table and threw it directly in his face, screaming in rage.
-Antonio, you bastard!
Katarina lifted her glass of water and didn’t want the rim to hit the plate on the table, overturning it and spilling soup all over the plate….
Antonio immediately stood up, the action quickly paper towels, but held his hand, to wipe the soup in his hands….
Katarina tried to wriggle away from him, but the man had the natural advantage of strength and easily controlled her struggles, even going so far as to turn around to his end and grabbing the person in his arms and hugging her tightly.
-Let go of me!
-You skipped courses at an aristocratic college to graduate from high school, studied business economics at Cambridge, majored in a perfume development course, took a solo trip to the desert the year you graduated from college before returning to take over the Carballo Group, turned down sixteen men who were interested in you, tried to date three and they inexplicably dumped you….
Antonio hugged her tightly and his whispers in her ear got Katarina to stop struggling and look at him with surprised eyes….
He, how does he know so well…
There was still half a glass of water left in that cup, and the hot water had wet her hair, cheeks and chest flaps, which at that moment were still dripping….
-You, how do you know?
-Because I’ve been following you quietly, and you went to Cambridge, and I deliberately posted several Cambridge perks in your email, trying to lure you to Cambridge because, well, I’m there for you…..
Looking into his eyes covered with deep emotion, Katarina’s heart was beating fast, somehow as if she were in the clouds….
Antonio took her with him and sat down on the sofa, taking out a piece of paper and nonchalantly wiping the water from his face.
-In our family, my mother dominates you should see it, she is strong and domineering, my father has always been her puppet at her mercy. I’ve heard him tell a story since I was little, and that story is full of hate, do you want to hear it?
Katarina was so confused in her head that she didn’t know how to answer him, and Antonio was already talking to himself.
-The story begins twenty-seven years ago, when she fell in love with a handsome young man, who was very smart and intelligent, but just didn’t follow the right path and was an idler, she loved him and accommodated him unconditionally, and basically gave him all the money she earned, until another woman came along and attracted all the young man’s attention, yes, the young man moved on, the woman When her health was bad, he secretly bought her all kinds of supplements, took her to the doctor and even ended up stealing all the money from his girlfriend and eloped with that woman.
Katarina’s eyes were full of astonishment and Antonio looked at her and took her hand in his.
-The boy was your father, the woman in poor health, your mother, and the abandoned woman, my mother.
Katarina shook her head, looking incredulous.
-You, you’re talking nonsense, how could my father…”.
Antonio looked at her with serious eyes.
-Katarina, it’s true, I didn’t listen to my mother’s version and I have personally investigated… after I was able to do it.
Katarina frowned and tried to get out of his embrace, but Antonio, immovable, continued.
-My mother instilled in me as a child the idea of defeating the Carballo Group and avenging her by making me follow everything the Carballo Group does, but I, unknowingly, follow you….
Katarina’s struggle came to a violent halt….
-You don’t know with what mixed feelings I follow you, I remember the summer when you wore a pink sarong, the winter when you wore a white cotton jacket, the joy you felt when you received a huge scholarship and the sadness you felt for those who approached you and then abandoned you….
Katarina looked uncomprehendingly at Antonio, who reached out his hand and gently stroked her cheek.
-I was me, the one who went to warn you not to hit on you, maybe I fell in love with you at that moment, I just didn’t know it myself yet, and I defined everything to the point that it was a preparation for justice for my mother later….
Katarina was still in a state of confusion, and after a long while she made sense of it and tried hard to push it aside.
-No, Antonio, you are giving a can of ecstasy, you are making a great excuse to plunder the assets of my Carballo family…..
The more Katarina thought about it, the more horrible it seemed to her that her father had known, that he knew that her mother was his young bride, whom he had abandoned, that he knew perfectly well who Antonio was, that he deliberately kept silent, that he agreed to her marriage, even that he gave her all the Carballo family property, all to make up for what he owed her then!
She had become, to the core, a piece of revenge, a tool to make up for a deficit!
Katarina is in complete disarray.
-You let me loose Antonio you let me loose, you have joined to cheat me, you married me to get the Carballo family fortune, to take revenge on my father…..
Antonio tightened his arms and held her tightly to prevent her from hurting herself.
-Katarina, everything has changed, no matter how daddy was before, I have completely changed everything after his contact, I really respect and love him, I changed my mother’s original plan a long time ago, and it was all because of you!