Mackenzie is the daughter of one of the country's biggest businessmen, successful and a role model to the social cream, but what they don't tell you is that from the gates in, her father is a gambling addict and her mother is a compulsive shopper. Mack, affectionately nicknamed by his little five-year-old sister, dreams of the day he will graduate from social work school and leave home taking his little sister Lola out of the toxic home he lives in. But her whole life is turned upside down when her father loses his entire fortune in a game of chance, and in order not to lose the house and his business, he trades in his own daughter. Now Mackenzie will have to marry the owner of the casino, a forty-year-old widower with no character who plans to be elected mayor and who will use this marriage to clean up his image. What the girl can't imagine is that such a "characterless" man may seem like a calm amidst the turmoil her life will become, but his son, Vincenzo Fontana, only twenty-two years old, will be the real hurricane, who will flood her life and present her with an irreverent, electrifying, and passionate world! A game of manipulation, staging, adrenaline, and lots of chemistry! She will have to marry a man twenty years her senior, but the real problem is her son, who can be quite a problem, especially when he is in the next bed, and it is his bed that she wants to be in!
Chapter 1 Agreed and I do not recommend
I woke up.
I didn't want to, but I did. I should have stayed in bed if I had known what would happen next. I performed my morning necessities and went downstairs, already downstairs, Lola ran up to me and threw herself on my lap.
"Be careful, Lola. You can get hurt!" I joked pulling the sweaty hair out of her face and smiled as I saw the nanny coming dashing after her.
"Sorry, Miss Mackenzie, she's fast." The girl said defending herself.
"Like flash!" Lola spoke smiling.
"I know honey, it's no problem." I smiled at her and could see the relief on her face. Lola was only five years old, and could be gone in just a blink, she was too smart and my heart in human form. I lived for her, endured that house and all the rule shitting for her.
I went into the dining room, the coffee was already on and my parents were sitting in silence, that should have been a sign by now.
"Good morning." I spoke taking a seat at the table.
"Good morning." My father replied, Mom did not.
"You're late." That was all she said.
My house was always a sea of irony. This was living with one of the richest families in the country. Dad was a businessman, he was always on his cell phone working something out, Mom was always talking about how insufferable other wives were when she was home. And apart from Dad being a gambling addict and Mom being a compulsive shopper, their marriage beyond the gates was a bed of roses. But inside the house, they couldn't stand each other, and I didn't understand why they were still married, I mean, apart from the fact that it was for the comfort zone and for the sake of the "family."
I had my coffee and headed outside. I had language class that morning, ballet in the afternoon and college at night. My college was my greatest dream, and Mom had allowed me to take it as long as I also took the other classes she wanted. In exchange for taking social work, I had to take languages and ballet, because Mom wanted to be a ballet dancer and thought that projecting her dream onto me would satisfy her. I have been doing ballet for five years. I love dancing, but I feel compelled to be in a world that I feel is not my own. Ballet allows me to feel, but social work makes me feel useful and understand other realities besides my own.
After the language class, I went to the ballet class, after the ballet class, I took a quick shower and was on my way to college when I saw my world collapsing. I was walking down the stairs when I heard loud voices coming from the office. Dad and Mom didn't usually fight, not aggressively, they barely spoke to each other and when they did it was in a roundabout way. Which made me move closer to understand what was going on.
"I can't believe you did this," Mom said in disgust.
"I did that? That's your fault too. You buy everything you see in front of you, do you think our money is infinite?" Dad threw it in his face.
"You can spend it all on gambling and I can't buy it? Maybe if you were a good husband I wouldn't have to spend time buying clothes."
"And you think you're a good wife?" He laughed snidely.
"You are an imbecile. You don't even know how to live in a marriage and now you've destroyed your family." Mom said sobbing.
That was the trigger for me to walk into the office.
"What's going on here?" I asked staring at the two startled men.
Suddenly Mom started laughing.
"Now tell me." She said spitting out the words with a sadistic smile on her face. "Tell your daughter, the shit you did. All the shit you've done."
"First, stop yelling." I spoke getting impatient. "Lola is sleeping. And the employees are not obligated to listen to your bickering. What's going on, Daddy?"
"Daughter..." Daddy said with a face like a dog without an owner, shit was coming, "I don't know how to explain."
"Ahhh don't make a scene, Carlos. Your father sold you out, Mackenzie. Your perfect father sold you out." My mother said accusingly making my world spin, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"What is mommy talking about, daddy?" I asked crossing my arms.
"We're broke." Dad spoke swallowing dryly.
"How are we broke? We have a company that makes millions a month." I answered with a smile on my lips, I knew the company's accounting. I studied business administration.
"Millions that are compulsorily spent by your mother, with the expenses of several employees and a luxurious house with servants, that are spent on your studies and hobbies, on your sister's education." Dad accused.
"No. Don't come blaming us. On your gambling too," Mom said.
"Papa the company has revolving capital, don't treat me like a mule, how are we broke?" I asked swallowing the anger that rose in me with each accusation from the two.
"A year ago I made a new pitch." My father shrugged his shoulders lowering his eyes.
"I know. Be direct." I spoke rolling my eyes.
"It didn't work out. We lost billions in investments. And what was left over we spent, believing that one day it would work out. I was impulsive and invested again, it went wrong again. Then I tried my luck in a game, I was winning, daughter." He swallowed hard and I saw the desperation in his eyes. "I was winning. So I decided to bet all or nothing, if I won, I would be able to triple the failed investments."
"But you lost..." I whispered.
"I lost." He said making my throat burn.
"How much did you bet, Daddy?" I asked, and I knew a stab was coming.
"All of it." He answered after a few seconds in silence.
"And who did you bet with?" I asked ignoring the embargo in his voice.
"With the casino owner." He sighed. "He's an old acquaintance, whenever it's handy we play. I always beat him."
"Oh you always beat the casino owner?" I asked staring at him with narrowed eyes, because it was too much stupidity for one person.
"Ă. I always won. I was winning, daughter." Daddy said in a desperate grimace.
"Daddy..." I swallowed dryly. "What's this about selling me out?"
Chapter 1 Agreed and I do not recommend
22/05/2023
Chapter 2 Life debt
22/05/2023
Chapter 3 Senhor Fontana
22/05/2023
Chapter 4 Wake up, Mack
22/05/2023
Chapter 5 First Meeting
22/05/2023
Chapter 6 Old, charming and rich
22/05/2023
Chapter 7 Go to hell
22/05/2023
Chapter 8 Sweet illusion
22/05/2023
Chapter 9 You know the answer
22/05/2023
Chapter 10 I was on fire
22/05/2023
Chapter 11 False Passion
07/06/2023
Chapter 12 The bride
10/06/2023
Chapter 13 I am not that woman
13/06/2023
Chapter 14 Play to win
16/06/2023
Chapter 15 Felicia
19/06/2023
Chapter 16 Smile. Wave. Pretend
22/06/2023
Chapter 17 The time traveler
25/06/2023
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