Mistakenly Eaten

12. A Man With A Plan

“I am so tired of these idiots hitting us up all the time whenever they have a problem going on.”

Anthony complained, as he sat inside his car along with his wife Martha.

Once being so closed and a disciple to Nicholas’s father, Alejandro, Anthony and Martha were treated like brother and sister by the entire family, so to them Nicholas was just like their own son, that’s why when Salva had asked them to show up at the island, they couldn’t say no to it.

They were on vacation in Italy. Just like how they had been for the past two years, ever since their only daughter Selena graduated from college, which was also after she finished a four years degree program in six years and ever since then, she had been on a road trip with her friends, juggling between careers and not settling down for what she wanted to do.

Salva had manipulated them and lured them at the island by telling that their presence was important and required only for Nicholas’s betterment.

Martha sighed shaking her head, as she finally closed her phone and placed it over her lap.

She rolled her eyes hard, as she had to listen to her husband’s continuous rant and complaint that he had been doing for the entire time period they took a flight on their seaplane from Italy to the island.

“Anthony, I get it! You didn’t plan on coming to the island because you have spent a good amount of your life here but please can you try to be compassionate about the fact, that we are for Nick!”

Anthony didn’t bother to pay much attention to his wife’s words.

“As if his own parents care.” He shrugged, making Martha shake her head.

“Of course they do! They have been trying to help him for the past six months but now with Alejandro taking over the company and Luke busy with his own family and business, they couldn’t be here for Nick! So, we have to. Besides you heard Salva, Nick needs us.”

Anthony didn’t say another word and simply sulked in his own agony.

“They have interrupted by planned summer in Tuscany.”

Martha couldn’t help but feel annoyed by her husband’s one and only complaint.

“We will have another summer in Tuscany, okay?”

Anthony didn’t say another word and simply sat back, with his hands crossed across his chest.

His arms covered with tattoos and his skin around his jaw and neck, with the hair on his head greyed out and pulled back in slick hair style, whilst his wife remained almost the same.

Petite, tall, obviously wrinkled around her thin nose and plum lips but her sharp blue eyes still sparkled bright underneath the bright sun and a thin streak of grey hair centered around her hair that she parted sideways and slickly tied back in a neat and tight bun.

Soon their car entered the premises of the mansion where right outside the security room, Gigi stood scolding Garry for being irresponsible in his absence.

“Where even in the hell were you when all those squawks were partying and drinking? Are you even in your right mind to leave everyone and everything just like that?”

Garry’s head was perched down in shame. He had avoided running in to his highly disciplined and disciplining brother ever since the day before but one way or the other he was ought to run in to him and just the moment he did, quite early in the morning, Gigi cornered him and began giving him an earful.

Garry didn’t know how he was supposed to defend himself.

He was always a maniac for cooking and was full of passion when it came to being in the kitchen but Gigi was a man of strict prejudices. He believed that his brother wouldn’t make a mark in the world if he ended up being inside a kitchen and that’s why, he forced Garry to take a high paying job, which was the assistant security manager at the Santiago corporations.

Gigi never left Garry even for a second, without monitoring him keenly. Because the second Gigi’s back is turned towards Garry, Garry would crash right in to the kitchen. He had helped his brother gain the necessary skills to fight, by handing him gun but Garry loved handling a knife and was a craftsman when it came to that skill of his, because he loved cutting vegetables and s*******r meat but his brother wanted him to slice enemies of the Santiago family.

“I am sorry, I was busy with something else…”

Garry rubbed the back of his neck, as he tried to come up with an excuse of his lousy management in his brother’s absence.

“I literally left for one day and Nicholas was still at the mansion. Do you think it is a safe and a sensible thing to do? To leave the security room unattended with all the guards lousing around like that? Garry, there is a reason why I had chosen you as my successor but I guess you are doing everything to prove me wrong and to tell me why you don’t deserve this position.”

Garry became threatened by his brother’s words. It wasn’t like he didn’t want the job and his brother had forced him to do the job. He had taken the vigorous training all the while keeping his passion alive by attending chef school as well because he knew that his brother can get him a good paying job and once he would have that he could save up enough money to open his own restaurant in New York on day and he would get to live his ultimate dream.

That’s why, he was willing to sacrifice a lot just so that he could win the longer run.

“I am sorry, I will try my best to not to…”

“Try? There is no window for try here!” Gigi yelled at his brother.

“Actually, he was helping me fix the light bulbs around the mansion.”

A small feminine voice cooed, making both Garry and Gigi turn to find out Fiona standing in front of them, in her knee length fluffy at waist grey dress, with a white apron tied around her belt area.

Gigi rolled her his eyes as he saw Fiona walking in to their direction.

“He was actually helping me.”

Gigi didn’t say another word and simply walked away, which was a sign enough to let Garry know that his brother was done scolding him.

He sighed and turned towards Fiona, who had her hair brushing out and flying away from her hair in thin strands, escaping her messy bun. She smiled, looking up at Garry, who was quite taller than her, since he was a complete six and she was merely five two. Her petite figure and short stature, made her almost invisible in a crowd but yet she still made sure to always get noticed by one guy who mattered the most to her.

Garry – her ultimate boy crush.

“Thank you so much Fiona.” Garry sighed, tapping her shoulders and shaking her up in joy, “You are a real savior. I love you so much.”

A burst of fireworks enlightened Fiona’s heart on the inside but they immediately stopped and all the clouds of hope that formed around her head disappeared the moment, Garry opened up his mouth.

“That’s why you are my best friend and I know I can always trust you.”

With that Garry walked away, leaving the poor brunette and her crystal brown eyes, hopeless and senseless.

She also turned and walked back towards the mansion and at the very same time, Anthony and Martha’s car passed by through her, which made just not her but both Garry and Gigi curious as well.

Gigi was in particularly taken aback, seeing Anthony’s car enter the mansion, signifying that he was on the island. This only made him worried that people were going in and coming on the island without his knowledge.

He looked at Garry, who stood in line a few feet away from him and gestured towards the car, to which Garry only shrugged and shook his head, signifying that even he didn’t know if Anthony was coming or not.

Garry in turn turned towards Fiona who was just as clueless at the two brothers.

Anthony’s car reached the main gate and Fiona, Garry and Gigi rushed towards him, joining them by the main gate along with Martha, who also got out of the car.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in Tuscany.” Gigi asked Anthony, who was also his mentor and was personally trained by the latter, during his take over of the security matters at the Santiago Corporations.

Anthony used to be Alejandro’s left hand and was first in charge of the security of the family and the company, that’s why he had hand picked and trained Gigi personally before handing him over all the matters and retiring from him job.

But Anthony was always going to make sure that he stayed a step ahead of not just Gigi but everyone.

“Do I need to give a prior notice for my arrival at the island?” Anthony asked Gigi who simply shook his head at his mentor and bowed in front of him.

“And as per my Tuscany vacation, I’d be damned if I was still there.” He admitted, making Martha groan in agitation.

“That’s it! As long as I am on the island, no one is allowed to say the word Tuscany.”

She announced and everyone made their way inside the island.

“I will let Serena know about your arrival.” Fiona told them, nodding in honor and was about to walk towards the kitchen but stopped when Serena and Salva walked out from the living room on the left of the foyer.

Salva’s expressions were that of contentment, as if he was a man of plan and on the other hand Serena had wrinkled smudged on her forehead, which showed that the lady wasn’t much contented with whatever plan Salva had.

“Glad everyone is here! Now, follow me.”

He said walking straight in to the dining room and not even bothered to stop back to greet his uncle.

“That’s a warm welcome.” Anthony complained, continuing to stay grumpy in his mood.

Just as the group entered the dining room, they were stunned to find that the entire house staff was gathered around in the dining room, forming a circle leaving space in the middle of Salva, who finally occupied the space and clapped his hands, attaining everyone’s attention.

“People! As you may know that I am here on the island because of your beloved Nicholas Santiago and a serious condition of depression and heart break that he is suffering.”

He stated, making Anthony scoff gently in his wife’s ear.

“As if, we didn’t know.”

Martha nudged her elbow in his stomach making Anthony gruff up a bit.

“Some of you may have known that Nicholas hadn’t eaten anything other than a Turkey Sandwich in the past few weeks but yesterday, Serena and I witnessed a miracle.”

Everyone turned to look at Serena, who wasn’t surprised like the rest but instead, actually anxiously worried about what Salva was going to tell everyone.

“For the first time in weeks, Nicholas ate something.”

Martha listened to Salva’s explanation about Nicholas’s condition, which drenched her heart with pain but the moment she heard that Nicholas had eaten something, she felt a slight ray of hope enlighten her mind.

“What did he eat? And why is he not eating anything?” she asked with her voice full of concern.

“He is not opening up to us yet but what he ate is also important to notice. He ate a particular pasta, cooked by a particular chef in a specific way. Nothing else seems to fit his taste bud at the moment but if we continue to feed him the food cooked by the particular chef we can help him move on with his life and eventually move out of this island.”

Martha seemed hopeful that something could help the poor child but Gigi on the other hand began understanding that the reason why Salva had gathered everyone had to be related to the girl that they had brought on the island.

“So, why not ask the chef to cook more for Nicholas? You just said that he hasn’t had anything in weeks and if he is finally eating something we should get him more of that and…”

“There is just a small plot twist.” Salva stated, making everyone look at him with confusion.

“What? What plot twist?”

“The girl --- the chef, she thinks that she is here for a cooking competition.”

“What?”

“The girl thinks that she is here for a cooking competition and we kind of may or may not responsible for this delusion of hers but we needed to lie, in order to bring her on the island and test if she was even worth the problem or not. But then. Siri (Serena) and I tried to offer her to be a private chef for Nick but she refused to take any money and refused to even stay. We couldn’t force her to cook as well, as it is a very delicate situation, I mean if you come to think about it, we force her to cook and she poisons all of us.” Salva shrugged, concluding the situation quite easily, “That’s why we had to lie and we may have to continue this lie of ours.”

Everyone screamed out loud, making Salva and Serena place their hands on their ears, due to the loud shriek that everyone let go off.

“You are kidding, right?”

Anthony asked, amazed to learn the kind of the mess that Salva had ended up creating.

“Oh I wish he was.” Gigi scoffed.

“You knew all about this? How could you let any of this happen?” Anthony began taunting Gigi who rose his hands up in his defense.

“I tried to stop him, trust me.”

“We didn’t have any other option.” Salva defended himself.

“Really? So, now how do you plan on making her stay and does Nick even know about all of this?”

“NO! and he doesn’t need to know about any of this.” Salva stated sternly and clearly, “That’s why we all need to be on the same page and together in this one. That’s why I have a plan and we all need to follow this plan very carefully.”

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How do you think Salva will make Althea stay at the island?

Also, are you guys excited that Martha and Anthony are also in this book? :D

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3