Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 422 -

*Giovani*

The smell of ink had soaked into every inch of the room as the leaning towers of paperwork surrounded my desk. Gabriele lay halfway on the chair, his legs propped up on one of the armrests as he lazily folded yet another paper plane. It shot off into the air, immediately nosediving straight onto the desk.

I sent him a dirty look, brushing it onto the floor as I flipped my way through the intricate and detailed folder before me. A hundred more were waiting in the wings.

"Can I go home yet?" The complaint slipped out of his lips with an exhausted groan.

"No," I snapped, automatically for the fourth time that night as I reached for the next file from the pyramid-shaped tower on my desk. Apparently, I wasn't careful enough because as soon as I touched it, the entire tower collapsed to the floor, papers flying everywhere.

I growled, slamming my palms on the desk as I struggled not to lose my ever-weaning temper.

"Timber," Gabriele said, delayed in a bored-like tone. He wasn't even trying to read through the dozens and hundreds of files and research materials surrounding us anymore.

Instead of an office, it was more like we were swimming in a lake of paperwork-the worst kind of hell that could befall any person. Even with the two of us, we had barely made a dent, and it would take even longer to sort through the mess. And I couldn't assign something this important as grunt work. I had to personally go over every inch of this so nothing could escape my scrutiny. But even I had to admit, I wasn't as young as I used to be. I was getting tired.

I sighed, a headache forming as I felt like somebody was jackhammering between my temples. I rubbed my blurry eyes, not even sure what I was reading anymore or if it was even in English or Italian. It could have been Latin for all I knew at this point.

"Can't we just call it a night? Please?" Gabriele nearly begged, his arm dragging on the floor as he stared at me pleadingly. "We don't need to be this extensive on one woman, Gio. If we haven't found anything suspicious by now, I doubt we ever will!"

"Shut up," I shot back, not willing to admit defeat quite yet.

Everything we could possibly want to know about Elena Greco was here within these four walls. Her whole life was summed up in black ink, and I was determined to replace every little secret and every skeleton she'd hidden away in her closet, even if it killed me.

Even if they might actually not exist.

I sighed, groaning as I leaned back into my chair.

I'd rarely ever done such an extensive background on a person, especially a civilian, and though I kept trying to justify it, I knew I had gone overboard this time. Just weeks ago, I had promised not to go too far and risk upsetting my wife with the invasion of her privacy.

And here I was now....

Something about her visit to the compound had triggered a little red flag inside of me. Was it the envy she displayed toward Olivia? The little sincere but not kinda insincere comments she'd made?

I had no clue. Something didn't feel right, but the further I investigated her, the further it drove me mad. Because she was exactly what she seemed-a perfectly average woman.

But damn if I was going to just give in now.

"Keep looking," I said firmly, grabbing the next stack of folders.

"Gio!" Gabriele declared, planting his feet on the floor as he finally sat in the chair properly, "This is ridiculous. We've been through absolutely everything about this woman! Background checks from previous employers." He lifted one of the nearby folders, throwing it onto the desk so the papers flew everywhere.

"Personal history." He threw another one, covering my current file, and I shot him a glare, but he was on a roll now. He kept grabbing folders, throwing them on my desk, and making an even bigger mess with every exaggerated pointed look. "Medical history, family records, character analysis from neighbors and former classmates, lineage all the way back to her tenth ancestor!"

"Quit throwing things," I snapped, grabbing one of the folders in mid-air before he could spill its contents everywhere. "You're cleaning all of that up."

Gabriele glared back at me, crossing his arms. "There is no suspicious information anywhere, no red flags, nothing of interest even! She doesn't even have a parking ticket, for god's sake! The woman is squeaky clean, I promise you." "I doubt that, actually." A voice piped up from behind us. Both of us turned to the newcomer with wide eyes, neither realizing the door had been open.

Alessandro had a serious expression on his face as he leaned against the doorway. He pushed off with his foot, stepping right over the pile of folders without care.

"I agree with Gio. Something's off about her," Alessandro told both of us unexpectedly.

Gabriele blinked, as did I. Neither of us had expected him to throw his hat into the ring for this conversation, especially since he'd only met the surrogate one time. But apparently, he had seen something.

I felt a little validated to have someone acknowledge the bad feeling I had about her. I wasn't paranoid after all, I thought smugly.

"Not you too," Gabriele groaned, slumping into the chair and sliding down like his backbone was made of silly putty.

"Did you see something?" I asked Alessandro as I completely ignored Gabriele.

He shook his head, and my hopes fell. "It's just-" He paused, pursing his lips in a way that I knew he was thinking of what to say. "I felt really uneasy being around her. I could tell something wasn't right, but not what or why. I don't have any concrete evidence, but-"

"And there it is!" Gabriele pointed out, hitting us both with a firm glare. "There's no concrete evidence! You're both judging the poor woman and destroying my sleep for nothing!"

I sighed, pressing my aching head into my hands. I knew he was right. She had done nothing to deserve such harsh suspicion. She'd been the textbook caring person Olivia kept praising at every turn.

I hated having such doubts about her, knowing I had no proof or evidence. I'd even gone this far despite knowing Olivia would be disappointed and upset.

But that little nagging voice in the back of my mind had never been wrong before. And I trusted Alessandro. He'd been raised under James, and he had one of the best minds for singling out people that I'd ever seen.

He'd loved Olivia first, after all, and I had no doubt that if she hadn't fallen in love with me, he'd have stolen her heart eventually. Alessandro was a good man with good instincts.

But I also knew how close my wife had grown to the surrogate. We'd placed our trust and invested all of our hopes into her I didn't want to ruin that because of a gut feeling. If we were wrong and we drove away Elena, Olivia might never forgive me for it.

And we might never get the child we wanted.

I didn't want to even entertain the notion that Elena may not be all that she appeared to be, that she could be a danger that slipped through the cracks. But I also didn't want to disregard Alessandro's warning either.

This was a rock and a hard place, and I was stuck between them.

"It's possible Gabriele's right," I said, giving my right-hand man a frustrated look as he smugly grinned at us. "We don't have any proof that she is anything more than a simple woman just living her life. We would have found something in her files by now if she wasn't."

"Thank you," Gabriele smirked. I had no doubt he was going to hold this over me for months afterward, but a good leader knew when to listen and when to disagree, no matter how much I wanted to be stubborn and keep digging.

"I don't buy it," Alessandro said persistently. "There's no way I'm wrong in this."

"And where's your evidence?" Gabriele probed, knowing he didn't have any.

"I-" Alessandro sighed, then looked me straight in the eye with a deeply suspicious stare. "Look, I observed her all night, and I'm telling you something is off about her. The way she said things was too... polite, like it was rehearsed and not what she was actually thinking, like an NPC from a video game, almost."

"A what?" Gabriel and I sent him confused looks.

"Oh, for the love of-" He rolled his eyes. "A non-playing character, robotic, like when a news reporter is reading off a teleprompter or a script. It was all rehearsed."

"Ohhh," Gabriele nodded. "Why didn't you just say it like that?"

"Old bastards," Alessandro said under his breath, looking at us like we were ancient beings.

I frowned, rubbing a hand down my chin as I thought back to everything Elena had said. It was true in a way. Almost everything she'd said had sounded practiced, and besides, when she had spoken to Olivia in the agency about art, her personality had come off as rather bland.

Even the way she kept smiling at everything despite her inner feelings showing a completely different response was weird.

"I'm telling you," Alessandro pushed, "there is more to this woman than meets the eye. We need to protect our family and approach this with caution. If she's really up to no good, we have to make sure Olivia and Dahlia don't get too close to her."

There was little luck of that now. They'd already practically adopted her if the way they kept screeching whenever they saw her was any indication.

Sitting inside the mess we'd made, I realized how impossible the question I was trying to answer was. I deeply valued Alessandro's opinion, and a part of me agreed with his suspicions. But reconciling it with my own desires for a family, to keep Olivia happy and trust the surrogate she had chosen, was almost painful.

Frustrated and conflicted, I felt like I was standing at a crossroads. The road to the left led to a pack of bloodthirsty wolves, and the road to the right led straight off a cliff. If you asked me which road to take, I couldn't answer. Alessandro was right. But Gabriele was also right, and no matter which side I took, I'd be losing.

The two men stared at me, waiting for my decision, and all I could do was stare at them as I waged war within myself. I had to move forward, I couldn't keep sitting on this fence and hoping everything would turn out fine. The only question was... did I prefer the cliff or the wolves?