Chapter 208 - The Day

"Another interesting piece of the puzzle." Samuel commented after his cousin and fiance had walked away. He supposed it made sense that the other would've been referring to Eve since she was one of the few woman that he and Lena both knew.

The princess made a noise of acknowledgement as she watched the other two interact. As fortuitous as it was for Jovani, she wasn't quite that part had been planned from the beginning or if it was, Eve was a dangerously good actor who knew how to conceal any hint of ulterior motive and avoid casting suspicion on herself. A focus for another time however.

Ryan had come over now that he wasn't speaking with the other woman.

"Is everything up to standard? Nothing out of place or that you'd like to see done different?" He asked as he glanced around at everything. He felt like he had done a good job, but knew that it wasn't his opinion that mattered. 

"It looks fine. I assume since you already have all of this setup that the food is already finished and you're just waiting to bring it out until everyone starts coming?" The princess clarified as she looked everything over again. It looked good enough for what they were going to be doing. 

"Yep. They let us the fridge for things that needed to be chilled over night and the rest was finished early this morning. The staff after this I think will be ready to sleep for the next year." Ryan joked with a laugh. They had been putting in a lot of overtime in for the past few days and were looking forward to some kind of break after this. 

"As long as everything goes well, there shouldn't be a reason why they can't have it." The princess replied, glancing at her watch, it wouldn't be long before everyone else would start showing up. 

"Take it easy until it's time to bring the food out. If we need anything else, I'll let you know." She said knowing some guests would be arriving soon, but the food wouldn't be brought out until the room really started filling up. Ryan thanked her before he left to let everyone else know that they could breath for a little while before things would get hectic again. 

The next part that would be coming was the one that the princess wasn't going to enjoy. The guests would be coming with their gifts and it would be her job to approve of them or not. She just hoped that there wouldn't be anything too ridiculous that she would have to deal with. 

Jasmine and Hector were the first to arrive from the Vedova Nera family with the men who had been sent to watch out for them. Alonso had stayed back at the hotel to come with them to make sure that they made it to the correct place on time since it was a part of Jersey they were less familiar with. 

Samuel introduced them to Lena who greeted them in polite yet reserved manner. She didn't know them enough yet to be on casual speaking terms. Alonso especially not after what happened with Jeff and Samuel when he was around. 

He seemed oddly uncomfortable as he came ahead of the other two to speak with the princess and her fiancé. 

"I'm not quite sure that this is the most appropriate place for this kind of gift, but someone who isn't here insisted that it was the right time to turn it over." He explained as he handed her a small red box. Lena locked eyes with Alonso and could tell by his expression what kind of gift it was, more so after he glanced over at Samuel as though he was concerned that the other would see it. 

"I see." She replied as she took the box from the other, though her expression questioned why in the hell anyone would think it was appropriate to give as a gift at a engagement party. 

"I thought that it was a gift, shouldn't we at least see it?" Samuel asked when he noticed the odd exchange that had happened and how she called someone over to take care of the box and do whatever they pleased with it but not keep it there.

"It's not the type of gift that's appropriate for this kind of occasion." She replied as she closed her eyes while pinching the bridge of her nose. She just hoped that no one else ended up delivering such a thing. When she noticed that Samuel was still looking at her confused, she sighed. 

"If you're concerned about offending someone in your family, by all means go find the man who took it away. I doubt though that you would be interested in finding out what a severed finger looks like." her blunt sarcasm seemed to have an effect on the other as Samuel paled slightly when he heard this, glancing at where the man had taken away the box to back at the princess as though trying to determine if she was joking or not. When her expression didn't change and she didn't tell him he shouldn't take her so seriously, he could only assume she wasn't joking. 

"I guess that means it would be best to allow you to handle any of the other gifts that come through?" He asked. He knew that he would have to deal with such things in the future, but it wasn't something that he was keen to handle so early on in his recent appointment. 

"Exactly." was all she said under her breath as more guests were now starting to arrive which meant that they would be getting ready to spend the next hour or longer greeting everyone and handling a number of congratulation that would be thrown their way along with making the connections between the two family in order to make sure that the unity would go smoothly. 

Lena knew that with all the people that were arriving that it would make it hard for her and Samuel to stay together. Thus before they got too mobbed, she pulled him to the side for a moment motion for her brother who was nearby to start greeting the guests in her stead for a moment. 

"There shouldn't be anyone here that you have to worry about trying anything, but remember, if there are any problems or if you need anything, buzz your phone in your pocket and someone will come over to watch out for." She reminded the other. It was a similar protocol that she had gone through with her family a number of times, but something that Samuel wasn't used. 

"Right. Or I will try to stick with Jovani since there are a lot of people that he needs to introduce me to anyways." As if on cue, his older cousin came over. 

"Yes, though I only mildly trust him to be able to watch over you." The princess replied as she looked over at Jovani who seemed like he was still in a rather good mood even after dropping the fact that Eve was his fiancé on them suddenly. 

"You don't have to give me such a look. I would never let anything happen to my dear cousin." He told Lena as he draped his arm over his younger cousin's shoulder. 

"I'll bring him right back to you the moment that it's time for the official announcement and all that." he assured the other with a mock two finger salute before turned Samuel away from the princess so that they could go greet guests before the guests ended up coming to them.

"Well if it isn't the little princess who swore that they were never getting married let alone engaged." The princess didn't have to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. She would recognize his rough voice anywhere.

"You're one to speak, Aster." Lena replied as she turned around to look at the man who was a few years older than her. 

"I thought that you always swore you were going to leave the mafia and never look back?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, a smirk on the corner of her lips as the other gave her a bemused smile. 

"Well you know how it is. Once you're in, you're never out until death comes knocking on your door." The other shrugged as he pulled a box out of her pocket to hand her. 

"A little gift from mine to yours." He told her as she took the box with a skeptical look. 

"I'm not going to open this find out someone else thought it was appropriate to bring another severed finger here?" She asked only half joking as she looked at the little pale blue box. Aster let out a bark of a laugh before he shook his head. 

"No I wouldn't be such a fool. It's a good luck charm from the east. Saw it on one of the travels and thought it would be fitting." he explained. 

"So you stole it in other words." She presumed as she looked up from the box to the other who had a familiar twinkle in his eyes but didn't deny or agree with her statement. This man was one of the few people from the smaller families that she could actually tolerate though his methods of work were far from clean, his personality was tolerable. 

"I have to go greet your father, but I will see you later." Aster gave her a small wave before he left. The princess would look at the gift later, a number of others had arrived and now need her attention as well. She vaguely wished that she had bribed Ryan into giving her some of the champagne before the event started.. She was going to need something to steel her nerves for dealing with all the people that were going to be jostling to stay on the family's good side.