It was rather late into the evening before Lena's phone indicated that she was getting a call. She had gone back to the sunroom because she couldn't stand being around too many other people nor did she want to try and eat anything because of the stress. Thus she decided to go to the one place that she knew would be comfortable for her.
She wanted to answer the phone the moment the call started but waited until she had called for Hester and her Father so that it would increase the chance of being able to trace the call.
"Hello?" She answered making sure to keep her tone as calm and neutral as possible as she watched Hester setup his computer to be able to trace the call.
"Hello dear Princess! It is no nice to hear your voice. You sound much more pleasant than I imagined you would." the rather effusive voice answered on the other end of the phone.
"Who am I speaking with?" She asked. Her father had moved closer to try and hear what was being said but she wasn't going to put on speaker phone in case there was a risk of any background noise being picked up if it was near her ear.
"Oh I think that you already know the answer to that." The voice replied.
"Samuel isn't here to speak for himself right now, but I can assure you that he is doing quite well with this little family reunion."
"Jovani." Lena replied, keeping her voice level as she spoke.
"What do you happen to want with him?" She then asked not wanting to waste time on whatever random thing that he wanted to talk about.
"I can't simply jut want to get the chance to meet up with a relative that I've never gotten a chance to meet before?" Jovani asked with mock offense.
"If that is all you really wanted, there are a number of more straight forward ways to have made that happen." Lena retorted as she glanced over at Hester to see if he had been able to pick anything yet, but his face it seemed that the answer was no.
"You're not wrong. However, from what I have heard the Scarlett family is rather protective of those that are considered family and in their close circle. I doubt that you would have even given me a chance to get close to him even if I did request the right to visit him." Jovani explained.
"And please don't think that there's anything personal between me and your fiancé, because there really isn't. I'm actually quite fond of him and think he's a rather interesting person to get the chance to know."
"Then what do you want with him?" She followed up trying to keep her temper in check as the conversation went on longer than she wanted for it to.
"Well, there are a few things. Some of which I'm sure dear cousin Evalyn has filled you in on if she actually decided to open up and talk to anyone about her past. Bravo to her for keeping it hidden for twenty years." She could make out what sounded like a clapping sound on the other end of the phone.
"More than what I want with him, I'm actually interested getting a chance to meet you first hand. You know get the chance to know more about you and understand the type of person that Sam is planning on marrying." He further explained.
"Give Samuel back without any problems and I will be more than happy to meet up with you whenever or wherever you want." The princess replied. Her response was met with a less pleasant sounding chuckle on the other end of the phone.
"Well you see that there is the problem Princess. I don't think that you would actually be willing to meet up with me if I gave him back so willingly which is why I have to keep this little piece of incentive for you until you do what I ask." Of course he wasn't going to be willing to give the boy up so easily. He wouldn't have gone to all the trouble he did in the first place if he wasn't serious about what he was doing.
"What do you want me to do then? I can meet with you tonight." She offered against her better judgement and the look that her father shot in her response to what she said. She didn't really care though. It wasn't like this Jovani was someone she wouldn't be able to handle regardless of what they tried. There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before Jovani replied again.
"Well now, that certainly is interesting. If I didn't know better I would say that you sound a little bit too eager to be getting him back as soon as possible. Perhaps despite what people have been saying you do actually have some affection for Sam." Lena felt defensive the moment that he said this. Letting too many emotions slip through wasn't going to help the situation right now. There was another pause that was followed by complete silence before Jovani spoke again after a sigh.
"As much as I would love the chance to meet up with you tonight, that won't be able to happen because the whole schedule I had set up for everything has been thrown off. So it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Worry not though, Sam will be in good hands tonight and I can text you in the morning to let you know what location to go to." Jovani told her.
"I'm sure that you can rearrange your schedule for this if it was something that you really wanted to go through with." Lena pressured but was met with a tsking sound on the other end of the phone.
"Not quite so. As impatient as you are, the schedule is important to everything. Plus, I think a night to cool off would do you some good before we met. And if it makes you feel better that I'm not trying to playing and kind of dirty games with you- you can bring two of your trusted men with you but no other family because I only want to meet you since you're Sam's fiancé after all." Lena paused as she thought about this. She already knew what her father would say, but this was her decision to make since Samuel was in the one in danger."
"Fine." She said after a moment of silence.
