Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions
Chapter 241 - Have You Explained It?

"Is it something that needs to be handled right away?" Samuel asked. If he had a choice in the matter, he would rather it happen later on after he got to enjoy the rest of the time off with Lena. The princess cast Jovani a cold stare in response to her fiancé's question.

"Have you not taken the time to explain this to him yet?" The princess asked causing the other to shrug his shoulders.

"In brief passing I have. Since it hasn't been decided how it will happen yet, I didn't think that there was much of a reason to dwell on it too much." the older cousin replied.

"Such an irresponsible way of handling such an important matter." She rolled her eyes before turning her attention to Samuel who looked rather confused as he glanced between the two.

"It is kind of important to handle it right away. Before anything can be done though, you need to understand what exactly will happen." she told the other.

"And this isn't exactly the kind of place that we want to be talking about that kind of thing." Jovani remarked as he glanced around at all the people who were still on the beach.

Joking about mafia things will on a beach full of normal people was one thing. They were young enough that they could get away with making such jokes and not cast suspicion on themselves. Talking about something as deep as an initiation however, was forbidden in such a crowded space.

"I'm sure that there is someplace around here that we could pick up lunch to further discuss this matter and decide how we want to do things." The princess didn't feel that hungry after the picnic she and Samuel had. Jovani was right though that they needed to go someplace more private to discuss this matter.

"I think that there is a shaved ice place further up. Probably wouldn't be that crowded considering the time of day." Samuel suggested. He remembered seeing it when Lena was parking her motorcycle and thought that it might be worth a visit before they left.

"That could work if there aren't a lot of people there. Perhaps you might want to swap your clothes around first?" Jovani suggested. It didn't miss his observant eye that Lena was wearing her cousin's shirt rather than her own and the other was only in his swim trunks.

"I don't think that it's a problem going in like this since it's connected to the beach. Plus, I don't think that her shirt is quite dry yet." Samuel replied. He wanted to reach over to take Lena's hand, but the other wouldn't let him have it. Was she still upset about the whole water thing?

He had thought she would have been soothed by their lunch and the treat that he had made her. Perhaps he had been wrong about that and would have to try something else to remedy the situation.

"It's fine like this. The sooner we talk everything over, the sooner we can set up a plan for what we want to do." The princess concluded as she walked ahead of the other two. She had an idea of where the shaved ice place would.

"Did you do something to upset her? She seemed rather pleasant two minutes ago?" Jovani whispered when he was certain that the other was far enough ahead that she wouldn't hear him.

"Not exactly. She just wasn't thrilled about going into the water with me, but I don't think it is anything that can't be worked out." He replied before going on ahead in order to follow after the other.

Watching how his younger cousin and the princess interacted, he was rather thankful for the fact that his own fiancé wasn't this complicated. If she was, he didn't think that he would be able to handle things between her and Alonso.

Speaking of the latter, he was probably having a fit at the very moment in time as Jovani hadn't mentioned anything to him about leaving the estate so suddenly. It was a purposeful action that he hoped would help his right-hand man learn to relax a bit and not worry that he was somehow going to die the moment that he took his eyes off Jovani. He wouldn't be a good mafia boss if he went and did that.

There was only a handful of people coming and going from the shaved ice hut which made it a rather convenient place to talk. Lena and Samuel both got something, but the older cousin refused. He wasn't that fond of cold things like shaved ice. He never understood their appeal.

"Now that we're here you should start explaining things to him." The princess told the other. Since Samuel was part of the Vedova Nera, it was the older cousin's job to explain the process since it wasn't the same one that Lena's family used.

"The initiation is like an acceptance ceremony. Not like some of the fun ones that clubs or sororities/fraternities might do. Well, maybe not all of those are fun." He added after a slight pause.

"This is something far more serious though. Because once you're in, you don't get out as long as your breathing." That he knew was the most important part to make clear for his cousin.

"I know about some of that and how serious it is, but what exactly does it entail?" Samuel asked, that was the question that he really wanted the answer to. He knew what it meant to get initiated into the mafia, it wasn't something that you could just leave whenever you wanted to.

"Usually it is done around a lot of people in the mafia world who hold high positions within the family and sometimes those they have close ties with. Generally, drink some wine, give a little blood, maybe burn something, take an oath, and such. In your case, we need to figure that out still actually because of how special your case is," Jovani admitted causing the princess to glare at him again.

"You can give me that look all you want, but it is a rather complicated matter we're talking about here. We haven't ever had to initiate someone who is blood-related but never involved in the family before." Jovani had already done some digging into how to handle this matter, but there was no information that he could replace on how to deal with such a situation.

"My only presumption is that we handle it the same way we would handle any other initiation and just make it clear that he's blood-related and doesn't need to go through all the same processes that outsiders need to go through." It seemed like a careless way to handle in Lena's opinion, but she wouldn't be the one to have to answer to the higher family council if the process wasn't done in an acceptable manner.

"Based upon what you're saying, it sounds like this is something that we need to set a further away date for rather than handling it right away." The princess pointed out. There was not enough of a concrete plan in her mind for the other to move forward with.

"We could do that if you prefer, but I think that answer should be left up to Samuel since it's his initiation. I have enough in place to move forward with it if that is what we want. I would just need one or two days to gather everyone else together.

Both of them turned at the same time to look at Samuel to see what his answer would be.