Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“No,” I say immediately, my heart sinking to my feet.
Breaking that term means I can’t marry anyone but him.
He thinks throwing this out will stop me from marrying Antonio.
He has no clue it will tie me to him for life.
Or worse.
“We didn’t do anything. Nothing happened. I swear on Nine’s life.”
My father doesn’t even look at me. I could scream until I turn blue in the face that Matteo is lying, and he’d never listen. He never does. I was the child he had to keep his wife happy and submissive. That’s it.
Support comes from the last person I expect. “Without proof, you can’t void our contract. Your word alone is not enough.”
Matteo’s jaw tightens as he strays his eyes to Antonio, my only lifeline. “I have proof.”
He pulls out his phone, and my blood turns to ice. The footage he plays shows me bent over the desk in the nightclub office. Since Matteo is double my width and a foot taller, I’m fully covered, but no amount of coverage can hide the sharp thrust of Matteo’s hips.
It looks bad. Worse than anything I could have imagined.
It makes it seem as if I gave Matteo my virginity in a nightclub office.
“You said nothing happened!” Antonio roars, ripping his hand away from mine. “You fucking wh—”
“Finish that sentence, and I will gut you where you fucking stand,” Matteo interrupts, his tone announcing his threat isn’t idle.
Stupidly, Antonio sniffs, goading Matteo. He wants him to make a mistake he can’t take back. I’m familiar with Turkish mafia law, but I learned a thing or two about the Cosa Nostra before arriving in Sicily.
To stop internal wars that almost wiped the Cosa Nostra off the map, they have a rule that you can’t kill a sanctioned member. If you ignore that ruling, your name is the next carved on a headstone.
Although I shouldn’t, I put myself between Matteo and Antonio. Matteo takes my position as an immediate sign to back off. Antonio’s thoughts are more deranged.
“You’re protecting him!”
“No, I—”
My father’s face hardens as he throws a hand in the air. “Enough.” I can’t breathe when all his attention homes in on me. “You will not marry Antonio.” His verdict is cold and final. “You will marry Matteo. Today.”
I stare at Matteo as the fury burning through me switches to sick humor. He’ll object. He has to. The world knows his dislike of monogamy and marriage, so he certainly won’t agree with my father’s ruling. But what he doesn’t know is that his refusal will send me to my deathbed.
Sex before marriage is a sin my father will never forgive.
I stop giving him my best thanks-for-killing-me look when half his mouth quirks.
Although a flare darts through his eyes, he doesn’t say a word when my father tells the priest there’s been a modification to the lineup.
Not a single one.
He doesn’t object, nor does he backtrack on the lie that will add the title of husband to his personal dossier within the hour.
He just stands there, silently manipulating the world into his own twisted game of ownership.
Chapter 36
Matteo
The hotel’s chapel looks like it was ripped out of a billionaire’s wedding magazine. Warm golden lights illuminate the chapel, florists arranged flowers in perfect symmetrical arcs, and the air carries the scent of roses and money.
I’m standing on the groom’s side of the altar, about to get married.
Married.
What. The. Fuck?
My pulse pounds in my throat and my palms sweat, but no matter how much my brain screams at me to do something—anything—to stop the insanity, my feet stay rooted to the floor.
Not even when Azra tried to persuade Antonio to elope did they budge. She told him that her father’s rules don’t apply to him because the same laws that Antonio and I must follow don’t govern the Turkish mafia.
When that didn’t work, with Antonio too much of a one-pump wonder to realize I walked out seconds after the apparent penetration, she begged her father to reconsider.
She used every trick she knew on the situation.
None of them were successful.
I could have walked solely from the disrespect she directed at me, and no one would have batted an eye, but I didn’t, because the truth is, I don’t want to walk.
I want this.
I want her.
If I can’t have her without tying her name to mine for eternity, fuck it. I’ll do that.
Nico leans in from my left and whispers out of the corner of his mouth, “Want me to blast an escape hatch through the chapel wall? Elio’s been itching to test a new drone explosive system.” He nudges his head toward the front row of pews. My family has taken the seats the Adamis once filled. Papa, Giovanni, Dante, Elio, and their respective partners are all here, patiently waiting for Azra to show up. “I’m sure Giovanni will happily fill the position. He’s been dying to get Valentina down the aisle before bub is born, and in all honesty, I reckon Dante would fight him for it. We could have some free afternoon entertainment.”