Chapter 12 #2
“I’m so sorry, Lucy.” Damiano presses his forehead to mine. “I love you. That will never change. No matter what happens, you’re mine. You’ll always be mine.”
“Then why does it feel like I’m losing you?”
He doesn’t answer. He just holds me while I cry. Get married. Live with a man who isn’t Damiano. Let him touch me. Have his children. Pretend to love him. I’ve never even looked at a man in desire who isn’t Damiano, and now I’m supposed to give myself, body and soul, to a stranger?
I touch his handsome face. Trace the strong lines of his jaw. The beautiful lips that have kissed mine so tenderly. Damiano is my home. My everything.
“If I get married, can I stay in Malus?” I ask through my tears. “Can I still be near you?”
Damiano’s eyes fill with anger. “Lucy, no.”
My bedroom door opens, and Mom enters. She looks at me in Damiano’s arms, and she doesn’t bother to hide her disgust. She thinks we’re repulsive. That our attraction to each other is against all the laws of nature, God, and man.
I glare at her from beneath my wet lashes. I don’t care what she believes. She’s never cared about me. I hate her and Dad more than anyone in the world.
“Well,” she says in a brisk tone, addressing Damiano. “Did you tell her?”
“We need more time,” he says through clenched teeth.
“No, we don’t,” I say, in a voice so strong that it surprises me. I wipe the tears from my eyes and face her. I know what Damiano wants, but it’s my decision how my heart breaks, not his.
“I’ll do what you want,” I tell Mom. “I’ll marry a man you choose for me.”
Triumph lights in Mom’s eyes. Damiano seizes my hand. “Lucy, you can’t do this.”
I keep looking at Mom. “On one condition. I stay in Malus, and Damiano and I see each other whenever we want. You and Dad or my future husband won’t try to keep us apart.”
Mom’s lip curls in disgust. “So you can keep sleeping with your brother?”
“So I can still see my brother!” I cry. “He’s the only person I love in the whole world. I won’t betray my husband, but I will have my brother in my life.”
Damiano looks as though he’s going to shatter into a million pieces, but this is the only way. I won’t have his kisses.
I won’t have his heart.
But I won’t lose him forever, and without Damiano, I think I would die.
I grip Damiano’s hand for strength and speak quickly to Mom. “And I want a big wedding. Hundreds of guests. No expense spared. Loving speeches from you and Dad. A celebration befitting a Barone daughter. I won’t be married off quietly like a shameful, dirty secret.”
A big wedding takes time to plan. Anything to delay the inevitable.
Mom’s lips press together, and her expression tells me that she thinks I am shameful and dirty, and I don’t deserve a big, beautiful wedding. But she wants this problem over and done with. Finally, she says, “That’s a lot more than one condition, but fine. If that’s what you want.”
It’s not what I want at all. None of this is what I want, but I’m cornered, and there’s only one way out. In a shaking voice, I manage, “Yes, it’s what I want.”
Mom nods. “Fine. I’ve been making some phone calls. Tomorrow night, you’re going to meet your future husband.”
“Tomorrow?” I cry, and Damiano echoes me. He holds my hand in a death grip. I thought I’d have a few months before anything was decided. At least a few weeks. “Who am I marrying?”
“Your father believes there should be stronger ties between the prominent Malus families,” Mom says, giving Damiano a devastating side-eye.
“Something that Damiano tried to achieve but failed. Assuming he accepts you, you’re going to marry a Montoni.
It’s an excellent match, and far better than you deserve. ”
“Lucy is not marrying Cristiano Montoni,” Damiano snarls.
Mom laughs. “Don Cristiano? Lucy, be the wife of a don? Don’t be ridiculous. It’s been decided that Ariana is going to marry the Montoni don. Lucy will marry his cousin, Andreas.”
The name drops like a stone in my stomach. Andreas Montoni.
A memory surfaces, sharp and unwelcome. The Corinthian Hotel gala, months ago. A blond man materializing at my elbow with a too practiced smile and damp palms. His oily flattery. The way his gaze had lingered on the pendant between my breasts. I’d be grateful for your…expertise.
I thought he was a creep.
And now I’m supposed to marry him.
“I remember him,” I say faintly. “From the Corinthian gala. He…” I trail off, not wanting to say he made my skin crawl in front of Mom. That his smile never reached his eyes. That something about him felt wrong in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Does Ariana know about this?” I ask instead, my voice hollow.
“Your father is telling her the good news right now,” Mom replies.
From several rooms down, we hear a piercing, blood-curdling sound.
Ariana’s anguished scream.
It echoes along the corridor and fills every corner of the house.
Mom’s serene expression doesn’t falter. “Marriage can be a surprise to a young woman, but Ariana is a good, obedient daughter who knows that we have her best interests at heart. Lucy, you had better be sweet and polite when you meet your future husband. You have one chance to make a good impression. I hope I don’t need to spell out what the consequences will be if you don’t win Andreas Montoni’s heart.
” Her eyes harden, and so does her voice.
I understand perfectly. If I mess this up, there will be dire consequences, and no second chances.
I tried to be a daughter they could be proud of, but I wasn’t good enough. Now I’m going to be handed off to a man whose touch I already dread. My heart is being ripped out all over again.
“Am I still a prisoner in this room?” I ask.
Mom considers me. “I don’t see that it’s necessary, if you keep your word and behave like a model daughter from now on.”
Damiano is holding tightly to my hand, his eyes filled with anger directed at our mother.
It hurts so much to look at him. I tug my hand from his, grab my purse, and flee the room.
When I pass Ariana’s bedroom door, I hear sobbing from within.
The Barone mansion is filled with misery tonight.
Downstairs, I’m about to open the door into the garage when a hand with painted, pointed nails seizes my arm.
Mom has followed me, and her eyes are bright with malice.
She speaks in a soft, menacing tone. “You had better smile for your future husband tomorrow night. If you ruin your engagement, or if one whisper of what you and your brother have been up to taints this family, your death won’t be swift and painless.
I will see to it that you are given to my husband’s men to be beaten, raped, and passed around until you beg for death. ”
I suck in a frightened breath and struggle to be free of her grip, but she won’t let me go.
“Damiano won’t be coming to save you. He’ll never even find your body, and there will be no grave where he can mourn.” Her nails dig viciously into my flesh. “But maybe we’ll give him photos. Do you think that will break him, Lucy?”
“You can have something stronger if you need it.”
Adora puts a glass of iced water into my hands and sits on the sofa beside me, holding her own glass. I drove across Malus in the dark to see my best friend. I didn’t know what else to do.
I watch moisture beading on the cold glass in silence, Mom’s devastating threat ringing in my ears. I feel the ghost of Mom’s nails digging into my arms. I used to believe there was something strange about my family. Something false and sinister behind Mom’s and Dad’s smiles.
There’s not just something strange about my family. They’re completely and utterly evil.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Adora asks gently.
I showed up at her home with no explanation or warning.
I just seized her in a hug the moment she opened the front door, and I couldn’t let go of her.
I look up and meet her beautiful, warm eyes.
Her cheeks are pink and her complexion glows.
She’s found happiness with Vincenzo, and marriage suits her. I know I won’t be so lucky.
“I’m getting married,” I tell her, and then my composure cracks, and I let out a sob.
“Oh, Lucy,” Adora cries in dismay, and puts her arms around me.
I choke down the tears. I cried all the way here in the car, and my eyes are red and puffy. I have to meet my future husband tomorrow night, and I don’t know how I’m going to pretend that this engagement is anything but coerced if I can’t stop breaking down.
“I’d say congratulations, but this doesn’t look like something you’re happy about. Who are you marrying?”
I give a panicked kind of laugh. “That’s a good question. I should probably pretend I’m over the moon about this proposed engagement.”
Adora looks more confused than ever. “But why?”
“Because Mom and Dad are arranging my marriage to your cousin, Andreas Montoni.”
Adora’s expression is shocked. “Andreas?”
I was already feeling pretty bad about this engagement, but now I feel even worse. “Why do you say it like that? What’s wrong with him?”
It takes Adora a moment to recover. “Nothing’s wrong with him that I know of. I’m just surprised. I didn’t think the Barones had ever met him.”
“I met him once. At a gala at the Corinthian. He made my skin crawl.”
Adora winces. “That bad?”
“His smile never reached his eyes. He looked at me like…like I was merchandise he was evaluating. Damiano wanted to break his fingers for the way he was looking at me.” I shake my head. “And now I’m supposed to marry him.”
Adora’s eyes are troubled. “Lucy, I’m so sorry. I wish I had better things to tell you about Andreas.”
“Tell me anyway. I need to know what I’m walking into.”
She hesitates, choosing her words carefully. “Andreas is ambitious. He wants to prove himself to Cristiano, to be seen as more than just a cousin. He’s smart, but there’s something desperate about him. Like he’s always trying to show he’s the most powerful person in the room.”
“Does Cristiano trust him?”