1. Chapter One #2
Aurora blushes a little as she runs her hands down her blue dress. “Thank you, Luciana.” Only a few years older than me and yet, Aurora seems much more mature. Much more womanly. She’s a married woman who isn’t bound by her father, unlike me.
I notice the other mafia men and women glancing in Gabriel’s direction. As the head of the mafia, he tends to get noticed a lot.
My father walks over to us. “Gabriel.” His tone is tight. Normally, when he greets Gabriel, he greets him like an old friend but today there’s an iciness to the air I don’t understand.
“Rocco.” Gabriel’s eyes flick to mine and back to my father’s. “Does she not know?”
I frown. Know what?
My father stands in front of me. “No. She does not. I am waiting for the right time to tell her. So don’t ruin this for me.”
“You are running out of time, Rocco. He’s here. She’s going to find out.”
“Who’s here?” I ask. “What don’t I know?”
My father, Gabriel, and Aurora all stare at me with a guilty expression. What in the world is going on?
At that moment, a man approaches us. A man, probably in his early thirties, with dark hair and the perfect five o’clock shadow. Tall. Broad shouldered. Handsome. He looks like he stepped out of the pages of a romance novel.
I feel my tongue get stuck in my throat.
“Hello, Gabriel,” the man says. “I came. I did as you said. Now, where is she? It’s time I met the woman who will be my wife.”
Gabriel’s shoulders tense. “Now is not the time, Matteo.”
“I promised to not go to war with you again. You went back on your word the first time by promising me one woman. Don’t go back on your word again.”
I feel like this man is speaking in riddles for how little I am understanding.
“I am not going back on my word,” Gabriel snaps. “But this party is not the right time to announce this.”
“I think it’s the perfect time. You invited me. I want to meet the woman who will be my wife. It’s only fair.”
“You should go,” my father spits out. The weight in my stomach grows. Something about all of this isn’t right.
Matteo turns his eyes onto my father. “And you are?”
“Rocco Santori. Show some respect. This is my house. It’s my daughter –,” he cuts himself off.
Matteo’s eyes light up. “Ah. So you’re Rocco. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” He holds his hand out. “Where is your daughter? I want to meet her.”
My father pointedly does not take Matteo’s hand. Gabriel clears his throat and begrudgingly, my father shakes Matteo’s hand after a long moment.
“I didn’t agree with this,” my father says. “I don’t want this.”
“And yet, it’s happening,” Gabriel says. “For peace. You know you have to do this, Rocco. It has to happen.”
“I am not giving my daughter away to be sacrificed for peace.”
My spine tenses. “What are you talking about?”
Everyone sets their eyes onto me.
“Is this Luciana?” Matteo asks.
It’s like the air completely evaporates, making it hard for me to breathe.
“Yes,” Gabriel answers for my father and me. “This is Luciana. The woman you’ll marry.”
I gasp. I turn to my father but he doesn’t look me in the eye. “What is going on? You found a husband for me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Now is not the time for this discussion,” my father growls. It’s a harsh tone he’s rarely ever used with me before.
“Now seems like the perfect time,” I snap.
My father and Gabriel look shocked by my attitude. I’ve always been the dutiful daughter, never speaking out of turn. But it’s obvious to me that my father knew about this – about Matteo standing before me and the fact that he is going to be my husband – and didn’t bother telling me.
“I am going to marry this man?” I ask, nodding at Matteo. He’s been silent, just watching everything with an amused smirk on his lips.
My father’s eyes are filled with pain before he sighs. “Yes. It’s out of my hands, Luciana. You have to marry him. For peace.”
“Is this true?” I ask Gabriel.
He nods, ever stoic. “It’s true. Matteo worked for a man who was our enemy.
But he’s agreed to make peace if you marry him.
I thought your father would have told you before today.
I am sorry for that, Luciana. If I had known, I would have told you myself before inviting Matteo over here.
But you needed to know. You will be married to him. ”
“But he’s a stranger,” I gasp out. I was raised my whole life to be prepared for an arranged marriage and yet now that it’s here, I realize I am not ready. I am not ready at all.
“That can be easily rectified,” Matteo says. “We can get to know one another. After we’re married.”
I blink. “What do you mean?”
“He means,” Gabriel explains, “that you and Matteo will be married soon. Within the month.”
“So soon?” I breathe out.
“Yes,” Matteo says. “I don’t want your father and Gabriel to go back on their word. The sooner the better.”
“My father is a good man. He would never go back on his word.” I turn to my father only to see him bowing his head… in shame. “Daddy?”
“I am sorry, Luciana,” he whispers. “I didn’t want this for you. I am so sorry.”
All the etiquette I was taught disappears in an instant. Without thinking, I hurry away from the party and back into the house. I just need to breathe. I just need a moment to think.
When I return to my bedroom, my chest squeezes at the sight of all the pink and stuffed animals.
It’s no wonder my father didn’t want me changing anything.
He knew I was going to be married off and he didn’t say anything.
He clearly doesn’t want this to happen. It’s why he wants me to remain as his little girl forever.
But I am going to die if I have to remain as his little girl forever.
It’s because of that fact that he didn’t have the courage to tell me I’m finally getting married. To a stranger. To a man who worked for the enemy, judging by what Gabriel said.
I don’t know this man. I always thought I would at least know the man my father married me off to. And yet… I don’t know anything.
A scream erupts from my throat as I pick up my stuffed animals and throw them to the ground.
A sound behind me makes me whirl around and I see Matteo standing in my bedroom doorway. The dark glint in his eyes makes me tense.
It’s at that very moment I become fully aware that I am alone with a stranger in my bedroom.
A stranger who will become my husband.