Chapter 15 #2
“Yeah,” she goes on, unable to hold back her sadness.
“He’s in the Mafia.” She sniffles, throwing her arms around me, sobbing quietly against my chest. “I don’t want to marry anyone.
I want to finish college. I want to become a vet.
I want to live my own life.” She clings to my shirt with a tight fist. “I don’t want to be someone’s wife, least of all someone from the Mafia. ”
I hold her tightly against me, my gaze climbing up the stairs, where my father’s study is. He’s going to be hearing from me very shortly.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
She laughs tearfully and weaves back. “You must be joking.” She roughly swipes under her eyes with the back of her hand. “You know that’s not true for girls in our position. You’re lucky. You don’t—”
Instantly, her face goes ashen and her eyes grow wide.
“Oh my God,” she gasps, new tears misting her eyes. “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m so, so sorry, Iz. Please forgive me!”
She curls her thin arms around me and squeezes.
I pat her back. “There’s nothing to forgive. You were only eight when it happened. It’s okay. It’s in the past, anyway.” I grab her hands and hold them in mine. “I love you. I’d do anything for you. You know that, right?”
She nods, looking sad.
I lean in and give her a quick kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be right back. Give me five, okay?”
Her eyes grow as I start for the stairs. “Iz, no! Don’t say anything. He’s going to know I was listening.”
“That’s okay.” I start climbing up. “You have a right to know what happens in your own life. And if this isn’t what you want, then he’s going to know about it.”
She mutters something unintelligible while I rush the rest of the way and make a right toward his office.
I shove the door.
He looks up from a stack of papers on his oak desk. “Nice of you to knock, darling.”
I march up until my palms hit the edge of the wood. “Are you seriously marrying her off to the damn Mafia?!”
“So, she heard, then?” He sighs.
“Yeah.” I look him straight in the eyes. “She heard everything.”
“Maybe you should teach her not to eavesdrop.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t marry your daughter to scum.”
“They’re not so bad, and it’s what’s in the best interest of this family. Or did you forget that our family…” Anger ravages his features. “…is what I’ve always been trying to protect.”
“And forcing her into a marriage she doesn’t want with a complete stranger is how you figure to do that?” My heartbeats rap against my ribs.
One of them killed my cousin. How could he think this is okay?
“Who cares that you’d be ruining her life?” My voice rises, and I don’t care who on his cleaning staff overhears.
“Close the damn door before you wake the whole bloody city!”
I skewer him with an unflinching gaze for a few seconds before I stalk off and shut the door with my foot.
“Look, Iseult.” He calls me by my full name, when no one ever does.
Though I do love it. My mother picked it. But when I started doing jobs, I began calling myself Izzy, so it stuck.
“This is what has to be done,” he goes on. “After your cousin was killed by Michael’s brother, we’ve been planning for war. But Michael has offered a very favorable solution that your brothers and I are pleased with.”
“My brothers?” I laugh coldly. “I’m sorry, are we still being sexist, Father? Because last time I checked, I’ve killed more men than any of them have, and I deserve a say here.”
“That is valid.” He nods curtly. “But either way, it’s four against one.”
I shake my head, disgust twining around my features. “And Eriu doesn’t get a choice or even a vote?”
“No.” His reply is cold. “She’s merely a child who’s having a tantrum. She does what I say, when I say it. That’s all there is to it.”
“You’re ruining your own daughter’s life.” I grind my jaw, not knowing what to do or say to stop this from happening.
Maybe I can help her run. Make her disappear somewhere. She has a bodyguard on her, but we can fix that. One bullet here and there, and poof. Gone. Daddy wouldn’t even know it was me.
I’ve gotta give it to her, though. She did piss off our father once by drugging Devlin, her last bodyguard.
Of course then she got herself into a heap of trouble, and so did Devlin.
But he did cover for her, and for that, I will always be grateful to him.
But this new guy my father has on her? He means nothing to me. Killing him would be easy.
“Her life won’t be ruined,” he replies, dropping his attention to his papers. “Gio seems like a nice man, and he will take care of her.”
“So love doesn’t even matter to you, huh? Figures.”
“What the bloody hell does that mean?!” He snaps his pale green gaze to me, his temper flaring around his enlarged pupils.
“You and Mom.” My heart splits in half when I think about her, and I force down the ache lodged in my throat.
“I loved your mother.” He grips the arm of the chair until his knuckle turns white.
“No, you didn’t!” I bellow.
“You bite your fucking tongue!” He jumps to his feet and slams his fists across the desk, rattling the decanter of amber liquid set at the corner.
“You wouldn’t be this angry if it wasn’t true.” I angle my chin.
He can’t deny it. My mother told me everything. How she was forced to marry him when she was eighteen. How though he may have loved her in his own way, she never felt he truly loved her.
Years later, she discovered why. He was actually in love with another woman, who he wasn’t allowed to marry.
She found the letters he wrote to her, the ones he never sent, and it broke her heart.
I would pity him if I wasn’t so angry that he didn’t love my mom the same way he did this mystery woman he called Fernanda.
Mom didn’t want this for us—arranged marriages—and she told my father that right before she was murdered. Yet here he goes, spitting on her wishes.
“Leave. Now.” His nostrils widen, thick gray brows shuddering. “Before I do something I regret.”
His chest rises up and down, and there’s invisible smoke coming out of his nose.
“She didn’t want this,” I remind him. “She may not be alive to vote, but she wouldn’t want this for Eriu, and you know it.”
“Eriu will marry Gio, and there’s not a damn thing you can say or do to change that fact.
” He settles back in his seat, his breathing harsh and uneven.
“Our bloodlines will live on, and that will avoid a war, hopefully for generations to come. Now go, and close the door behind you. I’m done with this conversation. ”
I hold his gaze for a moment before I spin on my heels and head out.
When Eriu sees me, hope fills her eyes. “Anything?”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry.”
Her face falls. “It’s okay. You tried.” She blows out a defeated sigh. “I’m going to marry some crazy Italian who’ll probably make me drop out of school and be his prisoner.”
“We don’t know that. Maybe he’s not so bad.”
But even as I say it to myself, I know it isn’t true. The men of the Cosa Nostra know only one way to treat a woman, and it’s not with respect.