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I can hear she doesn’t believe her own words. “This is not what’s best for me, and you know it. Are you going to keep me locked up here forever? Is that the plan?”
Letting out another sigh, she takes a sip of her margarita before walking out of the room, leaving the door wide open.
I rush forward, but the moment I step into the hallway, guards grab my arms, flanking me. I start to struggle against their hold as I’m practically dragged down toward the staircase and manage to kick one bastard against his shin.
I’m taken to the formal lounge, and when I see another man smiling with my father while they’re in deep conversation, ice flows through my veins.
Oh, hell no.
My father and the man turn to look at me as I’m shoved into the room. I glare at the guards before I lift my chin to meet my father’s eyes.
“This is my daughter, Abbie. She has her mother’s temper.”
When she’s not drunk off her ass.
My father looks at the man as if he’s a walking bank vault with unlimited money. “This is Antonio Vittori, the man you’ll marry.”
I’d much rather die, but I have no plans to end my life, so I have to find a way out of this mess.
Antonio smiles at me as he walks closer, and I instantly recoil. “Don’t you dare touch me.”
He’s in his early thirties, and I’d go as far as to say he’s handsome. Before falling in love with Nikolai, I would’ve been accommodating. I always knew an arranged marriage lay in my future.
Antonio takes a ring from his breast pocket, and when he reaches for my left hand, I turn to run, only to be blocked by two overgrown apes.
One of the guards grabs my shoulder and forces me to face Antonio. My father grabs my left hand and holds me forcibly in place as Antonio pushes the ring onto my finger.
“I’ll never marry you,” I spit at Antonio.
My father lets out a dark chuckle, shaking his head. “I apologize for my daughter’s behavior. She’s stubborn.”
Father shakes hands with Antonio. “We’ll celebrate the engagement tomorrow night.”
“I look forward to it,” Antonio mutters. When his eyes flick to me, and I see the smug look in his eyes, I suppress the urge to spit at him.
As soon as Antonio has cleared the room, my father orders, “Let her go.”
The moment the guards take their hands off my arms, I swing around and knee the nearest one. He clutches his crotch as he sinks to his knees with a painful groan.
Winter would be so proud of me.
My father lets out a heavy sigh. “Stop with this attitude! You’re impossible. Antonio Vittori is wealthy. This is an important alliance.”
“I’m not a possession you can pawn off to the highest bidder!”
“Stop complaining!” he barks. “You’ll accept this arrangement and learn to be submissive to your fiancé like your mother did with me.” He looks at me with thinly veiled disappointment. “Hopefully, you’ll give him a son and not a petulant daughter.”
My body trembles with rage as I hiss, “I’ll never submit.”
My father steps closer to me, his features drawn tight because I dare to fight for the life I want. “The engagement party is tomorrow night. You will look like the Sartori princess you are. You will smile and be thankful I’m not giving you to Geseppi. Disobey, and you’ll be married to Geseppi before this week is over.”
Geseppi is a friend of my father’s and a vile man. He’s already been married twice, and both women took their own lives to escape him.
I’ve always known this would be my life, an arranged marriage to a man of my father’s choosing. But Nikolai changed that.
He changed everything.
He showed me what it’s like to be loved. He’s stood by me during the darkest time of my life.
