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When I was sure Juliana was asleep, I turned toward her and looked across at her face. This was the first time today that I’d seen her without worry on her face. I continued staring at her, looking at what was mine.
I should have taken her as my wife today.
But now I had taken her as my prize…and I would use her as my revenge.
CHAPTER 10
JULIANA
I woke up and for a few seconds, it seemed as though it were any other morning of my life.
But then I stretched out in bed and felt the unfamiliar sheets around my body and my eyes flew open.
The memories of yesterday came crashing into my mind just as waves overwhelm the shore at high tide. Dear Lord, did yesterday really happen?
I looked down at my body clad in just my wedding lingerie, and I knew that my memories were a very real occurrence. My terror pushed away any exhaustion that lingered from yesterday. I let my gaze fall on the other side of the bed—it was empty. Marco must have already woken and, as I couldn’t hear any sounds from the adjoining bathroom, I assumed that he had left me here alone.
I tried to hold my anxiety inside me. I felt like screaming out, but I knew that wouldn’t help me. There was nobody in this mansion to hear me except for the Marchiano’s, and none of them would go against their Capo to help me.
Maybe it was better that Marco thought that I was still asleep? That way he wouldn’t come for me just yet.
My brain started racing. Was he planning on using me as a bargaining chip? To trade me for money or territory?
Did he plan to rape me? Or kill me?
Would he use me until he got bored of me? Or would he just kill me straight away?
I had to stop these thoughts from going around my head or I was going to drive myself mad. My mind swiftly turned to Jessica, wondering—hoping—that she was still alive. I couldn’t believe that I had been worrying about myself when my sister might already be dead.
I couldn’t let my thoughts overwhelm me. I needed to take some control, or this situation would totally consume me.
I quietly got out of bed and wrapped one of the sheets around my exposed body—being in only my wedding lingerie made me feel too vulnerable. The hardwood floor was cool against my bare feet, but it wasn’t that which sent a shiver through my body.
After considering my options for a few moments, I decided to put my wedding dress back on, even though the dress was ripped and had blood on it from where I had cut my arm. If Marco came back in, I might feel stronger if I wasn’t half-naked when I faced him.
I got my dress on, but I could only get the back zipper up halfway. Jessica had helped me do up the zipper yesterday when I had first put the dress on.
Yesterday—it felt like a lifetime ago that I had been in my bedroom getting dressed for my wedding day, with my little flower girl running around and giggling. I prayed to God that she too was alright and unhurt, and I desperately wished that I could just talk to my family to find out how everyone was and what was going on.
I was sitting on the bed when I heard the lock turn in the door and then the door slowly opened.
And there he stood. Marco Marchiano. His eyes held mine as he walked into the room and closed the door behind him, the door that I knew after last night there was no chance of my escaping through.
MARCO
Before I could say anything, she stood up from the bed and walked toward the bathroom. “I’m going to have a shower.”
“Not so fast.” I pushed her back onto the mattress.
Using one arm, she managed to catch herself in a half sitting, half reclining position. With her other hand she held up the bodice of her wedding dress which had its zipper undone. As she fell back onto the bed, she clasped at it more tightly. The folds of fabric were teasing me with glimpses of her lacy bra and the swell of her heavy breasts.
“I see you’ve put your wedding dress back on. Perhaps you’re hoping that we finish what we started yesterday?”
“In your dreams. Yesterday was a lucky escape for me.” She was attempting to appear strong, but she couldn’t hide her fear from me.
“Hardly an escape. You’re at my mercy here on my estate without the title of being my wife. You are a mere captive.”
“Being your wife wouldn’t allow me any additional privileges from a monster like you.” She had hatred in her eyes, but she knew little of real hate, having spent the entire nineteen years of her life cocooned and pampered by her family. I was twenty-seven now, but I had been initiated at the age of twelve into the Fratellanza, into a world of violence and death. There had been no idyllic childhood for me.
