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She didn’t ease off, so I just hoped she would let me go with her. “No one shielded me, you know,” she said, looking away. “But I am still sad to leave this place.”
“Why?”
“There is only one person I love, and I am so sad to leave her. So worried.”
It wasn’t hard to guess who. “Elsie.”
She nodded. She seemed so mournful that it would have been funny seeing her on the verge of crying while a stripper was dancing a few inches away from her face, only if her pain didn’t hurt me deep inside.
I wanted to take it all away even though I knew there was no permanent solution to her problem.
“We can visit,” I said in an attempt to give her some kind of relief. “Or I can talk to your father, and Elsie can visit us. She is a nice kid. I won’t mind having her around.”
“You just say that.”
“Come on,” I said with a little chuckle. “I am everybody’s favorite uncle. Of course, I don’t mind having kids around.”
To that, Luce gave me a sad smile. I couldn’t help but realize how pretty she was, but still, I wanted to erase that expression from her face. I knew she looked more beautiful when she was smiling happily, even though she rarely did that.
Her eyes filled with tears, but she wiped them quickly, looking away. “Can we go somewhere quieter? I have to tell you something.”
“Of course,” I said, getting on my feet. I paid for one of the private rooms but no dancers. Luce didn’t say anything about the situation. She looked sad, but more than that, she looked nervous. I didn’t want her to be ever nervous about telling me something. It could never be as bad as she thought it would be. I was sure of it.
“Tell me,” I urged.
Luce bit down her bottom lip. She looked so different than her usual confident self. “I considered telling you this for a while. I thought it might cause many problems, so I kept it away, but now I see it might still cause problems even if you don’t know about it, and I cannot risk it. Tomorrow night is not going to go according to my father’s plans, and I realized that in the end, I have to make a choice. I should either trust my father or trust you.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but I still tried to keep my expression relaxed. I didn’t want to alarm her further. “Whatever it is, you can tell me, Luce.”
She took a deep breath, and some of the vulnerability in her eyes got shadowed by fake confidence. “What is supposed to happen to me on my wedding night Valerio? What happens to the girls who don’tbleed?”
What the fuck was that about? “I don’t want you to bleed, Luce. I thought we already established I don’t care if you are a virgin, and even if you were, I would still not want you to bleed.”
“I know,” she said in an assuring tone. “I know it is not important to you, but what if it was? What would you do to me? What would people expect you to do to your impure wife?”
I didn’t like this conversation, but I still answered, hoping it would go somewhere important. “They would expect me to kill you.”
Luce nodded, her whole body tense. “That is what my father expects you will do.”
“What?”
“Do you think my father dares to give you an impure bride? You are a Vasile. It would be a big disrespect.”
“He won’t,” I said. I never considered Gino knew about Luce’s late-night escapades. It didn’t matter to me. I only wanted to take Luce away from that asshole. I wanted her for myself. I never considered how the situation looked from Gino’s perspective. I never considered what would happen if he chose someone else as a husband for her.
But now that I did, I understood what she was saying. It didn’t make sense fully, but I could comprehend her words now.
“Your father knows you are not a virgin,” I said, and she nodded. “He doesn’t know I won't care but still wants you to marry me. He wants to trick me.”
“He wants you to kill me,” she explained with terror in her beautiful eyes.
Eve those words made my stomach turn. “Why?” I asked, barely containing myself. I wanted to keep calm for Luce, but I was so angry.
“He wants a war. He thinks this can be the reason.”
That fucking asshole. My body was rigid with the want to kill him. I knew my state added to Luce’s terror, but I couldn’t stop myself. Gino Borelli was more of a monster than I could ever be.
“I know you won’t kill me,” she said, trying to add an assuring tone to her voice, but it didn’t calm me one bit. I didn’t think anything could at this point. “But I don’t know what my father is going to do when that happens. I don’t care about him, but I care about Elsie. If there is a war, I won't be able to see her. So, I am telling you everything now. If you think this is a deal breaker and you want a war with my father, don’t start it over me. If you think this will not work, please don’t marry me. At least give me that.”
