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“Honey, I think you’re overreacting. You and Marco barely know each other, and your father stipulated that the marriage wouldn’t take place until you were completely done with school and twenty-one, right? That’s a whole four years away. There will be plenty of time for the two of you to get to know one another.”
I know she’s right and looking at things objectively, but that doesn’t make me feel one bit better. “I bet you wouldn’t be so calm if your fiancé was ignoring you,” I mutter.
“I’m never getting married. I’ve lived in a house of men and although my brothers—at least most of them—are better than my father, they’re all assholes. I don’t need that in my life. I’ll break away, I’m going to live alone and be my own person.”
“That will change when you meet a guy that makes you feel alive like your brother does to me,” I mutter.
“Don’t gross me out. My brother is not hot,” Melina exhales.
“Girl, he’s beyond hot,” I sigh out. “He’s beautiful.”
“He is not,” she insists stubbornly.
“Okay, so what is your idea of a hot guy then?”
“Nothing like my brothers. When I find a guy, he will be their opposite. I’m thinking a nice doctor. Someone who looks more at home in scrubs and faded jeans and T-shirt than a suit. Clean cut with a quiet, calm demeanor. Clean cut, definitely.”
“God, Lina that sounds boring as hell.”
“That’s exactly what I want. After living in my house, calm and boring is awesome. The most exciting thing the guy I end up with will do is throw caution to the wind and stay up past his mandatory nine p.m. bedtime to watch the news on television.”
“If Marco goes to bed at nine, he better be coming to bed to turn me on—not the TV,” I grumble, making Melina laugh.
“I’m not going to see him this trip, am I?” I whisper unable to keep the heartbreak out of my voice.
“I don’t think so,” she whispers and it’s the pity in her voice that makes me want to disappear forever. I’ll somehow figure out how to get through this.
One day, I’ll make Marco pay for the pain he keeps inflicting…
One day…
Marco
“I’m not going to see him this trip, am I?”
Guilt hits me harder than I would have thought possible, as my hand tightens on the doorknob to my sister’s room. I’ve been here the entire time Helena has been visiting Melina. I’ve purposefully kept a low profile. My father has laughed his ass off because I didn’t care if I saw my fiancée or not. I played into that. Nothing could be further from the truth. I want to see her and talk to her. I want to get to know her. It’s unusual to be engaged to someone who is too young to truly allow yourself to get closer to her. Still, I’m going to be married to Helena. I should spend more time with her.
Down the hall I hear my father’s laugh and the sound sours my stomach. I slowly release my grip and bring my hand down. I rest my forehead against the door and close my eyes. I don’t want to hurt her, but it’s better to let that happen than to bring her into my father’s line of fire. I’ll make it up to her later. She’s turning seventeen. There’s time for us to get to know one another and do it when my father can’t see me with Helena and doesn’t target her as a weakness—which is what she is.
I walk away with a heavy sigh, feeling as if I’ll never breathe clean air. I’m trapped under my father’s thumb and I’m starting to think I’ll never be free of that bastard. Can I really marry Helena? Can I marry anyone knowing whoever I bring into my life will be in danger of my father’s wide reach?
Fuck…
Chapter 2
Marco
The Week Following Helena’s Eighteenth Birthday
“I’m not sure your father’s eye is on the ball on this one, Marco. You know I always try to support him. The board of directors is getting nervous, though. Your father has developed a reputation of bleeding a company dry and tossing it aside when he takes it over. They’re not going to vote to approve the merger knowing your father is at the helm of this one. They’d rather lose the entire company to the Cattafi family.
I school my features. This is my life. Cleaning up shit for my fucking father, hiding the madness that lurks too damn close to the surface. It’d be a fuck of a lot easier to navigate these waters if my damn hands weren’t tied.
“They can try, but I think they’ll find the Cattafi are withdrawing their offer,” I respond.
“I… They… How the fuck did you manage that?”
I shrug. I’m not about to tell George—my future father-in-law—that I had to promise everything but a fucking kidney to secure this deal. I won’t explain that I did it all while my father—who should have been working on this deal himself—was drunk off his ass and spending the weekend with some hookers.
