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“Jesus, Simu. Are you going to punish me just because I’m engaged to be married?” I hissed. “You know it’s my duty to this clan, right? God, you’re such a hypocrite.”
I was miffed. He had no right to be upset with me. He knew the rules. Hell, he helped enforce them. I may not be a believer in arranged marriages but refusing would be the equivalent of spitting on my family. My father had shed blood, sweat, and tears for this family. Then there was my mother, who’d sat across the dinner table, happy and smiling for once. Not to mention that I’d become a pariah if I turned my back on our traditions. I could never escape my duty, and I resented the way he was treating me.
He stalked up to me, backing me up against the wooden banister. Gripping my forearms, he trembled as he gritted out, “Is that what you think? What do you take me for?”
“What else can I think?” I sneered. “You won’t even look at me.”
Shaking me a little, he growled. “I’m not mad at you. I know you’re the innocent victim here, but it’s tearing me up inside. You were supposed to be mine. Your father practically promised you to me and—” He shook his head and cut himself off before he said too much. He didn’t think I knew what had gone down between the Lupu family and mine.
“Cristo told me that their trick blew up in their faces and this was the consequence.”
“Yes,” he seethed between clenched teeth. “I can’t stand the idea of that Lupu fucker touching you with his filthy hands. You’re a Popescu princess. You’re beautiful and pure and deserve so much more, but I’m powerless. I can’t do anything to help you or fix this, and it’s fucking killing me.”
I blinked. Okay, that was not what I had expected.
My shoulders drooped, and I went limp in his hold. He clutched me to his chest. My face was smothered in the starchy cotton of his dress shirt.
“You already do so much for us, Simu,” I murmured into his chest.
“I’m only doing my job,” he replied.
That was a serious understatement. Cristo had confided that Simu had been instrumental in keeping our clan afloat during our current money problems. Simu’s uncle was the consilier of the Hagi clan, a rich and powerful clan on the West Coast. Simu convinced his uncle to advance my father money to keep our enterprises functioning while he scrambled to create new alliances in Afghanistan. It was a risky high-wire act, but none of it would’ve been possible if Simu hadn’t vouched for my father.
His grip tightened around me. “Fuck, Cat. I want to find a way…”
I shook my head, my cheek rubbing against the harsh cotton. Planting my palms on his chest, I pushed myself off him.
“You know as well as I that there’s nothing you can do,” I asserted. “My father needs this of me, and my mother is so happy. You saw her at dinner. She had more energy tonight than she’s had since she got sick. I can’t take that away from her.”
“So, you’re willing to sacrifice your happiness for her? For them?” he asked, his tone laced in bitterness.
Of course, I was. Only, he wasn’t what I was sacrificing. Abandoning my chance to go to college was the real sacrifice. The thought triggered the same old sinking feeling in my stomach.
“As if I have a choice in the matter,” I scoffed.
“At one time, I was your choice.”
“That’s not fair. I never had a choice. If I had been lucky, then yes, I would’ve married you, but it was never in my hands.”
“Your father’s a fool,” he snarled.
“Hey,” I snapped. “Don’t you dare call him names. Do you think he’s thrilled about this? Cristo is beside himself. You know the long-standing competition between him and Nicu. He feels he’s failed me, and it’s eating him up inside.” Not to mention that, at times, I coasted on the edge of feeling like I was drowning.
He cast his head down and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, Cat. You know I didn’t mean that.”
I rested my hand on the center of his chest and sighed. “I know, I know. If he almost promised me to you, that’s a hard thing to swallow.”
“More like unbearable,” he groused. “How can you be so resigned to it?”
How?Only a man could ask such a ridiculous question. As a man, and one that held a powerful position, he had more freedom to choose. I was resigned because I had no agency in this matter. He didn’t wake up in the morning to the depressing reality that I would be taken from my family, that I wouldn’t continue my education, that I’d be tied for life to a stranger who hated me.
“It’s never been fair, but I grew up knowing that I didn’t have the final say. I could make suggestions, and my father would try to accommodate me, until he couldn’t. As the daughter of Nelu Popescu, I’m too valuable to marry whomever I want. A marriage is political in nature. Mine more than most.”
“I’m not giving up, Cat.”
My eyes flared in surprise, my heart doing a thump-thump in my chest. I did not need Simu causing trouble. It was hard enough pushing myself to do what was necessary.
Taking a step back, I replied, “I don’t even know what to say to that, but you know I will always follow my father’s wishes.”
