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But I let her buy it, and when our driver Mikey picks us upafter the lunch I wasn’t able to eat because of the knot in my stomach, I’m more than ready for the long ride home.

“Miss?” Enzo, one of Dad’s capos, says to me once we get home. “This way.”

I’m led into the sitting room, which is somehow worse than Dad’s office.

“Sit down, Lucie,” Dad says, waving his hand at the empty sofa across from him.

For a moment, I hesitate, but then I sink into the sofa. “You’re aware that you’re picking up your traitorous sister’s slack. But understand that I need this.”

“For how long?”

“Pardon?”

“For how long do I have to be part of this sham marriage?” I ask.

“There is no ‘early out’ in the contract terms.”

I grit my teeth. I figured that, but… damn. I close my eyes for a quick moment and breathe in. The door to his study is open, the sitting room adjacent to it. I take in a deep breath and I swear I can smell Frank’s masculine scent, the leather, the cigarettes. My body tingles in response. A shiver flutters over my skin when my mind trips back to his mouth on mine, his pierced tongue moving to my nipples, then down low so I felt it when he?—

“Lucia!”

My cheeks flame, and I turn into a fireball of embarrassment. “Dad?”

“Did you hear me? It’s real, and we need the bloodied sheets to show it’s a legitimate wedding. There won’t be a church ceremony, and we need to show the other bosses you’re a virgin.”

He stares at me like he expects me to defy him, but all I dois nod. “Barbarism and one whole leap back for equality and rights. Got it.”

“This is family business, not fucking women’s lib.”

I love him, but sometimes I don’t think I like my father at all.

There’s an air of desperation in his tone and I can relate, so I push myself to try for better terms. “Two years, Dad. That’s all I can give.”

He doesn’t say anything and then nods, shoulders slumping.

“So I’ll do it. Help the family, help you, and then I walk away in two years.”

“Whatever you think is best. Now go and prepare yourself because you’re going to marry very soon.” He pauses, then clears his throat. “While we’ll start with the engagement party as planned, we will surprise the guests with the wedding at the end. His decision.”

“Are you serious?” I gasp. “So soon? I haven’t even met the guy and I’m supposed to justmarryhim?”

“Yes. So prepare yourself however you need to,” Dad says gruffly before turning away from me.

As I leave the room, my heart clenches as tight as my gut. I’m totally screwed. Sold off in a business transaction that will effectively end my life because Dad didn’t confirm the out I desperately want.

I have no guarantee that I’ll be allowed to leave this pig of a man in two years.

But Dad can’t make me stay, right? I said two years. He’ll have to negotiate that with the man he’s forcing me to marry. After the wedding, I’ll decide the best course, and if this new, fat, and old husband from a family I don’t know… a name Dad hasn’t even told me… if he refuses, then I have two years to plan my disappearance.

I go to my room and collapse on my bed, tears stinging my eyes.

And until that time, I’ll just dream about what I want my life to be and who I want it with.

My masked stranger.

My chest tightens as I smooth down the satin of the engagement dress with shaking fingers.

I tossed and turned all night, and this morning, the fate of everything now out of reach, I finally admit the thing I’ve always denied.