Page 5 of Angel

“You’re supposed to meet Moretti in three weeks,” she said. “Around our birthday.”

“How does this guy even know he wants me? He’s never met me.”

Sophia bit her lip. “Maybe he has. For all we know he’s been watching you for years.”

“His guys. You told Angelo Moretti’s guys are outside.”

“I see them sometimes… around. I recognize them.”

“Jesus,” I said. “This is sick. And what? You just weren’t going to do anything about any of this?”

“There’s nothing I can do. It’s one of those deals that’s made between all of the families. There’s nothing that you or I can do.”

“So, that’s it? You’re going to let me ride off into the Italian sunset and start a life with some mafia stranger?”

Sophia just shook her head. She didn’t haveallthe answers.

I spun around. “I have to get out of here.”

“Paige!”

I slammed my bedroom door, the act of shutting her out the first satisfying thing that had happened that morning. Frantic, I pulled my cell phone from its charger, nearly yanking the other end out of the wall in the process.

Pick me up, I texted Angelo.

Not waiting for a response, I tossed my bathrobe on the floor and yanked open a dresser drawer.

Jeans. White t-shirt. I pulled them on so fast they sat crooked on my limbs. My long dark brown hair slipped underneath the back of the shirt collar, pressing against the space where a bra strap would go if I bothered to put a bra on.

I yanked on mismatched socks and some sneakers, and dropped onto my hands and knees to retrieve the duffel bag from under the bed.

Betrothed.

Seriously?

Who the hell even talked like that anymore?

I didn’t know just how long the arrangement had been in place, but there had to have been thousands of times when Sophia could have clued me in to it. And yet she hadn’t. She let me go on, thinking I was free to live my life and marry whoever I wanted.

Protection. I scoffed as I jammed a handful of underwear into my bag. A life of arranged marriage was just about one of the worse ones I could imagine, ranking only above sex slavery and pre-labor laws factory work. It didn’t seem Sophia had been protecting me at all. It seemed more like she’d been letting me blindly head towards my own dismal destiny.

A couple hot tears ran down my cheeks. She was my best friend. My only family.

Without her to trust and count on, what did I have left?

Finished packing, I zipped up the duffel bag and checked my phone.

I’m downstairs,Angelo’s text said.Right out front.

I pocketed the phone and swung the bag over my shoulder. On second thought, I grabbed a bra from my underwear drawer and took a moment to put it on. No use in letting the entire city see my nipples.

The living room sat empty, my twin nowhere in sight. Either she’d retreated to her bedroom to feel sorry for herself or fled the apartment. I didn’t care.

Snatching my keys from the rack, I flew out of the living room and took the stairs two at a time. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew it would be a long time before I came back to what I used to think was home.