Page 29 of Beauty and the Daddy

My heart is a trapped bird. I'm suddenly aware of how small my towel is and how fucked up my future.

"And if I don't?" I ask.

"You have twenty-four hours to decide if you can live with the choice your father made. Be my wife, and I let him go scott-free. Otherwise, there's trouble coming his way."

My chest aches with anger that doesn't know which direction to point—at Luca, at my father, at my own stupid heart for beating faster because the Beast sayswifelike a promise and not a trap.

I can't breathe properly with him this close, and the towel is losing interest in staying up.

"I… I need to think about it," I whisper, and turn on my heels, running off like the wind, right back to my room.

The first thing I do when I get back, is chuck the ring across my bed.

The second, I call my father.

"Belle?" he sounds relieved to hear from me. "Isabelle, my girl?—"

"How could you do this to me?" The words come out choked. "Seven million dollars? And now, you sold me to him? Your own daughter?"

"It wasn't like that," he says weakly. "I never thought it would come to this. I thought I could pay it back."

"With what money, Dad? The company's been dying for years!"

"I know, I know." He sounds defeated, broken. "But Luca... he made an offer."

"To buy me, dad! TO BUY ME!"

"Please, Belle." I hear him sob. "I had to do this to save you, because I can't take care of you anymore. It wasn't supposed to bethis. But I kept losing and he kept covering. Every month I told myself I'd fix it, and every month, I fell behind."

He stops.

"I'm sorry."

Sorry is a paper umbrella in a hurricane. It's not enough. It's also everything he has.

I put my hand over my eyes. Hot tears slide down, and I hate them because I want to be pure fire right now.

"So, I was set up. This whole thing with me coming to his house, it was all planned so I'd marry him."

"He promised he wouldn't hurt you," my father says desperately. "He swore it."

"That's great, isn't it?" I laugh bitterly. "That the crime lord who's forcing me to marry him pinky-promised not to beat me?"

"Belle, listen to me." His voice drops to a whisper. "There are men looking for me. Real bad men. Not like Luca—worse. The kind who'd use you to send me a message."

My blood goes cold. "What kind of message?"

"The kind that comes in pieces."

I can't breathe. Can't think.

"Luca's the only reason they haven't already—" He stops. "Just... if you say yes to him, you're untouchable. His name alone is armor. Without it..."

He doesn't finish. He doesn't need to.

I hear myself breathing into the phone.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he sobs. "I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I just wanted to save the company, save the jobs. I never thought..."