Page 3 of Forgive Me, Father

I was about to knock when the door clicked open and sex noises came from inside his room.

My body stiffened.

Maybe it wasn’t him.It could be Milo or Charlie, his idiot of a best man.I turned around and was about to close the door when I heard a woman yelling his name.

“Philip, don’t stop.I’m coming.I’m coming.”

My breath caught in my throat as she continued yelling and screaming her orgasm.

Philip grunted like a beast.

Tears welled up in my eyes as the woman laughed.I knew that laugh by heart.It belonged to my fiery best friend, Victoria.

They were both laughing now.

“Run away with me please?”she begged.

“Vicky, you know I have no choice.We would never be free if we ran.They would hunt me down, literally.”Silence lingered.“I wish you were part of the Dons.I would marry you in a heartbeat.”

Heat prickled up my spine, and I fought to steady my breathing.

I couldn’t let this moment unravel, couldn’t ruin the delicate beauty of my dress and makeup by succumbing to the panic creeping up on me.

“Go clean up, we need to get back to our parties before anyone notices we’re gone.”

A single tear slipped down my cheek as I spun on my heel, my heart pounding as I fled in the opposite direction, desperate to escape the weight of everything closing in around me.

I was set to marry him in less than half an hour, but I kept running.I turned around the corner just as they exited the room.Their laughter bounced off the walls in the opposite direction.

I stopped as betrayal struck with the force of a blow, draining the strength from my legs.I crumpled against the wall, sliding to the floor in a heap.

My back pressed to the cold surface, knees drawn tightly to my chest, as the fragile pieces of my world shattered around me.

I thought he loved me, thought he cared about me.And today of all days, I found out that it was a farce and he actually loved my best friend, who wasn’t even part of the Dons.

I’d always known Vicky was attracted to him, but never in a million years did I think she would betray me like that.

She knew I had no choice, and while I could’ve married a betrothed who I loved and trusted, she obviously just didn’t give a fuck about that.

Her betrayal was the worst.

I wiped the tears and snot from my face.Fuck this wedding; fuck everything.

I refused to marry Philip DaCosta.

TWO

ALFONSO PONTISELLO AKA THE WHITE RABBIT

“I’m not marrying that whore!”The words tore out of me like a blade.

I slammed the phone down so hard the glass console rattled beneath it, cutting off my father mid-command.Let him stew in silence for once.

The penthouse pulsed with low light and the cars humming thirty stories below, trying to get to their final destinations for Christmas.But all I could hear was blood pounding in my ears.

Rules were rules.

And she’d shattered them, fucked someone when she should’ve kept herself intact, and the worst part of it, he wasn’t even a Don.She’d disgraced herself, and by extension, the family name they wanted to tie to mine.