Page 10 of The Mafia's Bride

Calmly, my sister shrugs. “You don’t. You’re a daughter of the clan, a sister to the Captain. Even you don’t get to find a way out of your duty.”

My eyes find Maeve’s calm face, rage licking my insides. Not one ounce of concern, sorrow, or sympathy mars her pale frozen face. And that hurts more than anything else.She doesn’t care.

Panic claws at my throat as I halt the urge to break everything in the office.

“Whyme?”

Maeve shrugs again. “It wasn’t going to be me, Sloane.”

Because I’m expendable. Because, as Captain, I’m just an extension of her.

Just as Pops used us to show off his wealth. Just like he used to ignore me when I didn’t please him. Shove me away as if I didn’t matter, didn’t belong.

Now she’s just doing it differently. She’s taking me completely out of the only home I’ve ever known, the only family I have left.She’s tossing me away.

“I hate you,” I whisper, one single tear sliding down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away.

Maeve swallows, feet shifting. She opens her mouth to say something, thinks better of it, and clears her throat. “I know you do.”

She slides over a pen. A golden one, it shines under the dull florescent lights, sparkling with devious intent. I’m signing my soul away to the Devil and my body knows it, shaking uncontrollably as I hold it pinched between two fingers.

“This is what’s best for you, kid?—”

“No,” I cut off. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to act like you care when you’re giving me away to the literal enemy. You don’t get to act like this is for my benefit when it’s just for yours and yourpreciousclan.”

The pen hovers over the line I’m supposed to sign, next to a name that already has a mark. I don’t know this man but only in reputation.A man who people whisper about when no one can hear them, who people give a wide berth to him and his family. He’s ruthless and cruel, a man that now will bemyhusband.

Alessio De Luca.

And Maeve says this is for my benefit.Unlikely.

“At least when Pops wanted to hurt me, he’d use his fists,” I mutter, watery eyes blurring the contract on the desk. “You don’t even have the decency to do that.”

I see her flinch out of the corner of my eye. Good. I hope that hurt. Maybe she’ll feel a fraction of how I feel right now.

“You would never do this to Collins,” I say, nails digging into the desk. “She’s perfect and therefore the perfect sister. You’re using me because I’m the fuck-up and you’re cleaning house. Get rid of the problem child and everything is smooth sailing from now on, right?”

She leans over the desk, planting tiny fists into the hard surface. Scars dot over her knuckles.

“What I have planned for you is a Godsend compared to what Pops planned for you. You think it would have been better? That you could have gotten out of it?” She laughs and it’s not pleasant.

My shoulders shake with fear.

Maeve slams a fist into the desk. “No, you would have been cattle for him, a way to gain clout. I’m giving you the best option right now, Sloane. I’mhelpingyou.”

Helping me?“You’re so full of shit. Pops might have married me off, but it would have been to someone in the clan, someone who isn’t accused of murdering his past three girlfriends.” I knew the rumors, knew how terrible De Luca’s heir could be.

We glare at each other, neither of us relenting. We might not have bonded, but stubbornness is a genetic trait we share.

Slowly, Maeve curls back into herself, retaining a hold of her anger that I envy. “Believe what you want, but this is my decree. Either accept and sign the contract or decline. The choice is yours.”

No kind words. Nothing to soften the blow.

This is the decree from Ace, my father’s heir, the emotionless Captain he molded since birth.

“And if not?” My nose tingles, but I refuse to sniffle. To show her she broke me.

“Then leave. But just know, you can’t come back. You’d be turning your back on your family.” Her green eyes are almost black in the dim light with an unknown emotion. “Can you live with that?”