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“All fairytales have a dark side.”
My life has always been safe and comfortable, full of joy and love from both of my parents.
“This must be very hard for you,” he says in a low voice. “You must have loved your father very much.”
Your father gave this to me the night that he died, for you. Read it when you’re ready.”
I’ve been promised since I was twenty-two to a woman I’ve never seen and will almost certainly never marry, bound by a vow that our fathers made without ever bothering to ask either of us.
I killed them because they took what was mine.
I want Sofia Ferretti more than once. More than for a night. When I saw her face staring up at me from the floor of that closet, something changed.
“I’m Luca Romano.”
I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m telling you that you will marry me. You don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“You’re mine.”
Sofia Ferretti belongs to me. And I want her.
“I am one of the richest men in New York City, Sofia, and second in command to the man who presides over all of it.
“Our marriage will not be loving, Sofia. I will not be a faithful husband, or a devoted one. But I can promise you this—I will never lay a hand on you in anger.
understand that no children will come of this union, or be expected. If you should fall pregnant, the pregnancy will be terminated.”
“My family is dead, Luca. My father is dead. My mother is dead. I know I’ve said it before, but Ana is my only friend! I know you don’t give a shit about what I want, or how I feel, but can’t you for one second pull your head out of your own ass and realize that I might want one person that I love there to help me choose my fucking wedding dress? To be there when I get married? One person to be there for me?”
“I think you should do your best to survive, Sofia, as your father wanted you to. You should do what you must.”
I, Luca Romano, legendary Manhattan playboy, went home alone.
It’s done. The vows are said, the marriage is witnessed. I’m Luca’s wife.
“You’ll die. And you’ll die slow. I don’t tolerate liars—especially not from those who stand to inherit everything I’ve
“She could be the downfall of the whole family,”
“My body wanted you! You’re fucking gorgeous, and I’ve never been with a man, and you teased the fuck out of me last night!” I’m shouting again, my voice rising as I shrink away from his touch. “That doesn’t mean I wanted to give you the only thing I had left to keep!”
Caterina is a good daughter, a good mafia woman, and if I’m lucky she’ll help instill in Sofia some of the values of a good mafia wife—teach her that resisting the way things are is hopeless.
“Don’t ever try to turn Luca against me again,” he warns, his voice low and so dark it sends a shiver down my spine. “Your marriage protects you for now, but at the end of the day, it’s a ring around your finger and a piece of paper. Easily dissolved, easily shredded. And you can quite easily disappear.”
