Page 28 of A Sinner's Truth

“You love her?”

“I don’t have to love her to want to be with her.” I can lie about almost anything. Deny all the blood that’s on my hands, claim I didn’t see shit when it happened right in front of me. Our father made sure we all knew how to lie when it mattered. I won’t say that I’m in love with someone who’s not Shelli, though. I can’t do that.

“If you say so.” He shrugs. “Her old man okay with this little union?”

“What do you know about him?” I ask.

“He’s wealthy, on the straight,” Gio says.

“I met him today. He’s not all that straight.” I threatened to take everything he owns before I killed him if he tried to interfere with my marriage to Aria. I didn’t mention the fucked arrangement he had, the one where he wanted to marry his daughter off as part of a business deal. I don’t need him to know I’m looking into that.

“What do you mean?” Gio asks.

“Just a feeling. I gotta go. People to see, things to do,” I tell him.

“You just got married and you’re going to leave your new wife here alone?”

“She’s an independent woman. She’ll be fine.” I wave a hand over my head in my brother’s direction. I need to see Shelli. I need to apologise to her.

I bring the opening to my lips and sip at the whiskey. I’m halfway through the bottle. “I’m sorry,” I mumble to the figure standing at the end of her grave in her favourite white dress. I’m leaning against the headstone.

“What are you sorry about?” Shelli asks me.

“I married someone today. She wasn’t you,” I admit before taking another chug from the bottle.

“You got married?” Her eyes flick to my left hand. “Why are you here and not with her?”

“Because I needed to see you. I hate that I did this to you.”

“You didn’t do this to me, Santo. I did,” Shelli says.

“What do you mean?” I ask before movement out of the corner of my eye has me turning my head and seeing my brother walk towards me.

“You’re spending your wedding night at your former fiancée’s grave. I don’t think that’s a healthy way to start a new marriage, Santo.” Gio walks up, snatches the bottle out of my hands, and takes a swig.

“I needed to apologise to her,” I tell him.

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”

I have though. The thoughts I’ve had about Aria are wrong. “I lied. Aria and I are faking it. This whole marriage thing.”

Shit, maybe I need to slow down on the drinking.

“Why?” Gio asks.

“I met her in a bar. She literally fell into my lap. Asked me to get her out of an arranged marriage. At first, I turned her down. But then I saw her with her father and the man she was practically sold off to, and I had to help her,” I explain.

“Oliver Densper. He’s a spoilt trust-fund brat. Why would a father want his only daughter marrying a guy like that? It’s not for the money.”

I shouldn’t be surprised that Gio knows about the arrangement. “No idea yet. But he lost his shit when he found out,” I say. “Whatever deal he had with the Denspers, we just blew a rocket through it.”

“You like her,” Gio states. “I haven’t seen you look at someone like that since Shelli.”

“I can’t like her. I can’t do that to Shelli,” I tell him.

Gio’s brows furrow. “Come on. Let’s go home,” he says. “You’ve left Aria alone in a strange place. Real or not, she’s your wife in name, and we don’t treat our women like that.”

He’s right. What was I fucking thinking leaving her alone? She’s going to be pissed. But then again, the thought of Aria all riled up gets me excited.

---