Page 104 of Bad Little Bride

My sister permanently moved into the Greyson Manor right after that for her training, leaving me with a father whose work never ended, so I poured myself into dance and got into a prestigious academy of my own.

And then their doctors gave me a physical that crushed my young soul.

After that I danced until my body decided the lean frame I was born with wasn’t the one I’d die with and rebelled against me.

My entire life has been small ups and enormous downs, yet I’d never felt so weak and worthless in my life as I did the day it was clear that I, the subpar daughter, couldn’t even keep the man who wanted everything having me meant he’d gain.

“Bullshit,” I breathe, maybe too low for him to hear and definitely in slow motion, but then I blink, and the fog clears. I shoot to my feet, slapping my palms on the tabletop and leaning to meet him in the middle.

“Bull. Shit,” I force past clenched teeth, my eyes slicing between his. “I don’t know what kind of lies you were forced to feed your last bride to make her fall in line, but I am not her. I’m not a weak fucking princess in need of pretty placations.”

“No.” His eyes hold mine. “You’re not. You’re a queen who deserves to know how far her king was willing to go to have her.”

“Enough!” I scream, my hands swiping across the table and sending everything crashing around us. Glass shatters, splintering across the space, and I jerk around the table, porcelain crunching beneath my bare feet.

Enzo’s eyes widen and he jumps up, lifting me by the waist and spinning me, then setting me on the tabletop. I slap him across the face, sending his head snapping to the side. When he comes back, his glare is wild and he hauls me closer. “If I look at your feet and find a single speck of blood, I swear to you, I’ll?—”

“I don’t give a shit what you do, Enzo, so do what you want! Do your worst, and make it hurt because it can’t possibly be worse than the pathetic fucking position you tricked me into, and I want nothing more than a way out!”

Enzo’s entire body goes stiff, only to go lax a split second later. His hands fall away from me, and he takes a step back. He stares right at me, a million emotions brewing in his eyes. “You’re right. I did trick you. I tricked you when you had no idea you were being tricked.”

“That makes no sense! You seem to be forgetting thatIfoundyou!”

“How.”

My brows snap together, eyes shifting between his. That doesn’t sound like a question.

Why doesn’t that sound like a question?

Wait.

Enzo is nodding slowly before the thought can fully form. “It’s coming together now, isn’t it? How Nicholas appearedin your class one day, how he reminded you what his uncle contributed to this world of ours, how he decided to move here, leaving his life behind to follow in his footsteps.”

Pieces of my conversation with Nicholas the other night come back to me.

“It would’ve been more believable if he would have made you sweat a bit.”

“Come on now, boss.”

My eyes snap up to Enzo’s, narrowing in confusion. “But I hired him to find a way to you.”

“Yes,” he says. “AndIhired him to give you that very idea in the first place.”

What does that mean?

Why would he do that?

What the actual fuck is he saying to me right now?

As if I spoke out loud, as if he has the ability to hear my thoughts, Enzo answers all those questions with a single response.

“I led you right to me,” he whispers. “And I would do it again, and again, but what you seem to be forgetting is that I don’t have to.”

Long, coarse fingers latch around my forearm, drawing me forward and ignoring my attempts to tug free. He flips my wrist, lifting until my left hand is in front of my face, the ring sitting there shining in the early morning light. “You’re mine now. Always. Indefinitely.”

“Or I could stab you in your sleep, leave, and never look back.”

Enzo chuckles, the lack of fight in my tone obvious to my own ears.

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