Page 11 of The Forbidden Husband

The Rissi women were… different.

They liked to talk.

A lot.

“Mhm,” I replied halfheartedly.

“Oh, wonderful. We all knew you were. You seem tense. Cold feet? It’s impossible not to get them in this situation. Most of us were there at one point, you know. The Rissi line is full of arranged marriages.”

I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything about the Rissis besides what my father had told me about them. I didn’t know what to believe. For a year, he had me convinced that they were mercilessly killing the women of our family.

That had been a lie.

“I didn’t realize that arranged marriages are so common for you all.”

She nodded excitedly. “I’m a distant cousin of Giovanni, you see. The day I turned twenty, Giovanni asked if I’d marry the son of a businessman on Wall Street—one of the bigwigs in the stock trading industry. I agreed. It helps us build lasting connections with businesses. It’s how Giovanni runs things.”

He whores out his women.

I didn’t speak the words, only taking in the snippets of information she offered and nodding. Maybe some of these things could help my father. Maybe they could help get me off the hook for this marriage.

The thought of seeing him so soon had me ready to turn and run out of this mockery of a church.

These weren’t the wedding colors I would have chosen.

This wasn’t the guest list I had wanted.

I wasn’t going to wear the style of dress I had always dreamed of.

And a part of me washappyabout those things. It was nothing that I had wanted, so I felt a sense of separation from it all. I was marrying Enzo, but he wasn’t getting the part of me that I had been saving for an authentic wedding.

Maybe doing this for my father would free me.

Once Enzo and his uncle were out of the picture, I could marry someone I actually chose for myself.

I turned away from the aisle and walked away from the doors of the church’s ceremony hall. I went to turn toward the bridal suit where everyone waited for me, but I froze in my spot as I caught a familiar, piercing gaze. The vibrant green of Enzo’s eyes peered straight into my soul, and I wondered if he could read all the hesitation on my face.

I wondered if he could sense what I had to do to him and his family.

He didn’t say anything as he stood, hands tucked in his pockets and a cigar pressed between his lips. An expensive one, no doubt. His suit clung to his body like a second skin as it hung unbuttoned across his chest. The crisp white undershirt didn’t wash out his skin the same way as that shade of white had on me. In fact, it seemed to make the bronzed color of his skin glow.

His hair had been trimmed and styled, leaving a longer cut on top and a shorter one on the sides. His facial hair had been trimmed meticulously beside his hairline, blending seamlessly across his face.

Under different circumstances, maybe I would have considered his attractiveness.

But not today.

Not when he planned to make me his and never let me go.

I forced myself to turn and walk back toward my bridal party.

I didn’t allow myself to look back, even though I felt the heaviness of his gaze at my back.

* * * *

“Most men don’t know how to be gentle the first time, but it does get better each time,” my cousin said, sipping a glass of champagne. “If my husband looked anything like Enzo…” She allowed her words to trail off.

The buzz of conversation in the hallway beyond was enough to tell me that the room was filling with friends and families on both sides. I hadn’t invited anyone personally, and I hoped that word hadn’t gotten out to anyone beyond the family.

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