Page 12 of The Forbidden Husband

Though I knew it had.

Enzo Rissi may have been a notorious mob underboss, but the world saw him as something else entirely. They saw him as a businessman, a real estate investor, and an investor in restaurants up and down the streets of the Bronx.

The world viewed him as one of the top twenty wealthiest men in the country, sharing the title with the other mob bosses of different backgrounds in the city and a few rich men in tech.

I knew the media would be frenzied over this wedding.

They would write stories of the “casino boss’s daughter” marrying into another empire, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

“My first time, I bledeverywhere.”

“Ugh, it’s horrible. Consummation is so twentieth-century, but it has to be done, especially with someone of Enzo’s caliber. You know what they say: Every boss needs an heir and a spare.”

Why couldn’t these busybody women stop talking about this like it wasn’t my life about to go down the drain? Did they really think I wanted to hear about their consummation stories?

I knew how it would happen.

Enzo and I would retire to his suite, and he wouldn’t have mercy on me. Men like him never did. I had grown up surrounded by men almost as horrible as him, and my father had ensured that I was to wed theworst.

“I couldn’t walk for days after,” another woman chimed in.

“I couldn’t for aweek!”

Livia stood quickly. “Okay, you know what?” she shouted. “Everyone, get the fuck out!”

A few women gasped at her harsh tone, but I didn’t bother looking around and seeing who. Everything was a blur of motion around me. Cousins, aunts, grandparents, and friends. None of them were close to me. Only Livia and Evelina mattered here. Everyone else was extra.

Not everyone moved right away.

Evelina stood, holding up a glass of red wine. “Anyone who is not approaching the door in the next three seconds will get this poured on them.”

The remaining people stood and moved toward the door, mumbling about how crazed my sisters and I were. But it was worth it when the last woman left the room, and only my sisters and I remained.

Evelina sighed and pulled the glass to her lips, taking a sip. She offered it to Livia, and my youngest sister downed the whole thing.

“Liv,” I laughed. “If Dad sees you drinking…”

“He’s too focused on all the Rissis. We’ll be fine.”

I nodded reluctantly as I looked at my dress still hanging on the door across the room. I should have been in it by now. I knew I should have, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull it over my body yet.

I needed a few more minutes of being me, and once I put it on, everything would change.

“I’m sorry that everyone in the room lacked more social awareness than Evie,” Livia stated with an exaggerated eye roll.

“Okay,” Evelina spoke up. “Even I wasn’t stupid enough to bring up sex when Aria looks this terrified. I’m sure if you tell him that you don’t want to, he’ll back down.”

I would let her think that. I forced myself to nod. “Yeah, he seemed really great when I met him.”

Lie. Lie. Lie.

Could I tell them anything but lies? I felt like my entire relationship with my sisters had become consumed with all the things I hid from them.

“Let me take your place,” Livia said.

I opened my mouth to turn her down. “You’re terrified, Aria. You’ve never been scared of anything a day in your life. You faced Dad our entire lives without so much as backing down. You went to undergraduate and graduate school even though you weren’t allowed and you graduated with perfect grades. Hell, you plan on taking the bar exam even without Dad’s permission, don’t you?”

I didn’t. Not anymore. It wasn’t worth the consequences.

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