Page 18 of The Forbidden Husband

And when I finally managed to lift my gaze, I found him standing in our path.

Dad.

I couldn’t contain the shaking this time. It felt like an out-of-body experience, and I knew it was real this time. While I knew my dreams were renditions of the past, this was the opposite. There was no hope of pulling myself out of this reality.

The smile on Dad’s face was just as sinister as the look he had given me the night he had caught me before I could get away.

His look told me he had already won.

“Take care of her, Enzo,” Dad said, shaking Enzo’s hand.

He never once bothered shifting his gaze from me, and it pierced straight through my soul. He took a step forward with an open arm, and I instinctively stepped away. One step was all it took for his gaze to turn hard and brutal.

Oh God. He would take it out on Livia or Evelina if I didn't hug him. I knew he would.

I had to hold up appearances.

He stepped forward once more, and I opened my shaking arms for him.

But he didn’t make it that far.

Enzo stepped between us. “Does mywifelook like she wants to hug you, Alonzo?”

His voice had been cold since our discussion this evening. It had been hard and uncaring. But this was more than that. This was the voice of the mafia underboss that everyone feared. There was a promise of death and pain beneath that tone.

He had never spoken to me like that, even after our discussion.

Dad stared at me as he stated the obvious, “She is mydaughter.”

“And you gave her to me,” Enzo said, reaching behind him and grazing his fingers down my arm. It sent chills through my body, calming a bit of the shaking.

This wasn’t like the dream. Not anymore. Enzo was here this time, and even though I knew I shouldn’t count on this monster to protect me, he was standing between me and my father. He was asserting himself as my husband to keep him away from me.

I could get used to this.

But I would be stupid not to realize what was really at stake here. My father would never take it out on me. Not here.

“It’s okay, Enzo,” I whispered, stepping around him and offering my father the sincerest hug I could. Enzo allowed it, but he didn’t back up even a step.

Enzo stayed within easy reach as my father whispered in my ear, soft enough that nobody but me could hear the single word he spoke.

“Evelina.”

I understood the threat for what it was. Evelina would be the one to suffer if I messed up.

I wouldn’t.

Icouldn’t.

I backed away and forced a smile as my father stepped out of my path, and Enzo guided me the rest of the way to a sleek white limousine. I hardly took in all the features on the inside and outside as we slid into the vehicle and took seats on opposite sides.

Enzo said nothing the entire drive.

I watched him as we approached a luxury hotel and pulled to a stop outside the doors. A man grabbed a pink bag from the trunk and placed it on a luggage trolly alongside a sleek black suitcase with Enzo’s name engraved on the front.

I hadn’t packed the bag for myself, and I didn’t want to think about what had been packed.

Enzo stepped out of the car and offered me a hand, and I took it without a thought.

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