Page 57 of The Forbidden Husband

“You chose to let her go?” he asked. I didn’t detect even a hint of judgment behind his tone.

“I did.”

“Can you explain why?” he pushed. I knew why he asked. I had never taken mercy on any of our enemies. If anything, he had been the one to talk me down from an uncontrollable ledge dozens of times.

“I am not as strong as my father was with my mother. I took your advice, and I let Aria in. I should have never trusted her the way I had, but I did, and I can’t kill the woman I fell in love with.”

Silence greeted me on the other end of the line.

“When I come to terms with what she did—”

“It’s not strength that had your father sending Rebecca to an execution,” he said. “He didn’t know what to do with his emotions, and he thought he could crush them by crushing her. Your response to this tells me that you are a much more emotionally mature man than my brother ever was.”

I exhaled. What he was saying was an attempt at talking me from a ledge, and I knew it.

“I need your blessing to move forward with readying our people. I’m done with Alonzo, and I am taking him out with or without your blessing.”

“You would go against me?”

I should have known to proceed with caution, but I threw it to the wind. Right now, it wasn’t important. “Yes.”

He grumbled something on the other end of the line. “We’ll get everything situated in the morning then.”

Chapter Twenty

Aria Bianchi

My eyes were crusted shut from what had to be a fitful sleep.

As I tried to pry my eyes open, I realized that I had not slept so hard in a long time. Maybe ever.

Then, Enzo’s betrayed eyes pierced through my mind.

With each second, I remembered more about what had happened before I had been knocked out. Enzo’s cold words. His hate-filled stare. My final thought before going unconscious: Was he going to kill me just like his father had killed his mother?

My body swayed with motions, and I finally managed to blink them open with a groan. I was sprawled across the back seat of the car as if someone had tossed me inside without any consideration for positioning. My head ached, but I blinked it away as I looked around the cramped sedan.

“Pull over,” I whispered with a hoarse voice. I cleared my throat and sat up, looking at the stoic-faced driver. “Pull over,” I repeated louder.

He didn’t hesitate before putting on his blinker and pulling off an exit. I tried taking in where we were, but I couldn’t findany landmarks. Nothing of substance. He put on his flashers as we pulled to a stop sign, and he unlocked his door.

I could have asked him to bring me to a rest stop, but I needed out.

My eyes locked on a gas station a quarter of a mile up the road, and I stumbled out of the car, falling to my knees the second my legs tried to bear my weight.

The driver peeled off quickly enough that the door slammed shut on its own, leaving me in the dust. It took me a moment to gather my balance and pull myself to my feet. Whatever I had been injected with had muted all of my senses enough that walking took great effort.

I felt my clothes, shocked that a phone had been placed in my pocket.

Myphone.

I opened it and scanned the map for my location. I zoomed out and found that I was somewhere in mid-Pennsylvania.

How long was I asleep?

Okay, Aria. Think.

I was given a unique opportunity. I was far enough away that if I kept going, I could start over. Change my name and pursue the future I had wanted. I could have everything I had ever wanted, but…

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