Page 46 of The Forbidden Husband

I took a deep breath before opening my mouth and telling him.

I told him that I barged into the garage and discovered what he had been doing to his own employees’ wives and daughters while framing Enzo and his family for the cruelty. I told him about the woman and her crooked fingers. I couldn’t stop the description from leaving my lips. The pool of blood. The fingernail that sat halfway across the garage. The bruises that had started forming before she died.

And then I told him about my own bruises after trying to run that night.

I told him about the threat to my sisters’ lives if I ever told a soul what I had seen.

“I didn’t have a choice. I can’t fight him, and I won’t risk losing my sisters. Not when I knew what he was capable of.”

I didn’t feel the shaking of my voice or the tears that streamed down my cheeks as I relayed the worst night in my entire life. I only noticed the visceral reaction when he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest wordlessly. I held onto his shirt tightly, clinging to the reality of here and now. I stared at the fabric of his shirt, trying not to see that damn fingernail sitting on a garage floor.

I tried to push all the images away.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“I can’t—” I took a shaking breath and squinted my eyes together. The woman’s bent fingers slammed into the dark images of my closed eyes, and I forced them open. “I can’t see them be hurt, and I’m not there to protect them anymore. I needthem to be safe, and I’m afraid that keeping this secret won’t ensure that anymore.”

It was all true, just not the whole story.

Enzo didn’t say anything, but I felt the slight tremor in his entire body as he held me tightly. I knew he was angry. I knew he was enraged, but somehow, I still felt safe in his arms. Maybe it made me an idiot, but I couldn’t imagine him taking out that rage on me.

Yeah, I was definitely an idiot.

“I’m going to kill him,” Enzo growled into my ear, stroking a calloused palm down the back of my hair. “And he’s never going to be within five feet of you again.”

A shudder ran down my spine at the promise in his predatory tone. I believed him. I had always been good at reading people and situations, and Enzo was no enigma. I had hated him before ever meeting him because of the things he had done. But I knew from the moment I met him that my misconceptions didn’t add up. There was always something that wasn’t innately evil.

“I’m so fucking sorry.”

His grip tightened, and I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. A vein pulsed at his temple, and his teeth clenched together tightly. On instinct, I stood on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his.

He remained just as rigid, but he pulled me into him tighter, winding a hand in the hair at the back of my head. His mouth devoured mine, and I sank into the embrace, allowing it to sweep all the memories away.

It was the only thing that had ever worked. I lost myself to the sensations of him and shut out everything else. All the lying and deceptions. All of everything.

He gripped both of my hips and lifted me until I sat on the cool countertop, and he nestled himself between my legs. He deepened the kiss, pulling the back of my head into him. His body remained rigid with both fury and hard muscle, and I couldn’t think of a time I had felt safer.

“Enzo,” I moaned as the hard length of him ground between my legs. I involuntarily moved forward and wrapped both legs around his waist. He groaned, his hand tangling more firmly in my hair as he pulled me away.

“We can’t do this right now,” he said, though he didn’t sound convinced.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, running my fingers down the prickles of his cheek. “We can.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever let you leave my bed again if we do this right now, Aria.” I chuckled lightly, but his expression remained grave. “I’m not kidding. The thought of him hurting you… manipulating you—”

He shook his head and rested his forehead against mine as he took a deep breath.

“I’m here now,” I countered. “Safe and happy.”

Damn it, it wasn’t a lie. He made me too happy, and it cut through me like glass to know that I would destroy that happiness and trust.

“He’s never going to touch you again. And he will never touch your sisters again, either.”

He took a step back, and I could feel the effort it took to do so. He looked me up and down as if something deeper was eating at him, and then he turned and walked away. Within a moment, I heard the front door slam shut.

My shoulders fell forward.

This was a gamble. One that could have grave consequences. Telling Enzo the truth was something that I had never considered doing, but the way he looked at me—touched me—was something I couldn’t ignore. I knew he said he would never love me and that we would never be more than married in name. But something had shifted.

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