Page 48 of Borrowed Bride

Fawn was right, to a degree.

Many families involved with Marco ended up culled, one way or another. The men would end up dead through accidents that I knew to be code for murder, and the families of women and children would vanish. There would be no trace of them anywhere, and from those disappearances came the rumors.

Rumors now backed up by Fawn’s story and the obvious pain of her past.

Every piece of evidence I scrape together after hours of digging, points at Marco’s direct involvement, but my heart refuses to accept it. On one hand, he’s a dangerous man leading an even more dangerous Mafia. He’s callous and brutish, and I witnessed firsthand how eager he is to kill when he had Leo cornered. That version of him might be capable of Fawn’s accusations.

But each time my mind reaches that conclusion, my heart twists in a different direction and I think of the man who would do anything for his sister. The man who has given up his life to protect her and keep her safe, who even sacrificed his own happiness to prevent her from being married off.

It’s like I’m dealing with two different versions of the same man.

And he is the father of my child. The idea that he could be capable of such a betrayal is more than I can bear, and my researching nights always end the same; sickened as I war with myself over what is the truth.

Fawn truly believes her truth, and it’s not completely baseless given what I’ve found. But I struggle to accept the idea that he sold her into slavery.

And that I could have been next.

That kind of research fills the next few months and then, in a blink, I’ve been with Leo for a year. Freya’s first birthday is a grand affair in the estate, and Leo puts on such a show that I entertain the idea of staying here for good.

I’m safe. Freya would have a good life, a safe life.

That is what I should want.

And yet Marco never leaves my thoughts. The truth is mucky and I’m being pulled in two directions, each as unforgiving as the next.

Without confronting Marco, the truth remains muddied like garden puddles after a downpour, and each time I look into Freya’s eyes, all I see is him.

Did I really fall for a monster? Did I wander like a lamb right into the jaws of the lion?

I’m no closer to the truth when yet another day of research ends at the same conclusion; no one knows. There’s nothing concrete, but there is enough belief and suspicion that the Barrones are deep in the skin trade and no woman is safe.

“What are you looking at?” comes Leo’s voice as he wanders close, rocking Freya in his arms. She gurgles up at him and he smiles widely, then he tries to peer over my shoulder.

I slam the laptop closed and grasp his collar, distracting him with a light kiss on his cheek. “Wedding surprise,” I say, throwing him off the track.

“You can’t give me a hint?” When he moves in for a real kiss, I slip away and ease Freya from his arms, then shake my head.

“The wedding is next week, you can’t wait that long?”

Leo rolls his eyes and fixes me with a steady stare. “I’d wait forever for you.”

It’s painfully romantic and so misplaced that my heart breaks for him, but I force a smile regardless, trying to ignore the strange, cold look in his eyes.

It hits me at that moment that Leonardo isn’t just my protector anymore—he is my captor. And he’s beginning to sense that my heart isn’t in this engagement.

I have to stay strong and see this through to the end. Once I’m married to Leo and Freya’s safety is secured, I can plan my next steps.

Until then? I am the perfect fiancée.

19

MARCO

Today is the day Leonardo Simone marries the love of my life. It doesn’t feel real, like some kind of cruel joke is being played on me and I’m waiting to wake up.

It’s been almost two years since I last laid eyes on Gianna, and not once has she left my thoughts. She lingers like a ghost, haunting my every step. Even after her scent faded from her pillows and her voice became nothing but a distant jingle in my mind, I kept loving her.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. But that doesn’t include finding out the woman you love is staying with your mortal enemy. For a few long months, I thought he had kidnapped her, so I did everything in my power to rescue her.

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