Page 53 of Borrowed Bride

“How could you?” I ask as tears threaten behind my eyes. “How could you do that to someone you love? Toanyone? People aren’t a commodity, Marco. You can’t just sell them off because the money is good!”

Marco doesn’t speak. His dark brows knit together as he appears to be processing everything I’ve said, and it’s almostinfuriating. My heart races, and sickness takes hold. Where is his immediate denial? Why is he just sitting there?

After a long period of silence, Marco stands. “Follow me.”

“What?” I step back as he passes me, then I follow him down a hallway to a small office at the end. The air is thick with dust and I cough slightly as Marco approaches a small wall safe. He enters the combination, then opens it and pulls out a thick tan file. Then he hands it to me.

“What is this?” I ask, moving to sit in a leather chair near the desk.

“Open it,” he says in a strained voice.

I do as he asks. What’s inside makes my stomach cramp with nausea. There are pictures. Hundreds and hundreds of pictures of women and children. Their photos spill across the page, taped next to paragraphs of information and large sums of money scribbled in red.

“What is this?” I whisper as my hands tremble while flipping the page. “A trophy book?” So many of the pictures are familiar from my own investigations and Fawn’s story roars in my mind.

She was telling the truth.

As I study the pictures, Marco pours us a drink from a bottle of scotch and sets my drink in front of me.

“Yes, I am responsible for those people disappearing,” Marco says, and he leans against the desk in front of me. “It’s because I saved them. After what happened to my mother and sister, the sheer audacity that some of these families think they are owed a daughter just because they’re in charge sickens me. I meant it when I said I keep people safe. I learn of wives and daughters being abused, sold off, and hurt, so I save them. Rescue them. Give them new identities and new lives, and then kill their abusers.”

Marco’s next breath trembles audibly, and he drains his glass in one gulp. “The money at the bottom? That’s how much I setthem up with in their new lives. It’s a secret of course, so if people think I’m in human trafficking, then it’s the perfect cover. But all of them are alive and safe in new lives. I could call any one of those people and they would answer. In fact, if you need to…”

Marco digs his mobile out of his pocket and hands it to me.

“Call them all if you must.”

I am stunned.

My head spins and the pictures blur together as I stare down at them. Could it be that Fawn was wrong? That she believed the lie that Marco let exist in the world just so he could keep all of these people safe?

My heart pounds against my ribs like a rock and I swallow down the acidic taste of churning gut.

“And Fawn?” Marco remarks, puffing out his cheeks. “Fawn being alive makes sense, and if she’s mad at me then it explains why several of my lieutenants have been assassinated over the past year, but it wasn’t me that hurt her. I swear to you, Gianna. I had no idea she was trying to kill me and I certainly never sold her. All these years, I thought she was dead. Genuinely. Someone else is the bad guy here. I have no clue who but it’s not me.”

I slowly close the folder, knowing how dangerous it would be for this file to fall into the wrong hands. If anyone learned the truth, all these people living new, safe lives would instantly be at risk.

I look up at Marco through tear-filled eyes, and it’s like I’m seeing him for the first time. That tender man I would watch with Emilia wasn’t some trick. That was Marco in his true form. The aggressive, war-torn bully is the disguise.

How could I have doubted him?

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper through my tears. “Everything was fitting, you know? And after Tara, I was so scared that I?—”

An explosion of gunfire suddenly erupts in the distance and I lurch upward as Marco pushes off from the desk.

He looks past me, then he cups my face and looks deep into my eyes.

“You being safe and alive is all I care about, do you understand? Nothing is more important to me than that. Here.” He digs around in his pocket once more, then pulls out his wallet. A second later, he presses the American Express Centurion Card into my palm.

“What? What is this, what are you doing?”

“Use this,” he says. “It’s your turn to take care of yourself, Gianna, because Leonardo won’t stop. To him, I’ve ripped apart his family and now destroyed his wedding. Only one of us will walk away alive.”

“No!” I clutch at his chest. “I don’t want to lose you again! We’ve just learned the truth and I want to stay?—”

“No.” Marco kisses me deeply, pressing himself against me as if he’s trying to imprint his presence. “The war won’t stop until it consumes us, but not you, okay? You go. You hide, and you live, and then when it is safe, I will know how to find you.” He glances at the card. “I won’t risk your life. I will end Leonardo. I will find Fawn. I will make things right with her, and then you will be safe.”

I want to stay, but Freya needs me. I open my mouth to tell him the truth, to tell him that he needs to survive so he can come and be a father to his daughter, but all I do is squeal as the distant sound of a door splintering reaches my ears.

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