Page 4 of Obsession

“You stupid fucking whore!” he shouts, his hand wrapping around her throat. She claws at him as their mother screams, and Damien leaps from his chair, trying uselessly to pull his nephew off his niece.

“I’ll marry her.” I don’t know why I say it. The declaration leaves my mouth without my brain approving of the sentence.

The house is silent again. All four heads turning to look at me.

“What?” Marcus asks, his voice low and gruff.

“I’ll marry her,” I repeat.

“And why would I agree to that?” Marcus releases the girl, and she slumps back into the chair, her hands coming to her red throat as her eyes shoot daggers at me. She’s not the least bit grateful that I saved her from being strangled. Who knows when her brother would have stopped.Ifhe would have stopped.

“Once the word is out that Rafe Bianchi called off the wedding because she’s an unfit bride and lacking her virginity — no one will want her. He said it himself; she needs training. I, on the other hand, don’t mind an untrained bride. Sounds like a challenge to me. You’ll get the girl off your hands and save your reputation. Not to mention, my legal services.”

Marcus runs his fingers over his chin, thinking through my offer.

“And what do you get out of this?” he asks.

Better access to this family while I plot your downfall.I don’t say that, though. Instead, I say, “I’ll be part of the family.”

Marcus must like my answer, because he smiles, turning to his sister. “Meet your new husband, Madi.”

When the little blue-haired vixen looks up at me, there’s nothing but disdain simmering behind those brown orbs.

And I can’t help but think:she’s mine.

TWO

Madi

Three months later

There are no bachelorette parties when you’re being forced to marry a man you hate. No one wants to celebrate a marriage that is nothing more than a business arrangement with penis confetti and matching t-shirts.

So I had to make my own fun.

Unfortunately for me, I only have two friends, and one is currently hiding out in New York to escape her own arranged marriage.Lucky bitch.That leaves me with Sadie, my newly twenty-one and only friend. She’s also the only dumbass willing to disobey my family with me. That may be because she doesn’t watch the news, leaving her naïve about what my familyactuallydoes. I’m not gonna be the one to tell her, though.

Marcus, my brother, is good at scaring away more than just the boys who want to date me. He also effectively scares offanyonefrom wanting to be my friend. I have plenty of acquaintances, but actual friends are scarce. The only one whounderstood what it means to be born a Costello was my cousin, Lana, and now she’s gone.

Lana was arranged to marry Davis LaFontaine, a congressman in New Orleans. And then she met the love of her life, who unfortunately for her, was a low-level soldier who worked for my brother. They snuck around for months before her wedding, and then at the last minute, my cousins, John and Sam, helped her escape. Now she’s in New York City under the protection of Leo De Santis and the Colombo family.

If John and Sam were able to get her out of a marriage to a congressman, surely my marriage to alawyercan’t be that hard. Right?

But currently, Sam, the cousin who is supposed to take over the Costellofamigliaafter my nonno’s death, is holed up in prison for attempting to murder his father. Something we all know he didn’t do, and John is set on proving.

The only problem is, my family is split down the center. My mother and brother make up the side that’s vying for power against Sam, the rightful heir. Getting his father out of the picture was likely the doing of my family — not that I’m supposed to know anything about the “business” side of my family.

Bearing the Costello name definitely comes with its burden.

In high school, girls and boys alike were driven away by nothing more than the look of my brother. And then once the stories started being passed around and everyone learned my father was “Crazy Al Ricci” and my grandfather was Carmine “The Boss” Costello, absolutely no one wanted to take the chance of being my friend.

The people around me tend to die in gruesome ways. And after I watched my brother beat the first boy who kissed me, I stopped seeking them out. Flirting with me was bound to get you a warning if you were lucky, a black eye if you weren’t. Kissingme clearly got you hit. But fucking me? That would have to come with a lot more pain. And I’ve never been willing to inflict that sentence on anyone.

So now I’m a virgin being married off like cattle to a not-so-clean lawyer willing to do all of my brother’s dirty work.

Sadie, however, is an excellent distraction from the shitshow that is my life.

“This place is fucking wild!” she shouts over the loud music, a pink concoction of too much alcohol sloshing around in one hand while her other is up in the air. The color of her mixed drink matches the skin-tight dress she’s wearing. There’s a wide smile stretching across her glossy lips and her blonde curls bounce as she moves her body in time with the music.

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