“Neither should you,” I whispered.
“He knows the truth. It’s not safe for you anymore. I need to get you and Drew to safety.”
“I can’t,” I said, then quickly smiled when one of my mother’s friends walked past, nodding his head toward me. “Issac just learned the truth. I won’t leave him.”
“To hell with him. He’s not important.”
“Please. He’s innocent. I need more time.”
The man growled. “One week. If you don’t get him in line by then, I will extract you myself.”
Nodding, I said nothing more when I stepped away from the shadows and back into the fray.
As the night wore on, I was bone tired by the time my father escorted Mother and me from the venue and toward our waiting car.
“Darling, go ahead without me,” Mother said, looking over her shoulder at a group of men. “There is something I need to take care of.”
I knew who she was looking at. The same men my father spent the better half of the night talking to. I didn’t know what they discussed, but knowing those men, I was fairly certain it wasn’t good.
I just hoped my dad didn’t buy into their bullshit.
“Sienna, it’s late.”
Kissing my dad’s cheek, she smiled. “I will be home shortly.”
Saying nothing more, I ducked into the backseat of the waiting car; my dad followed shortly after. Reaching overhead, my father pushed a button and watched the partition rise, separating us from the guard and driver. Leaning his head back, he sighed, closed his eyes, and yanked off his bowtie.
The ride home was blissfully quiet, and the second the car pulled to a stop in front of our house, I quickly exited the vehicle and ran into the house and up the stairs, needing to see Drew.
Carefully opening his door, I found the room pitch black. Quietly making my way deeper into the room, I reached Drew’s crib and was about to scream for my dad when Mother flipped on the lights and said, “You stupid girl. Did you think I wouldn’t find out the truth?”
Gripping the rails of the crib, I sneered, “What did you do?”
“I took care of your fuck up,” Mother clipped angrily, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. “This is how it’s going to go, Charlotte, so pay attention. From this day forward, you will do exactly as I say, or you will never see Drew again. Am I clear?”
Standing my ground, I glared. “I won’t marry him.”
“Oh yes you will, and you will do your fucking duty, even if I have to force you into compliance. I didn’t work my ass off for you to fuck it all up. You want Drew to grow up, then fucking get with the program.”
“You touch one hair on his head, and he will kill you.”
Mother narrowed her eyes and grinned. “No, he won’t, because he doesn’t even know. That was your second mistake. Your first was fucking that Italian scum. Now go get changed. You’re getting married tonight.”
“Dad will stop you.”
Mother laughed, throwing her head back like some maniacal evil fucking queen. “Your father won’t wake till morning, thanks to the scotch he just drank. Now get fucking dressed.”
“Where is my son?”
“Safe, unless you don’t get married,” she threatened, throwing a white silky piece of fabric at me. “Now get fucking dressed. We’re late.”
An hour later, I stepped out of the car and looked up at the large townhouse when a man opened the front door and smiled at me. Standing there, I just stared at the man, refusing to moveas I remembered where I’d seen him before. He had spent the majority of the night in my father’s ear.
“I was getting worried, Sienna.”
“Oh, you know how young brides are. So nervous,” Mother happily replied, grabbing onto my arm tightly while she ushered me toward the large man.
“She looks nothing like you.”