Page 24 of Relentless Oath

I couldn’t eat or even think about certain foods without feeling the need to find the nearest waste basket. I was naturally a homebody, but being pregnant made it one hundred times worse.

Even the smell of the neighborhood’s café made my stomach turn, so I stopped venturing out too far from home.

The day Dario had shown up had been the first time in weeks that I felt I could eat something without getting sick. His presence had been a shock, and I had wordlessly opened the door, not really thinking.

I had thought about him a lot after our encounter, especially when I realized I was pregnant with his child. I told myself that he didn’t need to know, that the chances of me running into himagain were pretty slim, but then it had happened—he’d appeared at my doorstep.

Before that moment, I never thought of telling him. I had already known I would keep the baby. To be honest, the baby had been my only hope in a rather dark time.

Things had gotten really bad for me after I failed to kill Nico. I had felt as if my life was over. No Jason. No vengeance. Just nothingness.

And then I found out I was growing a life inside of me. I might not have been able to take Nico’s life, but in return, I had gotten something truly extraordinary to hold onto. I couldn’t deny that the child growing inside me was loved.

For that reason, I hadn’t fought Dario when he came to my house that day with his ridiculous demands. I couldn’t have my baby in prison. I couldn’t have my child taken from me and raised by the family that had stolen everything from me. I couldn’t bear it.

So, I accepted his crazy offer.

When I didn’t hear from him for a few days after he showed up at my apartment, I thought that maybe he’d come to his senses and wouldn’t rope me into a living nightmare, but then a demure woman with a pinched expression had shown up at my door and said that she was the wedding planner. She had said she needed to ask me some questions.

In shock that he planned to go through with the wedding after all, I’d let her in my home. She took one look at my place, turned back to me and said, “Perhaps we can meet elsewhere?”

I didn’t blame her. My place wasn’t a dump, but it was utilitarian…and a little untidy and dusty. Just surviving had been my main goal after Jason died, and even more so after finding out I was pregnant. I had neglected cleaning or doing much of anything for a while.

In retrospect, I guess my place was kind of a dump.

My surroundings now were as far from a dump as I could get. I was literally standing in a palace.

Who would have known that it was possible to rent a palace on your own private island in the middle of nowhere?

That’s where my wedding…I still couldn’t believe it…was taking place. It was a private island up north that happened to be home to a mansion built to replicate some important palace in Italy. The wedding planner had excitedly told me about it.

She had gone on and on about how romantic it was. It was the only time her tone had even been remotely animated.

It was a dream wedding location, a fairytale come true. At least to all those on the outside looking in. But I also knew that there was only one way on and one way off the island.

I thought of the lyrics toHotel California,and my face twisted into a wry smile. Suddenly, they all made sense to me.

There was no way to escape. I wasn’t a champion swimmer who could swim miles in a wedding gown in the hopes of reaching the shore before Dario or one of his goons caught me.

So, while others probably thought the wedding location was enchanting, romantic, and unique, I knew he had chosen this location to make sure I couldn’t get away.

So, I would be getting married that day. It was happening whether I liked it or not. I had put on the dress. I would smile and pretend that today was the happiest day of my life, because I knew it was my only option. I would accept living in this gilded cage until I thought of a way out, not just for myself, but also for my baby.

I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t even know what the first step was. I just needed to get through the day. I needed to get through my wedding.

“Mya, you look breathtaking,” the wedding planner said, staring at me with large eyes in disbelief. She was used to seeingme in sweats, stained T-shirts, and generally looking like I didn’t give a damn.

First of all, she was right—I didn’t give a damn what I looked like, and I had made that very clear to Dario. Secondly, I wore baggy clothes just in case anyone noticed that my butt was a little bigger than normal and that I had started to grow a little belly.

I still just looked bloated. I didn’t know how much longer I had before I started to show for real.

I just figured that I would need to get out before my pregnancy became obvious. Thankfully, the nausea was gone for the most part. Dario was a controlling beast already. I could only imagine that he would lock me away forever if he knew about the baby.

For that reason alone, I was determined to keep playing his games.

I looked in the mirror at myself. The wedding planner had insisted that I wear extensions, so my auburn hair was even longer, hanging down my back. I felt like a ridiculous version of Rapunzel, but in my story, I was on the verge of being married to a complete asshole.

Speaking of which, besides a brief phone call where he stated for the record that he was watching my every move, “So, don’t think about doing anything stupid,” I hadn’t heard from my husband-to-be.

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