Page 49 of Perfect Match
“No, sorry. He didn’t say. But the marriage agreement was his idea to ensure that if the money wasn’t repaid, he had a way to get retribution.” She takes a sip of her wine. “My father was being deliberately vague about the details, and as you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy to learn that he used me, his only daughter, as some type of loan guarantee.”
I shake my head, letting the news settle. The marriage agreement was a ticking time bomb that, at any point after we’d turned eighteen, could have been set off.
“Why now?”
“That, I don’t know, and neither does my father. It was your father who set the wheels in motion.”
Ant sits up straighter. “It’s a shame we won’t get to see our father’s face when he realizes that we’ve played him at his own game.”
Up until this point, I’ve been the peacekeeper between my father and brother, but for once, I’m in agreement with Ant. This is personal now, and the days of our father playing the puppetmaster are over when it comes to the company and our private lives.
“Speaking of the wedding. Have we got a date?” I ask, my gaze switching between them. The sooner, the better, in my opinion, and as we finish the bottle of wine, we discuss dates that we could all travel to Vegas.
***
Three Months Later
“I do,” Antonio replies to the marriage celebrant, and with that, it is done. Antonio and Lucia are married, and I’m free.
If it were up to me, I’d be leaving the Vegas wedding chapel this minute and heading to the airport to fly back to New York and Tori. But Antonio has booked us dinner back at the hotel in an effort to make Lucia’s wedding day something more than the fake marriage that it is. Leo even made them a cake, Lucia’s favorite—white chocolate mud.
Tomorrow, Leo and I will return to New York, Nico back to London, and Ant and Lucia will fly to Florence. Ant is going to get his wish to see our father’s face when they tell him that they are married. But I suspect telling Lucia’s father is not going to be as easy. It’s something they want to do together, along with keeping up a pretense that this was all for love.
A heavy sigh of relief releases from my lungs, and all eyes turn to me. Ant’s are narrowed in annoyance at the interruption. While Leo’s are quizzical, and Nico’s full of amusement. But it’s Lucia’s green eyes awash with tears that stop me in my tracks. I know her having to marry my brother was better than marrying me, but in the end, I expect a Vegas quickie ceremony is nothing like what she imagined her wedding day would be.
“Excuse me,” I mumble into my hand. And drop my gaze to trace the swirling design on the red-and-blue carpet at ourfeet. The sadness floating in Lucia’s eyes reminds me of Tori. Her glassy gaze cut through me with the precision of a newly sharpened knife when she thought I’d been lying to her.
These last three months have been the hardest of my life, knowing how badly I hurt Tori, my own heart damaged in the process. I wanted to tell her the truth, that Ant was going to be the one marrying Lucia, not me, but I couldn’t. Everything that happened today relied on each of us holding true to keeping the secret between the four of us and Lucia.
Now my only hope with Tori is that she understands and can forgive me.
***
With one quick swipe of my thumb on the screen, the number I haven’t called in three months connects. And just when I think the call is going to go to voicemail, she answers in her distinct Australian accent. “Hello?”
The question in her tone probably means she’d deleted my number from her contacts, and I’m just a random, unknown caller. That hurts, but at least she answered.
“Hi, Tori, it’s me. Please don’t hang up.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” she demands angrily, but at least she’s not disconnected.
“Because what I have to say is important. Antonio and Lucia married in Vegas today.”
A soft sound that I think was a gasp is followed by silence. “Are you still there?” I ask, even though it doesn’t look like she has hung up.
“Yes, I’m still here. So you didn’t marry Lucia after all.”
I don’t know how I expected Tori to react, but it certainly wasn’t with this calm acceptance.
“No. I was never planning on marrying her, but at the time, I wasn’t able to explain to you what was happening. I’d promised my brothers, and we couldn’t let my father know.”
“What, you think I was going to call up your father and tell him?” Her heavy sigh adds another crack to my heart. “Gio, it’s too late … the damage was done on the night you took me to the French Boudoir when you were engaged to another woman.” Tori’s voice is flat and monotone.
“But I wasn’t engaged then. I thought I was free. Earlier that night, we’d found a loophole in the original contract that never mentioned me by name. And Ant and Lucia had agreed to marry. It made more sense, as they’re already best friends.” My explanation tumbles out, and I hate that it sounds like a string of excuses.
“Look, that’s all very interesting knowing that you and Lucia were in a fake engagement, but why are you calling to tell me this?”
“Because I really am free now, and I want to see you.”
