Page 4 of Sweetest Sin
After hanging up with Matteo, I call Fernando, my driver, to take me to the airport. Traffic is a bitch, but I get a bunch of work done on the way.
We’re about five minutes out when my phone rings. I consider declining my sister’s call, knowing what she wants to talk about and not wanting to listen to her freak out, but she won’t stop until I answer.
“Brielle, how?—”
“Tell me it’s not true!” she shrieks, forcing me to turn my volume down. “Tell me you’re not going to force me to marry that slimy piece of shit!”
“Brielle.” I sigh.
“Don’tBrielleme!” she screams through the phone. “You said you would get me out of this, Dominick. You promised!”
“Enough!” I bark. “I said I would try, and I’m working on it. Shit like this takes time.”
Despite me now being in charge of Antonov Enterprises, our father still legally owns the company and refuses to relinquish his rights until the deals are finalized—Brielle marrying Anthony and me marrying Daniella.
And even if I did have full rein of the company, because my father’s ties with Giuseppe and Joseph are so thick, it’s going to take a helluva lot to cut them.
Thankfully, Giuseppe will be stepping down soon from Russo Property Group, handing the reins over to his son, Lorenzo—who is also Matteo’s best friend—but he’s as fucking stubborn as our father, and he won’t do it until the marriages are finalized.
On the other hand, Joseph has no plans to hand Rothschild International over to Anthony anytime soon—not that I blame him since his son is a few bricks shy of a load. But that means I’m going to have to deal with him for the foreseeable future, and since he’s as hell-bent on this arrangement as Giuseppe and mydad, it won’t be easy to convince him that we could be just as strong without intertwining our families and blood.
My dad, Giuseppe, and Joseph are old school—my parents were part of an arranged marriage that was beneficial to both sides in terms of money and power, Giuseppe only married his wife, Tanya, because she came from an influential family, and Joseph married Maria, despite not being in love with her, because she was pregnant with Anthony.
“Dominick,” my sister pleads, “I can’t marry him. I’m in lo?—”
She cuts herself off, but I can piece together the rest of what she didn’t say. My sister is in love. She met someone, probably in college.
“Brielle,” I warn, my patience running thin, “when Dad agreed to let you go away to school?—”
“I know,” she snaps. “I know, Dominick. I’m allowed to get my degree as long as I understand that I’m never allowed to actually use it because I’ll be too busy pushing out Anthony’s babies.”
Dad wouldn’t let her leave the state, but he compromised and let her go to a university that required her to live closer to the school, which meant she could move out of the house, provided that she come home on Sunday nights for family dinner—surprisingly, he did that for our mother, who had said she was afraid Brielle would leave and never come home—and that she understood once she graduated, she would be required to move back home and marry Anthony.
“It’s just so unfair,” she cries, and despite how hard this life has made me, my heart softens for her the way it always does.
I’m eight years older than Brielle, but because our father is incapable of love and our mother spends most of her time trying to avoid our father’s abuse, Matteo and I have had a hand in raising and protecting her.
Since the day I found out my baby sister would have to marry Anthony, Matteo and I have been planning how to prevent it from happening, but the men we’re dealing with didn’t get to where they are by being rash, and their contracts are ironclad. If I go about this the wrong way, we can potentially lose everything, and I’ve worked too damn hard and long, putting up with my father’s shit, for that to happen.
“I’m going to figure it out,” I tell her as Fernando pulls up to my terminal. “Just focus on school. Nothing is happening right now.”
“Okay,” she sighs. “Where are you?”
“I’m heading to Coral Bay for a meeting. I’ll see you on Sunday for dinner.”
We hang up, and with only my briefcase in hand since this is a day trip, I head into the airport, wondering if Matteo and I could get away with killing three of the most powerful men in Harbor Point.
Check-in is quick and painless,as is security. I spend the short time I have before the flight working in the airline’s designated lounge until business class is called.
Between dealing with my family, checking the books for discrepancies now that it’s been brought to my attention, and preparing for the business meeting I’m about to have in a few hours—and add to that, the screaming toddler, whose mom is trying and failing to soothe her child before we’ve even had a seat on the plane—my head is all over the place.
So, when I step onto the plane, I’m not paying attention when a woman appears out of nowhere. With both of us on a mission to get to where we’re going, our bodies collide. She shrieks, herhands flailing about as she attempts to right herself in the small space, and I reach out, trying to save her from falling.
But in doing so, instead of keeping her upright, I hit the plush cushion—thanks to the airline sparing no expense on the business-class accommodations—and she lands directly on my lap.
Before I can help her up, she scrambles off me. Her mortified eyes meet mine—emerald, like the gem, shiny and bright and filled with enchantment—and I’m instantly mesmerized by her green orbs.
Her skin looks like porcelain, similar to the dolls Brielle used to collect when she was little. She swore they were real, but Matteo used to tell her that nobody’s skin was that flawless. But this woman’s is, and it makes me want to reach out and touch her to find out if it’s as smooth as it looks.
