Page 5 of Darkest Oblivion
Later, she slid a handwritten note beneath the crack, her perfume clinging faintly to the paper:We love you. Please eat. Please talk to us.
But I only curled tighter into the pillow, whispering, “I need space,” the words dissolving against the cotton.
Outside, I heard Marco pacing, his measured steps betraying the storm inside him. His low murmurs to my mother weren’t anger—they were fear. Fear I’d never heard from him before. They were worried, desperate to reach me, but the betrayal I’d suffered was a wound too raw to share.
Antonio’s words replayed in my mind, each one a dagger:
Your belly looks swollen...your arms soft and jiggling. You look like a bloated mess.
For three years, I’d loved him, blind to his deceit.
I remembered our first date, under a canopy of stars at the rooftop restaurant he’d chosen, his hand warm in mine as he promised, “You’re my forever, Penelope.”
I’d believed him, my heart soaring when he’d surprised me with a locket on our first anniversary, engraved withAlways Yours.
Lies, all of it.
His mocking laughter at the altar, his confession of sleeping with my cousin Sofia, tore through those memories, leaving my heart battered and bleeding.
Yet, a small, grudging part of me was thankful for Dmitri Volkov.
His interruption had stopped me from binding myself to a monster, but at what cost? His claim—Penelope is mine—echoed like a threat, and I couldn’t shake the fear of what he wanted from me.
Now, still standing beside my father, I stared out the study’s towering window, “So, Papa, will I get an explanation now?” I asked, my voice sharp.
“What debt do we owe Dmitri Volkov, Papa? And why in God’s name must I be the one to pay it by marrying into his family? Don’t forget—we already signed a contract with the Bellantis. I’m bound to Antonio, and his family will not let me go so easily. So tell me everything. No more half-truths. No more silence. Explain it to me—now.”
Marco leaned against the window. His reflection in the glass looked older, his hands clasped behind his back as if that could hide the faint tremor running through them.
“Sit, sweetheart,” he said quietly, his voice heavy with a weight I’d rarely heard.
“No, Papa.” I stayed where I was, bracing myself against the edge of his desk. “I deserve answers.”
His sigh was long.
When he turned to face me, his eyes were shadowed—eyes that had stared down rivals, killers, even federal agents without a flicker of fear. Now, for the first time, they carried something else. Dread.
“I promised you’d choose your own husband,” Marco said, his voice rough. “I swore you’d never be another mafia princess sold for power. But the situation is no longer in our hands. You have to marry into the Volkov family. There is no other way.”
“Why?” My voice cracked, sharper than I intended. “What debt could possibly bind us to them?”
His jaw tightened. “The Volkovs... they are not like the us. They do not bargain. They do not forgive. The four brothers are dangerous—each in their own way. And Dmitri...” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Dmitri is the worst of them all.”
The fear in his eyes was palpable.
His broad shoulders, once a wall of certainty, hunched as if he were bracing for a blow. Fingers twitched restlessly against the glass pane, betraying nerves he would normally mask with a drink or a smirk.
Marco Romano—the unyielding head of the Romano family, the man even his enemies whispered about in hushed tones—was afraid. And that chilled me more than Antonio’s betrayal ever could.
“But you haven’t answered my question, Papa,” I pressed, my voice rising despite the lump in my throat.
He dragged in a long breath, his gaze fixed on the glittering city below as though its lights might give him courage. “It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Why? Because you think I’m too naive?” My fists clenched at my sides.
“Sweetheart,” he said, his voice low, weighted with affection and anguish. “You’re far from naive.”
He turned then, and I saw it—the strain carved into the lines of his face, the effort it took to keep his mask intact. “It’s the only way to keep you safe.”
