Page 123 of 7+Us Makes Nine

Maybe I really was just seeing things, I thought. But I still felt unsettled. I tried to brush the feeling aside though and vowed that I would call her first thing in the morning, just as I had planned to begin with.

CHAPTER 17

Arianna

It had taken some effort, but I managed to shake Angela off so that I could go home alone and unbothered. After seeing Giovanni at the club with another woman, I just needed some time to myself. I couldn’t handle dealing with anyone at the moment.

Granted, I knew Angela could have been a good shoulder to lean on, if necessary. I was so naïve when it came to relationships due to my lack of experience, but Angela, on the other hand, had plenty of experience. In fact, I’d spent a considerable portion of my life living vicariously through her as she told me about her various escapades with men over the years.

She had told me and warned me about the ‘pretty boys’—the handsome ones who could practically seduce you with one wink of the eye. They were good-looking smooth-talkers who were charming on the surface, but corrupt underneath. They were players, and they lived their lives to treating women as conquests. Each woman they managed to seduce was placed on a wall in their memories, like trophies for missions accomplished.

“They’re all the same,” Angela had told me. “I don’t know why I keep falling for them, but I swear I won’t do it again.”

After repeatedly hearing all the warning signs from her for years, I felt beyond stupid for having fallen for one myself. I should have known what kind of guy Giovanni Romano was from a mile away. In a sense, I had though, which was precisely why my guard had been up after our first night together. When I’d woken up in his apartment, I’d seen all the red flags about him. Yet somehow, I was dumb enough to let him get to me again anyway.

I officially knew better now though, and I refused to let him make a fool of me again.

I came to realize that I would be the biggest fool of all if I decided to go through with our wedding. I simply could not, under any circumstances, marry Giovanni Romano. It didn’t matter what kind of arrangement my family had made with his, or vice-versa. At the end of the day, this was my life, and I was the only one who had to live it. I didn’t deserve to spend the rest of my life unhappily with a man who would grow tired of me and just move on to his next conquest behind my back. That simply wasn’t a way to live, and I wasn’t going to condemn myself to that kind of life no matter what.

Thankfully, when I’d made it back home, my parents were already sleeping. I crept up to my bedroom, closed the door, and lied in bed, staring at the ceiling late into the night until I fell into an uneasy sleep.

I stared at myself in the mirror, admiring the long beautiful wedding gown I wore. Behind my reflection, my father appeared. He smiled.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I nodded, feeling nervous, yet excited.

He held his arm out to me. “All right then. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Looping my arm through his, we turned around. A magnificent church door appeared behind us, adorned with flowers lining the doorway. Within the church, the opening notes of “Bridal Chorus” began to play.

We stepped inside the church, and my eyes immediately zoomed in on Giovanni, standing at the altar beaming at me. He almost looked too handsome to be real.

Yet, as I made my way down the aisle, I began to hear footsteps behind me. I attempted to turn around, but my father held me steady. “Eyes on the prize, sweetie. Don’t look back.”

But I couldn’t help myself. I turned around. Behind me, there was another woman, far more beautiful than I could ever hope to be. She gave me a sly grin and then slinked passed me, right into Gio’s arms. The two of them locked in a passionate embrace and began making out right before my eyes.

Bile rose in my throat. “How could you?” I said, blinking back tears.

Gio nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. Kissing the woman once more, he then pushed her aside. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. He then held his hand out to me. “Come on. Let’s just get this over with already.”

I shook my head, turning around and bolting down the aisle for the door.

“Arianna! Come back!” Daddy yelled after me. “It’s too late! The arrangement has been made! You can’t back out now!”

“Arianna!”

“Arianna!”

“Arianna!”

“Arianna?”

I sat bolt upright in bed, drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily. Disoriented, it took me a moment to realize that it had all been just a dream. And then it took me a moment further to understand that someone actually was calling my name. I noticed the knocking on my door, and my father’s voice calling from the other side.

I climbed out of bed, my heart still racing from the nightmare. I hadn’t even managed to change out of my clothes from the night before. Briefly glancing at myself in the mirror, my own reflection almost frightened me. My hair was a mess, and mascara ran down my face from the tears I had apparently shed in my sleep.

I opened the door.

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