Page 54 of Bound to Him

“No, I’m not...”

Viola chimed in, “Papà, I’ve been dreading marrying Huxley. You know I didn’t want to from the start, but Olivia does! It’s an easy solution, the treaty won’t be broken, just updated!” She tried to make it sound simple and positive, but there was already steam coming from his ears.

“You’re telling me that everything we’ve been through,everything!” He shouted the last word, making us jump and Tony sigh tiredly. “Over the past few years because of your fucking tantrums!” He stood up and pointed at me. “Was for nothing? Because you love him now?”

I started to nod slowly, tentatively, but he wasn’t done.

“And tell me, how exactly do you know this? Huh? How did you figure out that you love him? I assume it wasn’t over tea and biscotti!”

I shrunk back into the sofa, and Viola took my hand.

His face was red, and he was pacing the room, flexing his fingers. He suddenly grabbed a paperweight off his desk and threw it. Viola and I shrieked and ducked down, but the metallic object hit the bookcase on the other side of the room, pummeling books off the shelf and falling with a loud doof.

“Okay,” Tony stood up, “girls, I think you’ve done your bit. I’ll discuss the Moretti’s plan with Papà. You may leave.”

Our father looked at Tony with rage in his reddening eyes, but Tony was as unemotional as a presidential bodyguard. He opened the door, and we stood up to leave.

“We aren’t done yet!” my father said, pointing at me. “I’ll deal with you later.”

I sighed, turned, and left with Viola. As soon as we were out the door, we smiled.

“You think he’s going to agree?” she asked me.

“He has to; I don’t think the Morettis are giving him much of a choice here.”

She grinned and hugged me. “Thank you for falling for my fiancé.”

I laughed. “I still feel really bad about that.”

“Well don’t. I know you, and if I loved the guy, you would never have. Both because he wouldn’t be your type and because you have morals.”

We chuckled together and walked arm in arm to the kitchen where we made ourselves tea and waited for Tony.

Over an hour later, he walked into the kitchen and fell into a chair at the table. He looked exhausted and serious.

“And? What happened?” Viola asked desperately.

He looked up at us, then smiled. “He’s agreed to the conditions.”

“Yes!” She balled her fists up in the air, and I breathed out a long sigh of relief. It felt like years of stress falling from my shoulders.

“Oh, thank God!”

“But,” Tony started, “don’t get too excited girls. We’re only just starting the plan; things can get dangerous from here on out.”

“Okay, what’s going to happen?” I asked.

“All you need to know is that nothing is changing until the Morettis have dealt with Christian. Pretend the wedding is still on this weekend. You need to act normal; if he comes around or asks you out, you need to go along with it. We will be putting extra security on you though, if that does happen.”

“Okay.” I felt confident, both with my kneeing Christian in the balls and the knowledge that Huxley was officially coming for him was enough for my fear to dissipate. “Got it.”

“The rest, we’ll handle. Okay?”

Viola and I nodded. “Thanks, Tony,” I added, and he looked at me questioningly. “For being such a good big brother.”

“And such a strong man, Tony,” Viola said. “You’re going to make a great don one day.”

He smiled at us, got up, and came to hug our shoulders from behind. “You two might piss me off at times, but I love ya.”

---