Page 1 of Arianna

Prologue

ARIANNA

“Even at my ugliest,

I’m still the best you’ll ever have.”

My mother used to tell me that my beauty would get me farther in life than my brains and my bloodthirsty need to succeed in a man’s world would.

In part, she was right.

My beauty did give me an advantage and opened many doors, but it also trapped me. It left me voiceless in a world where it was already difficult enough for a woman to be heard.

Father used to brag to anyone with ears that his name and legacy would serve as a shield against his many enemies, but he, too, lied.

Parisi.

A name fit for royalty, he used to boast.

A name meant for the boy who will one day carry my father’s legacy.

The boy that died.

Then, there was me.

The unwanted firstborn.

Therefore, yes, father lied.

They all lied.

My name was my golden cage, and my beauty will eventually fade one day. My looks and the Parisi name are also the reasons for my misfortune. That is what landed me where I am today. In the hands of a heartless man with vengeance in his soul. A man who believes the world should fall on its knees for him.

My father promised him a compliant princess.

A brainless brat who will obey his every command and hang to his every word.

As if.

Sebastian Kenton thinks of me as a child he will easily manipulate. But he does not know that I stopped being a child a long time ago.

I never got the chance to be one.

I, too, can play the dirty games big boys do, and I don’t intend to lose.

Not against a man.

Any man.

Not anymore.

He might have deluded himself into thinking I am inferior to him, just as all egotistical kings do, but he has no idea the vicious little beast my circumstances created.

A beast that does not let go of its prey until it is fully satisfied.

I am smart.

I am strong.

---