Page 41 of Venomous Vows

Absolutely fucking not.

“No,” I deadpan. “Are you two out of your damn minds?”

“He lives on a farm,” Celine continues as if I didn’t say anything in the first place. “And no one would find you there.”

“Adrian has connections everywhere, I’m sure. He’d find out the flight I went on and?—”

“You’d have to drive,” Celine retorts, placing a palm on my knee. “I can hold down the bakery until?—”

“I’d never be able to come back,” I argue with knitted brows. “I’d have to give up my whole life.”

“Elena,” Marcella soothes. “You could be killed over this. There is nolawin the mob. What if you do something that he doesn’t like? What’s going to happen then?”

“I don’t know, but?—”

“This is dangerous,” my sister replies. “And you know this. There has to be a line and I’m not sure if you’ll make it how many years you decided to do this.”

“Adrian wouldn’t hurt me,” I counter, unsure why I’m so certain of that fact when he’s done nothing but bully me most of my life. “Everything is going to work out just fine.”

They don’t believe me.

And I don’t expect them to. But running away from my home and family is the last thing I want to do.

The one thing I won’t do.

Nothing in this world would make me leave my sister behind. Even Dad and all his fuckups along the way. I know that, with everything in me right now—my sister and best friend are scared—but I got this.

I have to.

I’ve built my life and now I’m sticking to it. They may think that it’s me who has to fit into Adrian’s world, but it’s the other way around.

I’m not changing.

The only thing that is, is my marital status and a few events I may have to go to on his arm.

I’m still Elena Rossi.

And I’m an independent badass with a wall of stubbornness that Adrian has never been able to break down.

12

ADRIAN

Nothing gets past me.

Especially in my own life.

My own home.

And everything that is going on in my soon-to-be wife’s life.

When I sent her off with her sister and best friend to go wedding dress shopping, I thought I was doing her a favor. Is there anything better in a woman’s life than to do that? Don’t they dream of the shit since they were knee-high and discovered Pinterest boards?

However, I’m not a fan of Elena’s sister and bestie trying to convince her to leave me before the wedding. The last thing I need is them filling her head with ideas that would leave me wifeless and looking like a fucking fool of a man who lost his wife before our first-year anniversary.

So that’s why I’m barging through Elena’s bedroom like a parent who just caught their kid stealing money out of their wallet or got suspended from school for fighting.

“Adrian,” Elena squeals, covering her chest with a white T-shirt. “What the hell are you doing?”

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