Plenty of girls have come in and out of our possession, and Siân was no different. My father was to take her as a trade, only things didn’t work out the way they planned. There was more to the story, and before I ever laid eyes on her, I knew that. Maybe it was the urgency of the deal or something else entirely.
I had remembered seeing her a time or two in passing. She’s four years younger than me, so I never saw anything but someone innocent with the kind of pureness that could save even the damnedest of souls. But it’s as if the moment I heard the words slip past their lips, something shifted. It was written in ink, she would be ours—his for the taking, and this war between Samuele and Marco would finally end.
My father was loveless, only sharing the occasional fuck with women who didn’t always leave our home intact. So the fact that he agreed to the offer surprised me. What was he supposed to do with a child? I needed to see for myself why he would accept but, more importantly, how a mother could betray her child. Or why Marco wasn’t there himself making the deal.
It’s no secret the things my father is involved in. He’s proud of the role he played in the corruption and disruption of Milan. And for the most part, so am I. Being his son, hated or not, comes with perks. Our name carries weight throughout this world. Marco was no different. He was cold, calculated, and ruthless, and had shed more blood than a mortuary. But knowing that Marco would agree to give his only child to a notorious trafficker didn’t make sense. But more so, why wasn’t he man enough to do it himself.
Instead, his beloved stood in my father’s office, signing her child over to the devil. Whatever beef he had with her father, Marco, runs deeper than what meets the eye. And when I learned the truth behind that deal, it was me who put a stop to it all. I watched them sign on the dotted line, a conspiracy in the making. The truth is, it wasn’t Marco’s doing at all, but that of the woman who was supposed to protect her.
I wasn’t about to have it, and that's why I hid her from him.
Sooner or later, he would figure out what I did. I thought maybe if I took my time, let her get to know me, she'd come to terms with the fact that we are meant to be together on her own. No, I'm not the romance hero. I'm the fucking villain. And I own that. But the only thing that really matters to me is her. Her safety, her pleasure. And yes, her tears, but only when they come from me.
It took everything in me not to blow my father’s brains out right in front of her for threatening her. But then that wouldn’t have been good either. There are things that we have to handle. Killing my father isn't gonna make any of it easier. It'd be a hell of a mess that I’d have to try to figure out while still trying to get ahold of Siân. But also, he's my father. He is the man who raised me. And despite how fucked up our connection is, I'm his child, and I'm going to play the doting role of the honorary son because that's what we do in this family.
Siân clears her throat, breaking my concentration. When I glance up, instead of looking at me, she throws her gaze out at the large expanse of lawn as we sat on the patio waiting for breakfast to be served. Just like yesterday, she swears up and down she isn't hungry. But after going nearly two days without food, she hasn’t eaten since my father's visit to the table yesterday, ruining her opportunity.
The last thing I need is for her to wither away, at least not before I'm done fucking her until my heart's content. I make a mental note that while making nice with people and trying to win people over isn't necessarily my thing, I want to try to be a little different with Siân.
At the end of the day, she will be my wife, and there is that old tale about a happy wife, happy life, right? So I need to find a way to show her that there is at least a little part of the Christian she thought she fell for inside me. I need to show her that while yes, I have done some things in the name to make her mine, I would never really hurt her. Most of all, I need her to entrust me that even when she finds out I was the one who pulled the trigger, she won’t try to go.