Sweet Temptation

After yet another night full of screaming, I called Felix in the morning.

“Hello, Felix. It’s Cassio.”

“Cassio, what a pleasure. I assume you’ve come to a decision regarding a bond with my daughter?”

“I’d like to marry her.” That wasn’t exactly the truth. She was the only option to save my sanity. “I can’t wait long. You know I have two small children who need a mother.”

“Of course. Giulia is very caring. We could set up the wedding for early November, a day after Giulia’s eighteenth birthday?”

I gritted my teeth. “All right. That’s reasonable.”

“I’d like you to meet her before so we can discuss the details for the feast. It’ll be a lot of work to set up a grand wedding on such short notice.”

“You insist on a big celebration?”

“Yes. Giulia is our only daughter, and my wife wants to organize something special for her. With our son, she couldn’t really plan as much as she wanted. Not to mention considering our status, it’ll be an important social gathering, Cassio.”

“I can’t be involved in the planning. I have enough on my plate as it is, so your wife would have to do everything.”

“That won’t be a problem. Let’s discuss the details when you come over, shall we? When can you make it?”

Sybil planned to spend the weekend at my house to keep an eye on the kids. “In two days, but I can’t stay long.”

“Perfect. You made the right decision, Cassio. Giulia is wonderful.”

Dad was acting strange during dinner. He kept staring at me as if he was on the verge of saying something but never did. Mom looked like she’d gotten an invitation to an exclusive Chanel summer sale.

When I was done with dinner, I waited for Dad to excuse me. I wanted to finish the painting I began this morning. Now that I was finished with high school, I’d been using my free time to improve my painting skills.

He cleared his throat. “We need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. The last time Dad began a conversation like that, he’d told me that my fiancé had been killed during a Bratva attack. It hadn’t hit me like it should have, considering our planned future, but I’d only met him once and that had been many years ago. Mom had been the only one who’d cried bitter tears, mainly because his death meant I was left without a fiancé at seventeen. That was a scandal in the making.

“We’ve found you a new husband.”

“Oh,” I said. It wasn’t that I hadn’t expected to be married off soon, but given my age, I was hoping they would have involved me in the process of finding my future husband.

“He’s Underboss!” It burst out of Mom as she beamed at me.

My eyebrows rose. No wonder she was enthusiastic. My late fiancé had only been the son of a Captain, nothing to get too excited about—in Mom’s opinion.

I wracked my brain for an Underboss close to my age, but came up empty-handed. “Who is he?”

Dad avoided my eyes. “Cassio Moretti.”

My mouth dropped open. Dad often talked to me about business if he needed to vent because Mom wasn’t interested in the details. The name Moretti had been making the rounds for months now. The cruelest Underboss of the Famiglia had lost his wife and was now left to raise his two little kids alone. Speculations on how and why his wife had died were rampant, but only the Capo knew the details. Some said Moretti had killed his wife in a rage, while others said she’d become sick living under his strict rule. There were even people that speculated she’d killed herself to escape his cruelty. Neither rumor made me want to meet the man, much less marry him.

“He’s much older than me,” I said eventually.

“Thirteen years, Giulia. He’s a man in his prime,” Mom admonished.

“Why does he want me?” I hadn’t even met him. He didn’t know me. And what was worse: I had no clue how to raise kids.

“You are a Rizzo. The joining of two important families is always desirable,” Mom said.

I looked at Dad, but he was staring at his wine glass. The last thing he’d said to me about Cassio Moretti was that Luca made him Underboss because the two of them were alike—both irrevocably cruel, pitiless, and built like bulls.

And now he was giving me to a man like that.

“When?” I asked. Given Mom’s excitement, all the details must have already been decided.

“One day after your birthday,” Mom said.

“I’m surprised you waited for me to become of age. It’s not like we’re a law-abiding society in general.”

Mom pursed her lips. “I hope you get rid of that snappiness before you meet Cassio. A man like him won’t tolerate your insolence.”

My hands curled into fists under the table. Mom was likely the driving force behind the marriage. She was always trying to better our position in the Famiglia.