Inside, the safe is packed tight. Manila envelopes. Thick file folders. Curled receipts. Stacks of documents that look like they have been building up for years.
Shit. There is a lot to go through.
I start pulling everything out, spreading the contents on the desk. Sifting through the documents in the folders reveals nothing but old contracts with various vendors. Once I start with the envelopes, it starts being much of the same.
Until I get to the second to last one.
At first, it seems like a simple contract, the one Aleksei signed with my parents.
Except this is different than the one I read after I agreed to marry him. This one was signed days before Aleksei presented me with the proposal.
What the hell…
My eyes scan the text, my heart rate escalating. Because in this contract…
Oh God, no. They wouldn’t do this.
But no matter how many times I read it, the proof is there: they sold me to him.
I reread the paragraph so many times, my eyes bleed. This deal was made without me, and my signature was forged. The only person capable of doing that is my own mother.
A lump forms in my throat. This can’t be real.
They did this. They all planned this, and Aleksei never said a thing. Even after things with us started to become good.
They sold me like property, and he went along with it.
Even if he’s given me the vineyard now, even if he says he loves me, he kept this from me. How the fuck is that love?
The room tilts, the paper crumpling in my grip. I want to scream. Throw something. Break every bottle in this fucking building.
The door handle suddenly starts to turn, and when my parents step in, chatting with one another, they freeze the moment they see my expression.
But once they notice the opened safe, the contract in my hand, the silence crashes down like thunder. They know exactly what I found.
And now, so do I.
“Tesoro,” Mom says gently, taking a few steps toward me. “What are you doing in here? Did you need something?”
A sting burns the backs of my eyes, blurring my vision as my fingers curl tighter around the contract.
“Don’t,” I snap, my tone so harsh, her eyes widen. “Don’t stand there and lie to me. You both have done enough of that.”
Her features sink, mirrored in the guilt tightening Dad’s face.
I rise to my feet, the paper trembling in my grip. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
Her brows knit. “Tell you what?”
That only enrages me further, a bitter laugh scraping from my throat. “You’re seriously going to pretend you have no idea what I’m talking about?”
My father runs a hand down his face, while my mother says nothing.
“You sold me to him!” The words fall like stones. “You gave me away like I meant nothing. To a man who kills for a living! A man I tried to put behind bars! Did you even consider what he could do to me?”
Dad closes his eyes and lowers himself slowly onto the desk chair behind him, as if the weight of everything has finally knocked him down. Mom starts to cry, wiping away her tears.
“Is that how much I meant to you?” I glance between the two of them, heart splintering with every word. “What’s worse is I was willing to do it. Foryou. I married him because I loved you both that much. But you never gave me the chance. You just…did it. You were going to let him force me if I said no.”
