“Maybe so,” I admit. “But you’ve also treated me that way. I don’t want to be married to Marco but it’s my fate now. I have to go with him. If you had wanted to save me, Cormac, you lost your chance.” I walk past my brother, despite wanting to go with him. But Cormac wants to control my life just as much as my dad does. At least Marco is giving me the chance to live my own life after our honeymoon is over. I just have to make it through this week and then…
And then what? A life of loneliness? Marco will never let me date other men. I will never get to experience my life to the fullest.
But then again, I wasn’t getting to do that when my dad forced me to go everywhere with a guard.
“If you come for me,” Marco says to Cormac, “or if you try to take my wife away from me again, the outcome will not be good.”
“Don’t threaten me,” Cormac warns.
“Then stay out of my way.” Marco walks behind me as we head into the airport. Cormac doesn’t follow. It’s not like he can start shooting at my brother inside the airport. That wouldn’t go over well.
After Marco and I get our tickets and find our gate, we settle into seats beside each other, neither one of us speaking again.
“Why didn’t you go with your brother?” His question startles me. “You could have gone with him.”
“You would have stopped it.”
“I would have but I expected you to run.”
“I wanted to run,” I admit. “But I knew it was pointless. It just seemed easier to stop a fight from happening. If Cormac took me back, then you would have tried to kill him.”
“So it was love for your brother that you didn’t go with him?”
“Yes.”
Marco nods, then falls silent.
I told Marco the truth but… it wasn’t just love for my brother that I didn’t leave. It was because my fate is tied to Marco’s now and I want to be near him, despite how crazy he makes me feel.
Of course, I can never tell him this. Not when I barely understand it myself.
The flight to Italy is a long one. Fortunately, we each stick to ourselves on the way there. Once we arrive in Italy after eight hours, it’s nighttime. Marco rents a car and drives us to the place he rented.
The place in question is a large chalet in the countryside, an hour from Rome.
“How much money do you have?” I ask.
“A lot of it.”
“And you need my dad’s help… why?”
He chuckles as he turns the car off. “Because I need the connection. I need the support. Money will only get you so far.”
We go into the mansion. Each room is more elegant than the last with beautiful hardwood floors and soft painted walls and cozy furniture.
“I’m tired,” I admit.
“It has been a long day.”
We find the hallway that houses the bedrooms.
“I’ll take this one,” Marco says, nodding at one of the rooms. Across the hall is another one.
“I’ll take that one,” I say. “You’re really not going to make us sleep in the same room?”
“You’re mine now, Ciara. But in name only. I got what I wanted from your father. From you. I don’t need more. Now, get some sleep. Our honeymoon starts tomorrow.”
“What does that entail?”
