“What?! Why didn’t he say so from the start?”
She rolled her eyes. “He can’t introduce me as his sister. I’m one of Daddy Bellomo’s bastards. It’s a no-no della Famiglia.”
“So he locks you up here instead?”
“No one is locked up here, Angel. I only come to the island when he tells me to. Like to clean up and check on the house or to help around when he or Leo came here on vacation, even when his wife was still alive. Other than that I live in Cavallino with my husband and my boy.”
I laughed under my breath. “Wow.”
“Can you open it now, per favore?” Her grin came back.
I laughed again at her excitement, at how gleeful I’d felt that Tino wasn’t sleeping with her. “Can I get a robe or something first?”
“Oh, certo.” She took off hers and gave it to me.
“Thanks.” I shrugged into it and tied the belt before I sat on the bed and held the box.
My head was in a haze. My emotions were confused as ever. Tino was giving me his ring, ordering me to wear a white dress for him and take his last name.
As if he didn’t need to ask first. As if I had no right to say anything but yes. Just like everything, he just took without permission.
I didn’t know why that upset me. I didn’t expect anything else from a man like him. And after what happened between us last night, I shouldn’t be surprised. I touched him. Ilethim fuck me, and I enjoyed it as much as he did.
To him, that was already a big fat yes. Not that my yes would ever matter to him.
Leo’s words echoed in my head all of a sudden.Don Bellomo doesn’t take no for an answer. He always gets what he wants. If he thinks something is his, nothing else matters. Nothing stops him from having it. Not even his own family.
I opened the box, and Arancia gasped before me.
The ring was extraordinary and fabulous. A huge pink tourmaline stone—my birthstone just like the ones in earrings he’d got me for one of my birthdays—centered the ring, flanked by two dazzling diamonds.
My mind went blank. My eyes saw nothing but the mesmerizing beauty of the ring. I put it on, the size impeccable, the weight on my finger perfect. I thought it’d be heavy, but I assumed, like my violin, it was custom made to fit just me.
“Tino,” I sighed.
“He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
I looked at her, not knowing what to say. Would an amazing man who cared so much about a girl kidnap her, almost killing her in the way? Would he rape her?
I rubbed my eyes, shaking my head. None of that made any difference now. It’d already happened, had been happening for weeks, but I’d given in to him. I gave him myself willingly last night.
And just like everything else I fought and refused to submit to but eventually gave him, I’d become his wife, and I’d carry his children. If I said no today, he’d drag me kicking and screaming until he made me realize it was what I wanted all along, too. So why fight?
Sick and wrong or not, Tino Bellomo was the only man I’d ever desired.
I half-smiled. “Is he really fishing?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “He’s preparing the spot he chose for the wedding.”
“That makes more sense.”
I got the dress out of the clear bag and touched the fabric, so smooth and elegant and simple. Another designer dress, of course, that cost a year’s salary. A beaded organza beach wedding dress with long chiffon sleeves that resembled…wings.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said in tears. “You’ll look like an—”
“Angel. I’ll look like an angel.HisAngel.”
Arancia got all her makeup products, hair straighteners and curling irons to the room and made me look even prettier than I was at my former wedding.
