Page 21 of Stay Little Fighter

“Mikayla,” I snap down the line. I don’t mean to be so harsh with her. It’s not her fault we’re stuck in an arranged marriage I would rather chew my own arm off than go through with.

“I’ve been trying to call you for weeks, Damon,” she hisses.

If we make it through the first year of marriage without killing each other, I’ll be surprised.

“I’ve been busy. We’ve talked about this. It’s only going to get worse when I take over the family and you need to get used to it. You will never be my priority.” It’s harsh, but it’s the truth. Because the second I take the throne, all that will matter is keeping the Lombardi name at the high standard it’s always been.

She’s quiet for a beat, and I pull the phone away from my ear to check the call is still connected.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she finally says.

“Okay…”

“I don’t want to get married.”

I scoff. “That makes two of us, but we don’t have much choice in the matter. Or did you forget our parents sold us off before we were even out of diapers?”

“Daddy agrees that it would be better if we don’t go through with the marriage. He’s sending documents to Salvatore now to dissolve the agreement.”

My mouth opens, but no words come out, because I don’t know what the hell to say when she’s giving me the thing I’ve always wanted, a month after the woman that my heart beats for fled the compound.

Her timing is as shitty as she is, it seems.

“Why?”

“I can’t marry someone that will never love me, Damon. And we both know your heart will always belong to someone else.”

It’s not an easy feat to render me speechless, but Mikayla has managed it.

I’m not exactly surprised that she knew I had feelings for Chloe because I did little to hide it when we were younger, but I am surprised that she’s willing to give up being the queen of a family like mine just because I’ll never love her.

Most mafia marriages start as strangers and they learn to love one another over the years. It’s the norm for our world, and Mikayla knows that.

Hell, her parents hated each other for years before their marriage, and they’ve made it more than twenty years without killing one another.

“And your father is okay with this?”

“He was the one that suggested it. He’s willing to negotiate on the deal our fathers made to ensure this won’t ruin anything, but it’s better that we part ways now rather than spend the rest of our lives making each other miserable.”