However, my mind was occupied by another matter. The note on the bed, what was inside the box and the fucking white dress.
As I got out of the bathroom, the nuptial collection on the bed taunted me. I snatched the note and unfolded it.
Buongiorno, my sweet Angel.
Don’t worry. I know you don’t like it when I go. I’m still here, on the other side of the island, fishing. I left you a couple of things that would forever bind us, not that we need them. We’re already bound as long as we both shall live.
When I return, I want to see you in them. You will wear my ring and take my name. Why, Angel?
“Because I’m yours,” I murmured as if in a trance.
The next line replied as if he knew beyond doubt that would be my response.
Smiley face. Atta girl.
“Are you going to open it?” Arancia asked, a huge grin on her face, her toes curled as her eyes pinned to the ring box.
I squinted at her. “Why would you be excited about this?”
“Who wouldn’t? I love weddings. Besides, we don’t get much excitement here. When Tino told me there was going to be a wedding today I was so thrilled. I couldn’t wait for you to wake up so I’d see the ring and the dress. I’ll help with the hair and makeup. You’re going to look favolosa.”
“Aren’t you sleeping with him?”
“What? Ewww. No kinkshaming, but I’m not into that.”
“You don’t have to lie to me about—”
“Oddio, Angelina. I can never sleep with Don Bellomo. He’s my half-brother.”
“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. I let him 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. His Angel.”
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.
She got dressed in a green gown that looked incredible on her body, her red hair and tan giving the color an extra something. My thoughts went with Nicky. I wanted her here, even on that twisted, fucked up wedding. She never agreed to the first, and she’d have never agreed to this one, but I wished she could have been here. God, how much I missed her.
A man’s voice came from downstairs, not Tino’s, and he was speaking in fast Italian. Arancia went outside the room and said something in return.
“What’s going on? Who’s that?” I asked.
“One of the guards.” She flashed her teeth at me. “It’s time.”
Chapter 51
Lina
The guests were the bodyguards. My bride’s maid and the person ordained to marry us was Tino’s illegitimate half-sister. My groom, the man standing by the beach looking at me as if hypnotized, as if in bliss, was the father of the man I was supposed to marry, the man who kidnapped me from his own son because he was so obsessed with me he could never let me go.
I walked down the aisle all by myself to marry the killer of my father, my captor, my stalker.
Something flicked inside me the second I reached Tino and our eyes locked. As if I’d just realized what was happening here for the first time, and that realization made me want to scream.
I’d been here at Tino’s mercy and entirely isolated from the rest of the world until further notice. How much more time would I spend in captivity? A glorified sex slave?
My chest contracted like I was suffocating, like all the air at the beach wasn’t enough for me to breathe.
“Angel?” Arancia’s voice somehow penetrated the ringing in my ears. “Angel, stai bene?”
I finally managed to draw in some much-needed air, and I glanced at her. She was staring at me with a puzzled grimace, and Tino no longer had his awestruck gaze. His expression was dangerous, his dark blue eyes almost black like a fucking demon.