“Wrong question.” I pushed my chair back, rising to my feet. “You should be asking why only you? Your parents had three children, why did they only bother to arrange a marriage for you?”
She froze; her green eyes wide as she looked through me, not at me.
“I don’t know.” She didn’t answer. Rising behind her like a beast, Wyatt stood glaring at me as if he wanted to gut me alive. “I don’t know. I don’t fucking care. My parents are dead. Their opinion and wishes are irrelevant now. However, if they were here, they’d skin you alive for speaking to my sister this way. Good thing I’m alive and I’m good with knives.”
“Skin away then,” I said, tossing him my knife which he caught with ease. “When you’re done, I’ll still be here. Your sister will still be here and so will the agreement between us.”
She stood up, standing between the two of us but facing me. She wasn’t as enraged as she’d been before; now she was calm, too calm given the current situation. “There is no agreement. I’m twenty-six years old. I’ll pick who I marry, not my parents. Not my grandmother.”
“Yes,” I nodded to her, speaking just as calmly. “How did that work out for the last man you picked?”
She inhaled through her nose but still managed to keep it together; “Let’s break the agreement so you can go back to hell now.”
“Fine by me, so long as you understand that it’s you who is breaking the agreement.”
“I—”
“Stop.” Ethan cut in, proving he was much smarter than I gave him credit for. “What happens if she breaks the agreement?”
“I don’t care what happens!” She snapped at him. “It’s my life, don’t you—”
“All agreements have some type of collateral. He wants you to break the agreement, Donatella. Which means whatever he gets for you breaking it is worth more than having you. You are the only sister to the Ceann na Conairte, the daughter of a former governor, and business mogul. On top of that, you’re beautiful… What man in his right mind would turn that down just because he dislikes your temperament?” Mr. Know It All questioned, making them turn to look at me like prey they couldn’t wait to tear apart.
Bravo Ethan.
“Well?” Wyatt asked, waiting while Dona did her best not to scream.
“Italy,” I answered, looking from her to her brother as he sat comfortably at the head of the table. “All the drug routes in Italy; that’s what I get.”
“Ha.” Ethan laughed in shock. “Bullshit. My family would never give up our home—”
“Which is how they were sure that your sister would end up marrying me,” I said, taking off my glasses and picking up my book. “But, like she said, she’s old enough to decide who she marries, and I’ll support whatever she chooses. Thank you for dinner.”
I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the door. This family could never let anyone else have the last word.
“What happens if you were to break the agreement?”
So, I repeated what her brother had said; “You are the only sister to the Ceann na Conairte, the daughter of a former governor, and business mogul. On top of that, you’re beautiful… What man in his right mind would turn that down just because he dislikes your temperament?”
The look on their faces was magnificent.
On this side of the world the Callahan’s were the most powerful family, without a doubt, but they were extremely ignorant if they believed there weren’t other powerful families out there.
Opening the book in my hand, I read on from where I’d stopped… Beowulf was such a classic; “The dragon began to belch out flames and burn bright homesteads; there was a hot glow that scared everyone, for the vile sky-winger would leave nothing alive in his wake.”
TEN
“Vipera in veprecula est.
(There is a viper in the bush.)”
~ Unknown
ETHAN
“You’re calling again so soon; I truly feel loved,” my grandmother said on the phone.
“I'm not sure love is the right word,” I replied, looking up at Dona who stared blankly at the phone in my hand, her head bobbing slowly… I wasn't a doctor, but the doctor beside her seemed to worry she was going into shock.