When I walked into my father’s study, I saw him sitting behind his desk like he always did. My stomach twisted. There would only be bad news “Leda,” he stated, not looking up from his papers on the desk. “Did you have fun in France?”
I straightened my shoulders. “Why would you care?”
He chuckled, but the laughter never reached his eyes. “You have no problems spending my money to do so. Don’t you think that entitles me to know whether or not you enjoyed it?”
“What do you want?” I asked instead.
He was right. I had spent his money without a care in the world. I was finally free of him, or would be the moment I packed up my things and headed off to college.
My father leaned back in the chair, placing his hands behind his head. “I’ve summoned you here to tell you of your future.”
“My future?” I asked. “I’ve already gotten into Columbia. That’s where I’ll be heading in a few weeks.”
“No, you aren’t,” he replied. “You don’t need college for what I have planned for you.”
Sweat broke out over my skin. “I’m eighteen now. You can’t tell me what to do.” More so, I wanted the freedom, the independence of not being under his thumb any longer. I had done everything he had wanted me to for eighteen years.
The look he gave me said that I could not have been more wrong.
“You will be wed,” he stated after a minute. “To a husband of my choosing when the time is right.”
My mouth dropped open. Married? “I—”
“This is not a negotiation, Leda,” he continued. “You will not run, or I will hunt you down and deal with you myself. Your brother will also suffer, so keep that in mind if you decide to fuck me over.”
My lips parted, and I wanted to tell him how I truly felt about him, that I wasn’t going to go along with his precious plans. But the moment he threw in Nico’s name, I knew I had no choice. My brother had already suffered so much under my father’s watchful eye, hating him just as much as I hated him. I couldn’t let him take any more hurt, any more pain.
I couldn’t let Nico take the fall for anything related to me.
“So, my dutiful daughter,” he stated, leaning forward. “Do we have an understanding?”
I lifted my chin, ignoring the devastation swirling in my gut. “We do, father.”
He smirked. “That’s what I like to hear. Go get dressed. We are having a soiree tonight, and I expect you to be all smiles and your usual gracious self.”
It took all I had to walk out of the study and not do something stupid like shoot him on the spot. If I did, many would cheer, that was for certain.
My legs trembled as I walked up the stairs to my room, waiting until my door was shut before I slid against it, letting myself fall to the floor. My father was still ruling my life, and all hopes of me getting away from him were now a moot point.
I was never going to get away from Carmine D’Agostino.
Never.
Shaking out of the horrible memory that had spawned all this, I rose from the floor and washed Valentino’s scent from my skin.
I had learned to be stronger than I ever had been, to not let anyone get their claws into me and await the day that I would be handed over to my husband, a husband that my father had chosen for me. And now those plans went to shit, and it was all because of the man who had just left his seeds inside of me.
The thought that he did such a thing sent a tremor through me. I was already craving Valentino’s touch again. I could only hope that it wasn’t the last time he did that to me, or anything else for that matter.
I had enjoyed it, and my mind was whirling with possibilities of what he could do next time.
Or at how I could push him.
A little smile flirted on my lips as I thought about my original plan to get him to lose control so that I could find his weakness. He had certainly broken down my walls.
And though I had no idea what to expect next, I knew that I reached something inside ofhim.
That was a start.