“I’m a man of many trades, sweetheart.”
His words from that night replayed in my mind like a broken record.
Betrayer. Manipulator. Conniving motherfucker.
Those were all titles I now associated with Zeno.
He charmed me because he had an end goal: fuck with my family and then fuck me.
“I have forty-eight hours to give him an answer, Darla,” Mother pleaded. “If we don’t agree to his terms, he’ll destroy us. I wouldn’t be asking—no, begging you—if I thought there was another way. Please, consider this.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Dacia fumed.
“No, Dacia, I am not!”
“What you’re asking her is insane.” Dacia stood up and kicked back her chair. “That’s my sister and your fucking daughter! Not some sacrificial lamb. Find another way to settle the score. You always have the power and means to pull through!”
“I can’t, Dacia!” Mother lashed back, tears watering her eyes. “What he has on me…I can’t even tell you girls for fear of putting you in danger by association. Please, understand what’s at stake. We’re running out of time!”
“You really want me to marry him?” Shock and anger moved inside of me. I couldn’t settle on one emotion. I bounced between the two extremities like a pendulum.
“I don’t want you to marry him,” Mother emphasized, loosening the buttons of her blazer like she couldn’t breathe. “Hewants you to marry him for twelve months. That’s what the contract states. From my understanding, he needs a wife to clean up his image and appease his family as he takes over the business.”
“And for twelve months, what is he going to do to me? Torment me, force me into being a dutiful wife, take advantage of me—”
“You’ve met him before,” Mother cut in swiftly. The noise from the grandfather clock in the room amplified each word. “I saw him wearing your hairpin on his tie. He said you met him at Ella’s bachelorette party. Is this true?”
I blanched and glanced at Dacia.
I’d told her I met a man at Chaleur and left my favourite barrette behind. She didn’t know his name, but she knew how I felt about the encounter. Overwhelmed but so understood by a beautiful stranger who allowed me to tap into my darker desires.
Ironically enough, I also said I regretted running out on him without getting his number.
“It’s him, isn’t it? The guy from the club.” Dacia’s eyes filled with fire. She picked up her butter knife and waved it in the air. “If I find out that fucker touched you in any way that wasn’t consensual, I will cut off his dick.”
“Everything was consensual.”
Dacia and Mother looked torn as we faced a new reality—a new challenge that was far too difficult to overcome than anything we’d ever faced as a family before.
With the last chime from the grandfather’s clock, I stood up and threw my napkin on the ground.
My chest puffed and I stared at my mother pointedly. “I won’t do it. I won’t be coerced into this sham of a marriage. Over my dead body.”
I stalked out of the room. Dacia cursed in the background. Mother begged me to reconsider.
Alberto reached out to hug me as I crossed the threshold. I gave him a miserable look, pushing him aside. Unable to witness him handle my rejection.
Needing fresh air, I gunned it for the balcony on the second floor.
When I was a teenager, I was driven by my emotions. Over the years, I tamed that side of me in order to be more rational when facing a difficult situation. I taught myself to always plan my next move prior to acting.
But not right now.
Fury had a chokehold on me as I reached into my blazer pocket with shaky fingers, pulling out my phone. I already had a text from an unknown number.
I knew it was him.
I didn’t think. Just pressed the call button.