Page 9 of The Forbidden Husband

She immediately understood what ran through my mind.

“Let me help you get this dress off,” she offered, pulling herself to her feet and approaching without hesitation.

Evelina didn’t move to stand. She didn’t seem to notice the clear turmoil in the room around her as she stared off into the long mirrors.

Livia pulled me into the changing room, and I immediately dropped onto the stool, burying my head in my hands.

“Listen, if you don’t want to do—”

“Ihaveto do this,” I cut her off. “I don’t have a choice, Liv. Dad didn’t give me one.”

She rolled her eyes, but she didn’t understand the severity. None of my sisters knew what had happened the night I had caught him killing one of our loyal people. He had made sure of it.

“Noemi got away. You can too.”

I shook my head as I thought about the sister who had always been my best friend. I knew she would escape one day, but she hadn’treallygotten away. She lived with Anton Petrov, the Russian adversary to both my father’s territory and theRissi territory. He had always kept himself relatively separated from our businesses, but my father had pushed andpushed. He had tried for so long to take out Anton Petrov, and he had orchestrated the death of the man’s father.

Now, Anton Petrov was the Russian mob boss with a vendetta.

And he had my sister.

“You know that’s not true.”

“She’s written to us. She told us that she was okay. Instead of listening to our dad, maybe try listening to her. You saw the letters. They were all in her handwriting.”

God, I wanted to believe it. More than anything, I wanted to believe that our sister ran away and found love in the Russian mob boss—the only man who could possibly keep her safe from our father.

But Dad had insisted that Anton was keeping her captive.

I didn’t know what to believe, but Livia seemed more than confident.

“I’m not in Noemi’s position,” I told her, shaking my head. “If I do it, I don’t have someone to keep me safe if I run away. And he’ll find me. He has before, and he will again.”

I wanted to tell her the truth. It was lingering on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t push the words free.

He’ll take out his rage on you if he doesn't find me. He’ll use you to make me come back.

“I can help you.”

“No,” I replied vehemently. “No, I’m going to do this.”

Her brows crinkled, and she gritted her teeth. “I don’t know why you insist on making yourself suffer like this. He can’t force you into the marriage. He can’t chain you to the wedding bed.”

Buthehas and he knew it.

“I want to do this,” I lied. “If it will help us build relations, it will be worth it. Now, will you help me out of this?”

I could tell that Livia had so much left to say. She had never been good about keeping her mouth shut, even in the most important moments. But here, she conceded. Where Evelina lacked social awareness, Livia had a plethora of it. She knew the subject would get her nowhere, but I also knew she’d be watching.

She knew there was a reason I was being tied to this marriage.

It didn’t matter that she was just shy of eighteen.

Livia was too smart not to see there was more at play here.

She helped me get another dress pulled up my body and clipped in the back. The fabric hung loosely, and Livia tightened the clip. It was a matter of another moment before I strolled from the room and took in the floor-length gown in the floor-to-ceiling mirror.

Jillian may have lacked eloquence when recommending the yellow undertone, but it did wonders to hide the pallor of my skin.

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