Page 150 of Bride By Initiation

"Well, now that we're married, I think we don't have to worry about the secrecy."

"No more secrets, Sean," she states.

"Okay." I tug her back into me. "I'm sorry. Really."

"Why is it so easy for me to kill people?" she questions.

I lean down to look into her eyes, cupping her cheeks and brushing her tears with my thumbs. "It's in our blood. It just is. It doesn't make you a bad person."

"How can it not make me a bad person? I took two people's lives," she claims.

"You said Valentina said the woman was a traitor, correct? And you saw it in her?"

Zara bites her lip, and more tears fall. She nods.

"Okay then. She was a traitor. Traitors deserve to die, so don't worry about this any further."

She starts to sob again, and I hold her, wishing there was something better I could say to make her pain go away. But I'm unsure how, and I'm realizing that I need to get better.

I'm her husband. I need to protect her from this stuff.

If anyone's going to be killing anyone, it should be me, not her.

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24

Zara

A Month Later

"Knock, knock," Amy's voice calls out.

I glance up from the briefing I've been working on and smile at her. "Hey, what's up?"

She steps inside my office with a box wrapped in brown shipping paper. She sets it on my desk.

The top hasZara O'MalleyandPrivatehandwritten on it.

My butterflies flutter. It's the first time I've seen my first name paired with O'Malley after it.

Am I changing it?

Yes.

No. I already changed it from Moulin to Marino when my father came into my life.

That doesn't have anything to do with taking my husband's name.

Amy interrupts my thoughts, relaying, "A courier delivered this. He said he was instructed to ensure you're the one opening it." She lowers her voice, wincing. "He's waiting outside your door. He's verypersuasive."

I lean to the side, glancing around her body, and see a young man with a nose ring. He nods at me.

"Hey there," I say.

"You can't open it in front of anyone else," he blurts out.

I question, "Who's this from?"

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