Page 124 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

Inconveniently Wed

Pippa Roscoe

For Nella Giatrakou,

Your courage, your fortitude and your conviction are an inspiration, shaping the world around you for the better.

All my love.

Xx

PROLOGUE

Six years ago

Maybe he wouldn’t show. Maybe Antonio Gallo had come to his senses and decided to not go through with his crazy plan.

Nineteen-year-old Ivy McKellen shifted from foot to foot. She imagined she looked as uncomfortable as she felt, standing alone on the steps of a register office in South West London.

When Antonio had first asked her, she was sure the Italian businessman had been joking. Marriage? Him? Toher?Awaitress?Maybe the pressure of his high-powered job, whatever it was, had gone to his head. She’d offered him a glass of water and he’d laughed. The sound rich, luxurious, had rolled over her skin and made her blush.

‘It’s simple,cara.I need a wife to get my grandfather off my back.’

‘You don’t even know me.’

‘Exactly! It’s perfect.’

With a dad she hadn’t seen in four years and a mum who had spent the last two years in Majorca bouncing between boyfriends, Ivy was the first to admit she wasn’t an expert in what made a marriage work, but she was pretty sure it requiredsomeknowledge of each other.

It had been a Thursday afternoon at Affogato, the café where she worked in central London, the tables eerily quiet, which most likely meant that the pubs were full of the usual regulars. But Antonio was different from the city boys she was used to serving. No, he had a focus and a determination that had impressed her.

At least, until he turned that focus and determination on her.

He’d found her at a weak moment, on her break. And offered a solution that would benefit them both.

She’d shaken her head and turned to walk away when he’d reached out to grasp her wrist. And that was the first time Antonio Gallo touched her.

Sparks.

Heat.

‘Please. Hear me out…’

He’d probably be shocked to hear that it had been the ‘please’ that had won her over. At least enough to listen to what he had to say. And what he’d had to say had been unimaginable.

He’d offered her a life-changing sum of money to marry him, all because his grandfather was pressuring him to marry his cousin. And in exchange? He’d give her two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

Her heart had missed a beat.

‘Once we’re married, you’ll never have to see me again.’

With that amount of money, she could pay for her brother to get the help he needed. She could do that andstillhave enough money to put a deposit down on a flat so that when Jamie found his feet, he’d have somewhere safe to land. Somewhere secure. She might even be able to stop working for long enough to go to university.

She could breathe. She could dream again.

Ivy peered along the road to see if she could spot him, not realising that she was holding her breath. But amongst the faceless pedestrians hurrying back and forth, she couldn’t catch even a glimpse of the tall, powerful Italian who would stand out amongst a crowd like this.

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