Page 20 of Sins of the Father
She flinched. But he was right. Her father had indeed sold her.
“I don’t know how to be a mafia don’s wife,” Mia whispered, her eyes flicking to him before darting away. “I don’t know how to pl… please someone like you.” Her voice cracked around the last part, and her cheeks flushed red.
“You’ll learn. Your life depends on your adaptability.”
Oh God. Mia inched back, spine stiffening against the car door. There truly was no way to appeal to a soft side to this man. She could not imagine marrying him, sharing a bed, and a life.
“Your father sold you off like a pawn. If it weren’t me, you’d already be in someone else’s basement.”
Someone worse. “What do you mean?” Mia asked, her chest feeling tight.
He ignored her, and the sick feeling inside her grew. “Please be honest with me,” she entreated, hoping he would bend.
Several beats passed before he said, “Your father decided to hedge his bet with more than one family. He left instructions behind and made the same deal he made with my father with two other families. I was simply the one who reached you first.”
The words struck like knives, each syllable cutting deeper until Mia could scarcely breathe. Her father hadn’t just bartered her away once; he had scattered her fate like dice across a table, gambling her future with whichever monster reached her first.
Oh God. Why, Papa? Did you love me so little?
Mia’s chest tightened even more, heat rushing to her eyes. Shame, betrayal, grief tangled inside her until she thought she might choke. She had always told herself her father’s choices were meant to protect her, that there had been love buried beneath his secrets. But now, hearing the truth fall from Valachi’s lips, it all curdled into a lie.
And then there was him. Luc’s expression was cool, almost mocking, his mouth curved in a smile that did not reach his eyes as he watched her struggle to contain her pain. He spoke of her life as though it were nothing more than a business transaction, a prize he had claimed. That detachment, that elegant cruelty, hollowed her out.
Hopelessness settled over Mia like a shroud. She was trapped. Powerless. The convent walls, her books, and her small comforts were truly gone. Every path forward ended in him. And as much as she wanted to scream, to claw her way free, his gaze held her fast, reminding her with devastating clarity: she was caught, and there was no escape.
“There’s no need to look so frightened. Arranged marriages have existed for centuries and continue to endure. I’m not here to hurt you, Mia. I’m the one who will make sure you survive and live well.”
His words were smooth, honeyed, the kind of promise meant to settle a scared person. She heard the crooning comfort and almost wanted to believe it. It would have been an easy thing to latch onto—a warm hand reaching out in the dark. His eyes, calm and uncaring, caught hers, and something cold glinted there. The ease of his smile did not reach those eyes.
She turned away and pressed her temple to the glass. Her chest felt hollowed out, torn between the comfort his tone offered and the terror his look confirmed. Mia had nothing inside to even cry. There was a slow, terrible understanding thatwhatever kindness his voice promised, the man behind it would never be kind.
And I must never forget it.
Minutes passed.By the time they turned down the airstrip access road, the town was long gone. The silence in the car wasn’t tense anymore, it was something heavier, like mourning. Luc thought it unwise to offer more comfort. He barely understood the gentleness he wanted to show her. Gentleness wasn’t bred into men like him. In his world, softness invited ruin, and weakness was always preyed upon. Yet as he looked at her, torn and fragile, something inside him ached to soothe her. Another part, darker and truer, wanted to break that fragility apart and forge her anew—strong, unyielding, a woman who could never again be prey for anyone.
As the SUV rolled to a stop by the waiting jet, Luc took her arm, felt the tremor under her skin. The SUV door opened to a symphony of sight and sounds—jet fuel and cold asphalt, shouts from the hangar, the chilled wind hinting of an impending storm. Mia stiffened, that animal awareness flashing through her posture. Luc’s hand found the small of her back, fingers splaying in silent warning against her spine.
“This isn’t what I want,” she rasped against the wind. “Ihatethis.”
“It’s done,” he said, and guided her up the steps, almost amused that she moved like a lamb to slaughter.
Once she was seated inside and the door sealed shut behind them, Luc exhaled. He sat across from her, not beside her, giving her space and time. The illusion of choice. It was a newbeginning. And there was no going back now. The jet cabin hummed with a taut silence, dim lights carving harsh shadows across Mia’s face. She sat rigid, her fingers white on the leather armrests, her small, controlled movements those of someone trying to be brave.
“Is there no room for negotiation?” she asked, chin lifted to meet his gaze.
“Do you have anything to offer?” Luc asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“You know I do,” she said, swallowing hard.
He leaned back slightly, letting the silence stretch. “Something your father left you… Perhaps?”
She tucked a loose wisp of hair away. “Allow me to trade it for my freedom.”
“No.”
A sharp tremor ran through her. “Why not?”
“I can take it from you whenever I want. Why would I buy what I can seize?” His voice was casual, but the calculation behind it was cold.
