Page 58 of Broken Princess

"Lorenzo," she whispers, her breath faltering on her full, pink lips. "I—I don't know what to say."

"Say you'll come with me," I tell her, my heart in my throat. "Say you'll leave this place with me and start a new life. With me. Forget your family and forget mine. We can go anywhere you want, do anything you want, but just come with me. Please."

Her lips part again, but all that comes out is a strangled breath, and the confusion on her face turns to fear as she looks at something over my shoulder. I turn around just in time to find Mr. Carillo stalking toward me, and the moment I do, his fist connects with my face and sends me flying back into the altar.

Amelia cries out in alarm as I catch myself on the wooden pulpit, and the crowd starts to stir. This is a Mafia wedding, and any kind of disruption is a risk. A dangerous one.

I don't care about myself, but there's too much of a risk that Amelia would get caught in the crossfire, literal or figurative, and that's the only reason I don't immediately attack Miceli back as he approaches me.

"Dad, no!" Amelia cries, but Stefan holds her back. The sight of his hands on her shoulders enrages me, but I need to stay focused on her father right now.

"You have no idea what you're doing, Lorenzo," Miceli growls, coming to a stop in front of me. "You really think you can take my daughter away from me? You think I'm going to let you just walk out of here with her?"

"You don't have a choice," I tell him, trying to keep my voice even. "But she does. And I'm not leaving until she tells me to."

"You're going to regret this," Miceli warns me, his hand clenched into a fist at his side.

"This? No," I say, looking over at Amelia. "Amelia is the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm not letting her go."

A strangled gasp comes from somewhere in the crowd and I turn to find Kayleigh rushing down the aisle toward the door. Her mother leaps up to follow her.

Part of me actually feels bad for her. Not for ending the engagement, which I should have done ages ago, but for doing it this way, in front of everyone, where her humiliation is just collateral damage.

But I shove that feeling away and focus on Miceli again.

"You see?" he says, turning to Amelia. "He's nothing but a thug. He doesn't care about you, or your baby. He's going to leave you both high and dry the minute he gets what he wants, just like your sister."

"That's not true," Amelia protests, her voice shaking.

"It doesn't matter what you think," Miceli tells her, his voice hard. "You're my daughter, and I'm not going to let him ruin your life. Get him out of here," he bellows, and immediately, three men in dark suits who've been lingering around the aisle, waiting for instruction, approach me.

I resist my first impulse to fight, and I'm pretty sure there's so much adrenaline coursing through my veins I could take all three of them, but again, that's a risk I'm not willing to take.

Even though there's part of me that's considered just kidnapping her and dealing with the consequences later, to get her away from him—from all of them—I can't do that, either.

I realize that now.

I want her to want me—toneedme—the same way I want and need her.

It has to be mutual.

I love her and respect her too much for anything else, and throwing her over my shoulder and riding off into the sunset is just going to be another version of what her father is already doing to her. Taking away her free will, using her like a pawn. I can't do that.

No... that's not true.

I could, very easily.

But I won't.

I do resist, though, when the men try to pull me down the aisle toward the door so their boss can get back to this sham of a wedding. And when one tries to grab me by the back of the jacket and haul me off, I shove into him.

"Wait!" Amelia cries, her voice echoing through the cathedral.

The men stop and turn to look at her, and I do too.

She pulls out of Stefan's grasp and tosses her red-and-white bouquet aside. She lifts the hem of her dress as she runs down the steps and toward me.

"I'll go with him," she says, her voice small but determined as she comes to a stop a few feet away. "I want to go with him."

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