Page 63 of Nicoli

Overwhelmed by emotion, I suck in a breath, feeling the warmth of my tears soak through my cheeks. It’s five minutes to midnight. It’s still my birthday—mytwenty-secondbirthday, just like I had promised.

Nicoli places a kiss just below my earlobe. “Serendipity…or fate?”

A shiver travels down my spine, my chest open and bleeding with so many emotions it’s flooding my system and consuming my soul.

It’s only when Caelian starts whistling that we’re both pulled back to the living room filled with the weight of a threat that looms over us all as a family.

Alexius walks up and slips a thick roll of money into the priest’s hands, thanking him and showing him out. My mind is hazy, my thoughts a jumbled mess as reality comes to destroy the moment that had me wrapped up in a fantasy I wish with all my heart were true.

“Everything’s been arranged,” Alexius says as he walks back in. “The marriage certificate will be backdated. Your marriage status will be updated on all systems within the next hour, and a new identity document showing Mira’s name change will be delivered in forty-eight hours.”

I stiffen, and I think Nicoli senses it.

“We should discuss these matters in private,” he says to Alexius, and they walk to the side of the room.

A name change didn’t even cross my mind when this bomb got dropped on me. Mirabella Del Rossa. It was a game I often played as a teenager, where I would use a curtain or a towel as a veil, stare at myself in the mirror and introduce myself to make-belief guests at my wedding as Mirabella Del Rossa.

Maximo steps in beside me. “Are you okay?”

“That’s a stupid question.”

“I know, but I’m asking it anyway.”

I look up at him. “Are you sure this will work?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Because the only reason I agreed to do this is because you said this is the best solution. And I trust you.”

He shifts from one leg to the other. “I don’t like this any more than you do, Mira. But this is the only way to prevent a war between us and the Ferreros.”

“I just don’t understand how being married to Nicoli would make it all okay. Almost getting raped isn’t okay, whether I’m married or not.”

“It’s not that simple, Mira.”

“It should be.”

“Things work differently in our world.”

“Then I don’t want to be a part of this world.”

Maximo sighs. “You already are. And after tonight, you always will be.”

“What? Oh, no. There’s no forever here, Maximo. As soon as all this is over, Nicoli and I will get a divorce and pretend like none of this ever happened.”

“Like fuck we will.”

I swirl around and find Nicoli standing two feet away, his eyes so intense I can feel the smoldering heat melt my flesh and penetrate my bones.

“None of this is real, Nicoli,” I say, my voice sounding far less confident than it should.

Nicoli grabs my hand, and I’m forced to follow him out of the living room, where he pins me between the wall and his body. “We’re not getting a divorce,” he says simply as if another option just doesn’t exist.

“This isn’t real,” I bite out under my breath. “This is nothing but a sham, and the only reason we got married is because we have no other choice.”

He sucks his bottom lip into his mouth. “I’m going to repeat what I just said. We’re not getting a divorce.”

“For as long as there’s a threat, yes.”

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