Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,93

it sooner.

“This whole time you’ve been doing the exact opposite of what you’ve been saying. You never gave it up after Gio’s death.”

“You don’t leave the business, Bella,” my father says. “Unless it’s in a body bag.”

“Even Alessandro couldn’t leave it if he wanted to,” Alberto adds. “The choice leaves us the moment we commit to the life.”

I just stare at them.

Blindsided.

Betrayed.

But despite how I feel, it doesn’t stop the fact that my family is still at war with the Lastrantonios, and I am the key to ending the bloodshed.

The bloodshed that took my brother from me.

I’m also the only thing standing between my father and bankruptcy.

No pressure here. None at all.

“He’s really going to take everything?” I ask.

“He can,” my father says remorsefully. He pauses, searching for the right words. “I want you to know that I would not ask this of my beautiful daughter if it wasn’t vital to keep a roof over our heads and bring an end to this bloodletting. I would never put you in harm’s way.”

I give him a dark look. “It sounds like you’ve been doing that my entire life.”

His eyes drop as he plays with the heavy ring on his pinky finger. “You loved him once.”

“When we were children. And if I remember correctly, you destroyed that friendship. You broke my heart and then told me I had to get the fuck over it.”

His eyes flick up. My father loathes me cussing.

“You will control your tongue, Bella,” he warns.

I fold my arms and raise my chin defiantly. “You’re telling me I have to marry the very man you raised me to hate. Sorry if that makes me a little pissy.”

Not to mention, lied to me my entire life.

My father’s stern face softens. “For the sake of peace.”

Who would’ve thought my father would be asking me to marry the very boy he asked me to forget?

“It’s a business transaction. You’ll be married in name only.”

“Fantastic,” I reply unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

I feel too ambushed by my father to question what Alessandro stands to get out of this ridiculous arrangement. I assume it’s to gloat in the delirious power he has over my family.

“The marriage will last for twelve months. You will appear on his arm as his wife in public. It’s a role, Bella. Nothing more.”

“And such a small price to pay for peace,” Alberto adds.

“Says the man whose entire existence hasn’t just been reduced to arm candy in the last five minutes.”

“Cara mia—”

“Fine,” I snap. “I’ll do this. But I want an air-tight agreement that this is nothing more than a business deal. And I will be filing for an annulment twelve months and one day after the wedding.”

I think about the boy I had loved with all my heart.

How I thought I would die when we moved from Italy to America.

Back then I was so in love with him.

But now I hate him.

Just as my father raised me to.

6

Bella

“So, what do you know about him?” Imogen asks, taking a sip of her wine. We’re sitting in a booth at our favorite bar in the Lower East Side called Humpty’s. It’s a dark and moody cocktail den with masculine leather booths, terrazzo floors, and cute lanterns on the tables.

“He’s an asshole who is forcing me to marry him,” I reply.

“What else?”

“Do I need to know anything else?”

“Have you googled him?”

For ten years I’ve resisted googling him.

“No.” I almost drain my glass with the huge mouthful of wine I take. “My first instinct since my father and godfather told me I was to marry a monster was to call you.”

“So let me get this straight, he says if you marry him, he’ll wipe your dad’s debt clean and end ten years of bloodshed.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes gleam. “I knew your daddy was still in the business.”

“You’re not helping.”

Imogen whips out her phone and starts looking, while I finish my wine in another mouthful.

“Oh my God, Bella…” She looks at me, her face drained of all expression. “He’s the most beautiful human being in the world.”

I squeeze my eyes closed. “Don’t say that.”

“Oh, wow! He’s the guy they’re calling the King of the Boroughs. He owns a gazillion businesses around town.” She keeps reading from the screen. “It says he’s taken New York by storm since arriving in town eighteen months ago. They say he has the Midas touch because everything he touches turns to gold. I knew his face looked familiar, he’s been all over the papers and magazines.”

A strange