Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Yes, sir.” With all I have in me, I try not to let that come out snarky.
I was born the daughter of Giuseppe and Isabelle Notelli, with two brothers, Salvatore and Lorenzo. They took after my father, treating me like a rag doll, never stepping in when Father would hurt me and even sometimes joining. My mother—that woman makes all other women look like saints, because she is the worst of the worst, the rotten root of the tree. Mother wouldn’t enjoy watching, but never did she step in to protect her daughter. Father used to beat her, but then I came along, and got to pass on two things: her looks and the burden of my father’s heavy hand.
I’m shorter than her though, 5’4” with a fuller frame. My parents deemed I was fat from a young age, because I didn't look like the women in our world.
I, however, love my body, and no matter how hard my parents have tried to bring me down, that love for myself never wavered. Because of them, my life was built around vanity, not brains or ambition. I wanted to go to college, get a degree, have a mind of my own, but that was never my fate.
It’s clearly to be the wife of a homicidal egomaniac.
I graduated high school at eighteen, then I became captive to the gym, this home, and my room. The most interaction I have is when I talk to the other daughters of the outfit at balls, auctions, and luxurious events. Shopping sprees with the spawns of Satan—my parents—hardly count as free time. They ridicule me and press hard on me with their heavy thumbs.
There is a life outside of these walls that I wanted to explore. But now? Now, I will be used as a ploy and be passed on like a used puppet to a new string master.
One who might even be worse than those I currently live with.
CHAPTER ONE
NICO
“You’re telling me that he took off with an entire shipment of goods, Levetti?” I place my hands in my pockets, my stance dominating, my feet planted as I tilt my head to the side and assess the men who are supposed to be professionals. Men I trusted to keep my business solid. And now they cower in front of me—because they’ve failed me.
I see the fear in their eyes, the sweat beading on their foreheads. They know all too well what happens to men who cost me money and have stolen property. What’s mine is mine, and anything taken from me only leaves the thief good as dead.
“Giulio, can you tell these men what happens when something of mine is taken?”
My right-hand man, the only man to date who has not let me down, nods.
“Tell or show?” he questions, and this has me clicking my tongue and smirking.
“Tell them today. I’m short on men and need all the working kneecaps I can get.”
With that, he steps in front of the men, who are all lined up.
“Find the shipment, or not only will the cargo be missing,” he whispers, his Italian accent thick, “but so will your bodies.”
I turn and walk away, listening to him provide one swift blow to Levetti’s stomach. Pulling my phone from my suit pocket, I see New York calling.
“Giuseppe. What is it? I’m working.” Annoyed, I ask the father of my betrothed this while checking my watch to see I have to catch my red-eye to New York to meet my new bride. One I don’t care to marry but know it must be done to bring the last two outfits at war together as allies.
At least, that's what Giuseppe thinks. I have my own fucking agenda. To him, I was just the kid who grew up and went to school with his son. So stupid. He is the lousiest man I have ever met, the most ill-witted man alive. He has no idea that I know everything he’s planned.
This marriage is for revenge, the complete opposite of what he thinks it to be.
However, the marriage won’t just aid me in my plot for revenge, because there is the fact that I’m not getting any younger. I need an heir, someone to take over the name after I’m old, dead, and gone. In order to make all three things happen, I need to marry Notelli’s only daughter, Emelia.
“Nico. So harsh. We are to be family soon, and you’re taking my daughter all the way to Seattle. We must be able to break bread and do so frequently,” he drawls, and I roll my eyes, unlocking the Maserati and climbing in. “You know, to keep in touch with our sweet Emelia.”
Her name matches her beauty, but that is all there is to her. No educational background, no hobbies, nothing. When I did my research on her, I was disappointed to see she will be good for nothing but breeding and wearing on my arm.