Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“No.” I swallow. “I suppose we don’t.”
A beat of silence passes before my father’s fist rattles the door to the bridal suite.
“You have twenty minutes, Abella. Prepare yourself.”
“Well.” Mariella blows out a breath and shrugs. “I guess that’s that.”
15
ABELLA
In the rush of getting into my dress, I start to feel claustrophobic, and I have to actively fight the urge to tear it off. My thoughts bounce between who sabotaged my wedding to how I can harness the power of invisibility and make myself disappear.
“Abella,” Gabi whispers. “You’re breaking out in hives.”
I stare down at my chest, half-dazed and barely able to register how problematic this is.
“I have an antihistamine,” Lucia says. “Hang on.”
A moment later, I’m swallowing the pill while my sister hovers near the door, trying to explain the situation to my father. True to his nature, this development only enrages him, and he clears the room despite all protests, ordering his guard to drag the bridesmaids out by force.
Once we’re alone, his hostile gaze settles on my face, and I barely have time to draw a breath before he lays into me.
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” He stabs a finger at me, trembling with the urge to unleash.
“I have done everything you’ve ever asked of me,” I answer. “I’ve spent my entire life trying to earn your approval, believing if I could just be perfect, it would make you care. But it’s never enough, is it? You can’t possibly love me. If you did, you wouldn’t sentence me to the same fate as Mamma.”
He barks out a hollow laugh, shaking his head in disgust. “Your mother was business. Do you think I wanted to marry her? No, but I did it for the good of the family.”
I shouldn’t have expected him to have a kind word to say about her. But there was still a part of me that secretly hoped his drinking and rage-fueled outbursts were grief, rather than him finally showing us who he always was.
“We all have a duty in life,” he tells me. “Your mother was weak-spirited and couldn’t fulfill even the most basic obligation of bearing a son for me. Do you truly think I could love someone so fucking useless? That car accident freed me from the shackles of our marriage as she shriveled up and withered away. The only peace I ever had in my life was when she could no longer communicate with me.”
Every word cuts deeper than the next, twisting the blade until all the agony and rage I’ve buried bleeds out. And this time, there is no bandaging it.
“You couldn’t communicate with her because you couldn’t be bothered to learn!” I yell at him. “You wouldn’t even give her the bare minimum—”
The back of his hand explodes across my face, rattling my teeth as my head whips to the side. I stumble back, the taste of blood coating my mouth. A glance at his fingers confirms he’s wearing a ring, and it must have cut my lip. But that’s the least of my concerns when he starts taking items from the bar cart and hurtling them at me.
A glass. A corkscrew. An empty champagne bottle.
I manage to dodge them all before he grabs a bottle of wine and smashes it against the cart. Shards of glass rain down on the floor, leaving only the jagged bottleneck in his hand as he stalks toward me. As I’m trying to skirt around him, he reaches out and grabs me by the back of the neck, shaking me so hard I’m afraid he might break it.
A short reprieve comes when he shoves me so hard I bounce off the wall and crumple to the floor. But then he kneels beside me, pressing the jagged bottleneck to my throat.
“I gave you life!” he roars. “Mark my words, Abella, if you embarrass me again, I will take it from you. You have one fucking purpose, and you will fulfill your obligation. Do you understand me?”
When I don’t answer, another wave of fury flashes through his eyes as the jagged edge of the wine bottle bites into my skin. For a moment, I wonder if this is it. Is this how my life will actually end?
As I’m considering it, the service door opens behind me, and I feel a rush of air move past me as someone boots my father in the gut.
The momentum sends him skidding across the floor, sputtering in shock as the wine bottle flies from his grasp. I blink up at Nicky as he glances down to check on me, and a deadly calm settles over his face.
Words fail me as I watch him stalk toward my father and stomp on his ribs with so much brutality, I swear I hear bones crunching.
“You motherfucker!” my father heaves, clutching his side in agony as he curls into a ball.