Borrowed Bride: Chapter 29

“Will you marry me?”

I should pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Tangled in Marco’s arms as he weaves such sweet words in my ear, how can I resist? Maybe I should say no until everything is sorted and calmed down—but I know in my heart of hearts that he isn’t guilty for what happened to Fawn—and if I’ve learned anything over the years it’s that nothing ever settles down.

There’s always something more, something worse. Nothing is ever calm, and there’s never been a return to normal, so if I wait, I’ll be waiting forever. Maybe there’s more to think about, but in this moment, I just want something nice—just one thing to go right.

“Yes,” I say after a few seconds of staring into the depths of his eyes that hold warmth only for me. “Yes, I would love to marry you!” After five years, I love him as dearly now as I did when it broke my heart to run away all those years ago.

I cradle his jaw and nod as happy tears flood my eyes. “Yes, yes!”

Marco kisses me deeply and rolls us over until he’s above me, kissing me repeatedly. “We’ll be married for real,” he whispers against my lips. “A real wedding with just us and no one in the way. No guns, no shooting. And a better dress.”

He kisses me again as we laugh and blissfulness warms my tired body. It will be the best wedding in history.

Sleep comes pretty quickly after that, especially once Marco takes some of the painkillers Fawn acquired for him. I don’t tell him that part yet, instead I let him fall asleep next to me while I slip into unsettling dreams. They’re a mix of bliss with Marco and fear from the ambulance and seeing the club explosion on the news.

Even asleep, I’m distantly aware of how a third party has been playing all of us for fools.

The next morning, we wake to the scent of coffee and toast, and I show Marco where he can get some fresh clothes. They’re not his usual luxury brand but they will do. Then I take his hand and lead him through the house, following the scents. A soft murmur of conversation rises from the kitchen, and when we enter, I spot Tara and Cherry near the stove as they nurse coffee mugs and talk.

Leonardo sits at the table and my heart lurches. I’d momentarily forgotten about him. He woke up a day earlier than Marco and our reunion had been tense. He’d mostly been stunned that I was alive, then more stunned that we had saved him. He’d been subdued by the promise that answers were coming, but I’d become distracted by Marco and we’d delayed that accidentally.

“Gianna!” Tara smiles widely; then, her smile falters when she spots Marco behind me. There is a single second of peace before Marco and Leonardo spot one another, then they lunge at each other like wild animals.

“You fucker!” Marco yells. “Trying to bury me for a second time huh?!”

“Me?!” Leonardo yells back. “You’re the one fucking destroying all my property!”

Just as they clash with one another, Cherry and Tara are there to haul them apart and it’s alarming to see just how desperately each man claws the air to try and reach the other. Tara slams Leonardo back against the fridge, dislodging a few magnets in the process, while Cherry shoves Marco into the next room.

“Marco!” I run after him, placing my hands on his heaving chest as he seethes with rage. “Please, you have to listen to me okay? Leonardo’s not the bad guy you think he is. I mean, he is, but in this context, he’s really not.”

“What?” Marco turns those flaming angry eyes on me and I pull my hands back slightly.

“Trust me,” I plead. “I can explain everything.”

It takes Marco a few minutes to calm down, but eventually, he sits on the sofa and allows Leonardo into the room. While they sit as far away from each other as they can, they both accept cups of coffee. I sit next to Marco, keeping some space, as what I’m about to say will be hard for him to hear.

“For the past five years, I’ve lived thinking that you were dead, Marco. I was told and believed that the explosion that night at the safe house killed you and that Leonardo was responsible.”

“I didn’t—” Leo surges forward but he’s silenced by a dangerous look from Cherry.

“And so, for these past years I’ve been alive living in a safe house. I was put there by someone I thought was keeping me safe and I was … busy.” Bringing up Freya is a whole other can of worms I can’t get into right now. “And time passed so quickly. And then I began to think that the person keeping me safe wasn’t actually doing that. I was really a prisoner.”

“Who?” Marco demands, gripping my hand. He sends evil glances toward Leonardo. “I’ll kill them. I swear I will.”

“Dante,” I say softly.

Marco freezes and confusion washes over his face. His lips part and no sound appears. Even Leonardo seems surprised as he shifts in his seat but doesn’t speak.

“I don’t understand,” Marco says tightly as his brows knit together. “Dante—my father—has kept you hidden all these years?”

“Yes. He told me you were dead, and that the remaining family was after me as revenge. He told me Leonardo was also hunting me down because I’d embarrassed him with the wedding fiasco and he also thought that the whole thing had been a ruse.”

Leonardo had already been informed about Cherry and Tara, and why I was forced to run so he was soothed in knowing there was no grand plan there from Marco.

“What the fuck,” Marco breathes. He’s difficult to read as a blanket of anger descends, and he’s silent as he stares off into the distance. “All this time, I don’t fucking understand. He would tell me over and over that you were dead but that your death wasn’t worth prolonging the war. I don’t …”

As he falls silent, Tara begins to detail Dante’s involvement with the Ricci family. She explains their low-level status, so low, in fact that no one looks at them twice. As she details how Dante’s kidnapping was merely a ruse, and that they’ve followed Dante several times to meetings with the head of the Ricci family. She’s halfway through when Leonardo suddenly lurches up from his seat.

He stares at the doorway, white as a ghost, and we follow his eye line to Fawn. She stands in the doorway, and as soon as Marco sees her, he’s on his feet as well. He stands between me and her, so I rise and clasp his hand.

“It’s okay,” I soothe him. “She’s on our side I promise. She won’t kill you.”

“I’m tempted,” Fawn says stiffly. “After our last encounter, I was pretty pissed you got away.”

“Didn’t have the balls to kill me while I was in a coma?” Marco snaps.

Fawn laughs. “I didn’t exactly walk away from that explosion intact. I had to take care of myself. In fact⁠—”

“Fawn?” Leo’s voice trembles and he steps forward shakily. “I-I’m sorry, you just … you look so much like someone I used to know …”

“You’re not wrong,” Fawn says softly, eyeing Leonardo.

“Wait,” Marco butts in. “You two know each other? I fucking knew you were behind it Leo!”

“Marco, no.” I squeeze his hand to keep a hold of him. “It’s really not what you think.”

Leo sniffles, wiping quickly at his eyes. “It can’t be,” he says. “You died. You were killed, I know you were.”

“Lots of people come back from the dead,” Fawn replies, then she looks at Marco. “Leonardo is my brother.”

“What?” Marco explodes. “You’re a Simone?!” His hand curls into a fist against my palm. “You better start talking before I put you through that fucking wall!”

“You lay one hand on my sister and I will kill you!” Leo yells, despite the tears in his eyes.

An argument breaks out once again and it’s only calmed after Tara and Cherry step in to keep the two raging men on opposite sides of the room. Despite my protests, coffee is replaced with vodka, and after twenty minutes of cursing and threats, we finally have everyone seated once more.

“How are you alive?” Leo asks weakly after downing his glass of vodka in one gulp.

“I was never dead,” Fawn replies. She stands in the middle of the room between the two of them and sighs. “When I was eighteen, my father assigned me my first big case. Everything before that was small targets. People were causing issues that he wanted to get rid of. He wanted me to kill Marco.”

Marco stiffens against me but doesn’t speak.

“So I started scoping him out, one thing led to another, and we fell in love. I thought my father was being generous in giving me a lot of time to kill Marco, but looking back, I suppose he was just hoping my romance with him was a way to get close and kill his entire family. I failed, in his eyes. I couldn’t kill a big target so all my training as an assassin was suddenly useless.”

“And then you died,” Leonardo says tightly. “Dad would tell me all the time as a warning. You died.”

“I thought the same,” Marco murmurs.

“I didn’t die. I was sold into slavery. One minute I was asleep in bed; the next, I was in a van being taken somewhere, and I was sure Marco had worked out who I was and what I was trying to do. For years it fit. I was sold by Marco because everyone knows the human trafficking rumors around the Barrone family.”

“I didn’t,” Marco says, his voice strained. “I would never.”

Fawn sighs. “Thanks to Gianna, I think I believe you this time.”

“You were …” Leo shakes his head. “No, Dad told me he saw your body. We had a funeral and everything, I don’t understand.”

Fawn grits her teeth. “That I can’t explain. But I was definitely not dead. In fact, one of the things that convinced me that it was you, Marco, was Dante.”

“My father?” Marco shakes slightly as we sit, shoulder to shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Not long after I was taken, maybe six months or so, I was sold for a night to a group of men having some party. They could sell me for high prices back then because I was fresh.” Her words roll with disgust. “Dante bought me that night. Your father raped me, and he definitely knew I wasn’t dead.”

There’s a sudden strong gagging sound from Marco as he clutches at my leg and sweat breaks out across his forehead. “What?” he hisses through clenched teeth.

“The world thought me dead. Your father knew otherwise. So from that point on, I was convinced you had learned who I truly was and shipped me off.”

“I wouldn’t,” Marco says. “But I don’t understand why⁠—”

“It was him, wasn’t it?” Leonardo speaks up, looking rather unwell himself. “Dante. It has to be. Why else would he leave her there, huh? He had to have known she was already there, or had a hand in putting her there, right? And now he’s in bed with the Ricci’s, letting us tear ourselves apart.”

He has a point. All this time, all the good Marco has been working to do; none of it holds up against Dante’s cruelty. Why he sold Fawn is still unclear, and why he kept me captive and hidden for so long remains a mystery.

So many questions and only one man can answer them.

“Do you know where my father is?” Marco asks and his voice is eerily calm, like the lull in the ocean before a storm.

“We had eyes on him,” Tara speaks up. “But since the club explosion, he’s gone to ground.”

Marco looks up. “Why did you come to the safe house? How did you know where we were?”

“Fawn’s followed Dante back there countless times, but she wanted to investigate another building where she found Gianna. I was to make sure Dante was at home so Fawn knew exactly how long she would have.”

Marco nods stiffly, and his hand moves to grip my thigh.

“If he’s gone to ground, I’ll find the fucker,” Leo snaps.

“No,” Marco cuts in. “Emilia, my sister, she’s still with him.”

“Your sister is alive?!” Leo chokes on the words. “What the fuck?!”

“Dante wanted to sell her, marry her off for power and I refused. After what happened to my mother, I couldn’t let that happen and I—” Marco pauses. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. Either way, we can’t go against him until I know Emilia will be safe.”

Fawn glances at Cherry who nods once and slips from the room.

“We’ll find your sister,” Fawn says. “We’re already aware of her condition. Moving to that new safe house made it more obvious you had someone else with you.”

Marco gazes up at Fawn. “Why are you helping me? By rights you should still want to kill me for what my father did.”

“I do a little bit,” Fawn replies. “But you could say I’ve learned a new perspective.” She glances at me with the smallest of hidden smiles.

Suddenly, there’s a thump and through the door comes Freya who, upon seeing strangers, immediately begins to wail. During all the discussions, she had slipped my mind, but now she runs straight toward me, sobbing.

I scoop her up and feel everyone’s eyes burning into me.

It was supposed to go better than this. I have no idea how I would have told Marco the truth, but given the dark topic of conversation, it feels right to mention something nice.

Especially as Leo and Fawn hug each other after decades apart.

“So,” I say softly as Marco stares up at me, his eyes locked on to Freya. “Would finding out you’re a father be too much for you right now?”