Page 8 of The Forbidden Husband
I stared into the body-length mirror and sighed.
I had always imagined this so differently. I wanted a beautiful white dress to go along with the wedding I wanted. But instead, I saw precisely what Jillian was saying, as much as I hated to admit it. My skin had lost its usual glow over the past week, giving me a sickly pallor that didn’t work with this shade of white. The typical color of my eyes—mossy green swirled with a light shade of brown—had become muted with the stress.
Everything about me looked dull, and I knew I could attribute it to my anxiety about what would happen next in my life.
How would I survive him? Everyone knew of his brutality and unforgiving nature.
But still… he hadn’t told my father that I had spit in his face.
He had defended me against my father, and then he had walked away as if he’d done nothing. His parting words still echoed through my head days later.
Nobody will touch my bride but me.
“I think you look beautiful,” Evelina said sincerely, breaking me from my thoughts.
I smiled halfheartedly as Livia sighed at her lack of social awareness. She didn’t notice the tension between Jillian and Livia or my reservations about this marriage.
She didn’tneedto worry. Neither she nor Livia did. I was entering this matrimony to make sure of that.
“Thanks, Evie.”
“Could we try something beige, maybe?”
“This isn’t a prom, Jillian. It’s a wedding,” Livia scoffed.
Jillian rolled her eyes. “It’s not like itmatters. Does it matter to you, Aria?”
I looked through the mirror at all of them. Livia held her phone in front of her, scrolling absentmindedly through it. Evelina stared down at my dress, and Jillian sat with a ramrod-straight posture and crossed ankles as she looked me up and down with interest.
Nothing about this entire situation mattered to me.
“I’d be willing to try whatever you think will look best,” I replied with my most submissive tone.
It’s not like it’s my wedding anyway. I’m just a pawn in a much larger scheme.
She clapped her hands together. “Oh, wonderful. Dear, would you pick out a few dresses that are off-color? I think Aria would look wonderful in a dress with yellow undertones. Somethingwarmer. These cool whites aren’t doing her any favors.”
The bridal attendant nodded and took off toward the racks.
“I think this wedding will do so much good,” Jillian continued, resting her hands in her lap with a sigh. “Enzo needs a woman at home to curb some of that energy he has. He’s always been tightly strung. After his parents’ deaths, he’s been having a difficult time. My husband has been allowing him to kill as an outlet, but I think he needs something else.”
“He needs a wife to take out all that anger on?” Livia asked with a pronounced eye roll.
Jillian scoffed. “No, of course not. But when they have their sexual needs met more regularly with a consistent woman, it—”
I forced myself to tune out the rest of her words as she continued.
Sexual needs.
To think that I would be responsible for a man like him. To take care of a man like that…
Nausea roiled in my throat, and I choked back the burning sensation. I didn't want to lose my virginity to a man who killed for pleasure.
A man who spent hours skinning a man alive.
A man walked into a room full of ten armed men and left them all dead and dismembered without batting an eye.
“Aria?” Livia’s voice brought me out of my stupor, and I blinked quickly, catching her questioning gaze.
