Page 16 of Stolen Vows
The front door of the condo swings open. “Anna.”
A tall, pale woman with black hair, dark eyes, and bright red lips juts her hip out to the side, glaring at the blond beside me as she appears in the doorway. She’s got an armful of brown paper bags, and she’s wearing the same uniform as Anna, though she fills hers out a bit differently.
I can’t help admiring the striking beauty she emanates. Anna is innocent and young, whereas this stranger is…alluring. Fierce and unyielding.
Her presence feels much like Leo’s, and I spend more time than I should staring at her.
Despite my situation, I feel a longing in my chest. One I haven’t paid much attention to my whole life, aware that my parents would never have approved of an attraction to the same gender. To them, men were my only option, but I’ve always wanted more than that.
When this woman looks at me, though, that desire dries up. Like she’s cutting it off with her own scissors.
“Help me bring up the rest of these bags and stop pestering the new resident.” She directs the order at her colleague, who breaks into a wide grin and scrambles to her feet.
“Irene!” Anna runs over, pulling the new woman into a hug. A head of lettuce and a box of lasagna fall to the floor, and Irene grunts but allows the contact anyway. “You missed it. Flavio was here, and he wasawfulto Mrs. De Tore.”
My nose scrunches up at that name.
“What a surprise. He doesn’t have a decent bone in his disgusting body.” The other woman gently peels Anna from her, bending down to scoop up the food. She glances at me, narrowing her eyes. “What? Are you planning to tell your new master that his staff uses premade pasta? It’s a little early to be plotting ways to get us fired, don’t you think?”
I frown. “Why would I do that?”
“Oh, please.” She rolls her eyes, heading to the open attached kitchen, where she sets the bags on the marble island. “Every one of Leopoldo’s paramours who steps foot in this place is the same: threatened by the existence of others, desperate to get him to change. Men, women, it doesn’t matter—they always thinkthrowing us under the bus will put them in his good graces, but it never does.”
“Irene,” Anna says, looking at me from the corner of her eyes. “Stella’s not like that. Seriously. She’s not like the others, and even though Mr. De Tore doesn’t want her to leave the condo, I can already tell he’s different with her. Maybe he’s inlove!”
Pausing, Irene seems to consider this. She stares down at the counter, her gaze so unyielding that she could probably strike a hole through it.
“Just think!” Anna bounces over, grabbing my arm and sighing wistfully. “Soon, you’ll have a big ceremony with the whole family. Maybe you’ll even honeymoon somewhere fun, like the Maldives! And then you’ll come back and never have to lift a finger or worry about a single thingagain. Mr. De Tore will take care of everything—forever. You can just relax and do whatever you want up here. I mean, you’ll be expected to cook, probably, and make nice with the other wives of Mr. De Tore’s business associates, but still. You’ll be totally taken care of. Won’t that be lovely?” Anna turns, beaming up at me.
God, she’s young—possibly younger than my eighteen years—and I can’t help wondering how she came to work for Leo’s family. Inviting outsiders into the fold is generally frowned upon, yet it’s clear that Anna has no real understanding of how terrible everything she just said sounds.
Suddenly, my chest feels unbearably tight, like a thousand-pound weight was thrown on me. My throat closes, cutting off my airway and stifling the oxygen from my lungs.
My entire future gone in the blink of an eye—the length of one brain-melting kiss.
Death would have been better than this, right?
Am I really giving up? Resigning myself to this fate?
This is all you will ever be good for. I can practically hear Mamma’s mantra, beaten into us as kids about how we were meant to be wives and nothing more.
But this was never what I wanted for myself.
Never what I thought I deserved.
Eventually, Anna runs out of the condo to help bring up more groceries. I meet Irene’s cold, calculated gaze through the columns separating the kitchen from the living room.
She gives a small half shake of her head. “There’s no escaping now.”
8
STELLA
It’s late when Leo finally comes home. I can’t tell exactly what time it is, but the moon is high in the sky, bathing my pale skin in its glow through the large window across from me.
I hear his footsteps, feel their vibrations against the floor. The mattress is soft beneath my body, which isso heavy. It feels as if I’m drowning in a vat of molasses, and right now, I don’t think I’d mind.
The bedroom door opens, providing a sliver of warm light from the hall. It vanishes as quickly as it arrives, shrouding me in only the presence of the moon and city once again when the footsteps shuffle to one end of the bed.
