Page 22 of Forsaken Promises
I’ll make his life a living hell, a never-ending parade of tears and tantrums and hysterical fits.
I’ll be the most immature, selfish, melodramatic wife he's ever seen. And I’ll do it all with a smile on my face. Because if there's one thing I know how to do, it’s put on a show.
And this show? This performance of a lifetime? It’s going to be fucking spectacular.
Just as quickly as the vindictive thoughts enter my mind, they dissipate like smoke in the wind. I sigh heavily, the weight of my own conscience bearing down on me. I can almost see my mother’s face frowning at me.
“This isn’t how we raised you, Sofia,”my conscience almost seems to say.“You are not to hurt someone just because you can. You’re better than that.”
Ugh. I press the heels of my hands into my eyes in frustration.
My parents would be so disappointed in me. They raised me better than this, taught me the value of integrity, of honor, of putting family above all else.
And isn’t that what I’m doing here? Isn’t that why I agreed to this marriage in the first place?
To honor my father’s last wishes, to secure a future for my sisters, to ensure that the Marino name lives on, even after he’s gone?
If I were to blow up this marriage, to do everything in my power to undo the alliance that my father worked so hard to forge…
It would be the ultimate betrayal, the ultimate act of selfishness and disrespect.
And it would harm more than just myself. It would put my sisters at risk, leave them vulnerable to the machinations of the other Families, the vultures who circle our empire, waiting for any sign of weakness.
The thought of Bianca, Chiara, and Mia suffering because of my own selfish desires… it’s like a knife to the gut.
I can’t do that to them. I won’t.
No matter how much it hurts, I have to find a way to make this stupid marriage work. Just for my sisters, until they are safely married off.
Even if it means swallowing my pride, my anger, my pain.
Even if it means making peace with the man who shattered my heart, who broke me in ways I never thought possible.
Because in the end, that’s what family does. That's what love means.
Sacrifice. Selflessness. Putting the needs of others above your own. And if there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that I love my sisters more than life itself. More than my own happiness, my own dreams, my own desires. They are my everything, my best friends.
And I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe, to give them the future they deserve.
It's a small price to pay, in the grand scheme of things. So, in the morning, I will go to Dom. I will apologize for my harsh words, my cold demeanor. I will try to find a way to build a bridge between us, to create some kind of truce, some kind of understanding.
Even if it’s just a façade, a mask that we wear in public, in front of the watching eyes of the world. Even if beneath the surface, the wounds of the past still fester, still bleed.
It’s a start, a small, tentative step toward some kind of future, some kind of life together.
And it’s one that I have to take, for the sake of my Family, my legacy.
For the sake of the love that I once bore him, the love that traitorously still lingers.
I don't know if it will be enough. I don't know if we can ever truly move past what happened. But I have to try.
For my father, for my sisters. And for myself, for the girl I used to be, the woman I want to become.
Even if it means facing my demons, my fears, my deepest, darkest secrets. Even if it means risking my heart, my soul, my everything.
Because in the end, that’s what life is all about, isn’t it?
Risk. Chance. The courage to face the unknown, to step into the darkness and trust that somewhere, somehow, there will be light.
