Page 72 of Forsaken Promises
But it’s no use. He’s too strong, too determined to let me go.
As we reach the altar, I turn to the priest, my eyes wide and pleading. “Please, Father,” I beg, my voice cracking with desperation. “Please, you have to help me. You can’t let him do this. You can’t be a part of this madness!”
But the priest just looks away, his face a mask of shame and cowardice. And in that moment, I feel something inside me snap.
“How dare you,” I hiss, my voice shaking with fury and disgust. “How dare you stand there in your robes and your collar, pretending to be a man of God. You’re a mockery, a disgrace to everything that your faith is supposed to stand for!”
The priest flinches as if I’ve struck him, but he doesn’t say a word, doesn’t move, doesn’t try to stop the travesty that’s unfolding before him.
If I get out of this, I’m going to fucking hunt this priest down and kill him myself for allowing this farce to occur.
Luca snaps his fingers at the priest. “Begin.”
The priest startles and opens his Bible, his voice a hollow mockery of the sacred vows, one of the most special sacraments.
Luca turns to the photographer. “Get over here,” he barks, his voice sharp with command. “I want pictures of this moment.” He turns to me, a cruel, mocking smile twisting his lips. “I want to capture every second of my triumph over Dominico.”
The photographer scrambles to obey, his hands shaking as he raises his camera and begins to snap away. And suddenly, I find myself being pulled and posed like a mannequin in Luca’s sick, twisted fantasy.
He wraps his arms around me, his hands roaming over my body in a grotesque parody of affection. He presses his lips to my cheek, my neck, my collarbone, leaving a trail of slimy, repulsive kisses on my skin.
I want to throw up, want to step into the hottest shower imaginable and scrub my skin until I feel clean. But I don’t think I will ever be clean.
And all the while, the camera keeps flashing, keeps immortalizing this moment, this nightmare that I know will haunt me for the rest of my days.
But then Luca is turning me to face him, his eyes glinting with triumph. “And now, a kiss. To really drive the point home.”
He leans in, his lips parting and his eyes fluttering closed, his hand wrapped possessively around my waist. A scream erupts from my throat, a desperate, animalistic howl of revulsion and terror as I rear my head back to headbutt him straight in his nose.
I willnotkiss him. I will not sully my marriage vows in such a way. I will die before I allow that to happen.
But before Luca’s mouth can touch mine, before my head makes contact with his nose, the chapel doors burst open with a bang that shakes the very foundations of the room.
And there, standing in the doorway, his eyes blazing with a fury that steals the very breath from my lungs… is Dom.
I gasp, my heart seizing in my chest. He came. He found me, just like I always knew he would.
But then I see the look on his face, the raw, visceral rage that contorts his features into a mask of pure, unadulterated wrath. And I realize that this is not the Dom I know, not the man I fell in love with.
This is a Dom I’ve never seen before. And as I see Dom’s eyes take in the scene of me in a wedding dress with Luca’s hands splayed possessively over me, I can see this is a Dom who has been pushed beyond the bounds of sanity and restraint.
A Dom who is ready to burn the whole world down just to get to me.
35
DOMINICO
This has to be a nightmare.
Sofia stands at the altar in a wedding dress, her face pale. And beside her, his hand gripping her waist like a vise, his eyes glinting with triumph… is Luca.
For a moment, my world shatters. I feel the ground drop out from beneath my feet. The air turns to ash in my lungs. How could Sofia choosehimover me? How could she even think she could marry him? We’re the ones fucking married!
But then my eyes slide down to see her bound hands. The raw, bleeding marks on her wrists show that she’s fought against her restraints. And when I first stormed in, I saw the way she looked at Luca—like she was moments away from headbutting Luca in the face and making a run for it.
And I realize this isn’t a choice. This isn’t Sofia betraying me. This is a violation, a perversion of everything that love and marriage are supposed to stand for.
Thisfuckingasshole.
