Becoming His Wife by Hayley Faiman
Chapter Eighteen
TIZIANO
The man behind the desk doesn’t look familiar, but he is a Boss, there is no doubt about that. The power, the confidence, the absolute ruthlessness pours out of him without him even having to say a word.
“Sit,” he demands.
I do. Not because he’s demanded it, but because I want to know what the fuck is going on and I want my wife back, fast. Sinking down in the chair across from his desk, I let my hands lay loosely in my lap and wait for whatever is about to come.
“Bring him in,” the man behind the desk announces.
The office door opens and I look to the side. My jaw drops at the sight of my father walking into the room.
“Padre?” I rasp.
He clears his throat. “I’m disappointed in you, Tiziano.”
Fuck.
I don’t bother attempting to defend myself. He already knows what I’ve done, what’s happened.
“I like Gavino Santoro. He helped me out, we worked together so that he could become a Boss. I probably would have agreed to your contract that you had with him. If he wants an empire, I would have been fine coming up with some kind of compromise.”
“But?” I ask when he doesn’t continue.
“You went behind my back. You betrayed me, betrayed your famiglia.”
I don’t speak. There is nothing to say. Obviously, he found the contract, he knows what I did. Now I just have to see what all of this is about, what he plans on doing with me, with my wife.
“You have nothing to say,” he points out.
“What would you like me to say, Padre?” I ask. “You know what I’ve done. That I sold my birthright for a wife.”
“Why? I could have contracted you with a wife, Tiziano,” he says.
Shaking my head, I look down at my lap, then lift my gaze to meet his. “I wanted to own a wife. Someone who would never leave me.”
Admitting it aloud makes me feel weak as fuck. It doesn’t matter right now, my pride is already nonexistent. I just want my wife and to go back to New York.
I have no doubt that there is some kind of punishment awaiting me and I’m good with that, as long as I have her. I don’t know how or when I fell for her, but I have, completely.
“You didn’t want someone to leave the way your mother did, the way Luisa did,” he says. Dipping my chin, I don’t bother confirming his words verbally, he already knows this. “So much so that you were willing to go behind my back and make a deal with Santoro.”
Again, I nod but don’t speak. The man behind the desk curses, but I don’t listen to him. I don’t give a fuck who he is. My focus is on my father.
“You have given me no choice, Tiziano.”
“No choice?” I ask.
“You’re not leaving Italy,” he announces. “I will deal with Gavino, but you will never be the head of the Bianchi famiglia. You cannot be trusted.”
Standing, my entire body jerks. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I growl. “I wasn’t giving up everything. Joining forces is not giving up a damn thing. That’s all I was doing.”
My father’s gaze narrows on me and he dips his chin. I sit back down, feeling like a scolded child. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment.
“It doesn’t matter what you say. There is no backpedaling now. Di Stefano is your boss now. You’ll stay here under his watch. Maybe one day I’ll allow you back into New York, but you’ll never work under me again. You’ve lost my trust and my respect, however, you’ll always have my love.”
“And my wife?” I grind out.
He shakes his head once. “She will return to the city with me.”
“She’s my wife,” I bark.
“It will be annulled. She will go back to Gavino as his charge, the contract has been broken and will not be fulfilled.”
Anger radiates throughout my entire body at his words. “No,” I shout as I reach for my gun.
Before I can even point it at my father, I hear the men around me pull out their own weapons, including Di Stefano, who points his gun directly toward my head.
“No,” I whisper.
“No?” my father asks.
“She’s mine,” I grind out.
I know exactly what Gavino will do with her if my father returns her. He’s going to whore her, work her until she’s no longer of use to him, then he’ll discard her. Fuck that, no man touches my wife but me.
“Not any longer. There are consequences for your actions, Tiziano.”
Without another word, he turns his back to me and walks away. I start to rush after him, but three men hold me back. One takes the gun from my hand and as much as I fight, their strength combined is enough to keep me in my place and away from my father and my wife.
My entire body jerks one last time as the weight of what’s just happened settles on me. My entire body slumps. I’ve just lost my wife. She’s gone. I’m never going to see her again and I feel that ache fill me from the inside out.
Then everything goes dark.
MACI
The door fliesopen and I lift my head. I’m not sure what I expected in front of me but it certainly wasn’t my father-in-law. He looks at me for a long silent moment, then shakes his head once.
“Tiziano is stupid,” he mumbles. “Come girl, our plane waits.”
“Where’s Tiziano?” I ask.
He shakes his head again, holding out his hand. “Don’t worry about that. Come now.”
I do as he asks, unsure of what is actually going on, thankful that I don’t have to stay in the room with my-sized clothes for another minute. I don’t think that Tiziano’s father would do anything bad to me. He talks about how much love and respect he has for his father, so I do as I’m told, and I follow him.
Piero is waiting next to a black car when we exit the house. Silently, we climb into the back seat of the car and Piero drives us away from the large Italian estate.
“Can you tell me what’s happened?” I ask.
He hums, then turns his head and looks over to me. His eyes soften and he shakes his head. “You’re going back to New York. The marriage will be annulled and you’ll go back to Gavino. My son messed up, big time. He will be staying here. I can’t trust him any longer.”
The breath leaves my body. As the car pulls up to the airport and I see the plane in the distance, my heart starts to slam against my chest. I can’t go back to New York. I can’t leave Tiziano.
“No,” I blurt out.
“No?” he asks, his voice clearly full of warning.
Shaking my head, I ignore the warning in his voice and I hold up my palms as a form of protection. “No,” I breathe. “I won’t leave him, Tussio. I’m his wife and I’m not going to abandon him.”
Tussio’s lips curve up into a grin and he chuckles. “He somehow ended up choosing the right girl, though I don’t know how. I wish it were that easy, Maci. However, it is not. You will go back to New York and Gavino will do with you as he wishes. This is a business transaction, and it has nothing to do with you personally. Tiziano fucked up, plain and simple. Unfortunately, it was on a level where I cannot turn a blind eye.”
“What will happen to him?” I ask.
Tussio lifts his hand, cupping my cheek and his gaze softens. “You’re a good girl. I’m sorry this has happened this way, for both of you. All I wanted was my son to be happy, but he fucked it all up. I should kill him. I am well within my rights to do such a thing.”
“But?”
“Love, it fucks you up, Maci. He must understand what he did was wrong, and I cannot let him simply live out his life happy and free here, he must lose you as you are the reason he fucked up.”
“Because he wanted to own his wife,” I whisper.
He hums. “Indeed. Let’s go now, New York waits.”
“Will I ever see him again?” I ask as tears fall from my eyes and roll down my cheeks.
Tussio shakes his head. “You won’t.”
That is the end of that. At least, in Tussio’s eyes. Probably in Tiziano’s too. But I’m not going to just leave Tiziano, not if I can help it. Physically, I climb on the plane and buckle in. I ride the nine-hour flight in silence. I think of as many excuses as I can to see Tiziano again.
I think about crying to Gavino, but I doubt tears would work on him. I can’t blackmail him or persuade him in any way whatsoever. I have zero leverage or pull in any other organization to get him to help me.
All I can do is beg and hope that Gavino takes pity on me.
Inhaling a deep breath, I decide that even if I am weak in so many other ways, I can be brave in this. I’ve been shuffled and passed around so many times as it is, I can do this again. I don’t want to, but I am once again without a choice.
I thought that I had been through some hard times in my life, but I think this could be the hardest, having just a small taste of how beautiful my life could be, then having it ripped away from me.
I’m completely and totally devastated.
