STOLEN SMILE

CATERINA

"We are all born mad. Some remain so."

-Samuel Beckett

†*******†

"SOMEBODY HAD BETTER START EXPLAINING what the fuck's going on right now!" Papà snapped. When his gaze flicked to me at the top of the staircase, he paused and then his expression became even stormier. He shook his head, gesturing toward me with his gun. "Go to your room, Caterina."

On instinct, my feet began to comply.

"Stay." Jenn's voice was a deep timbre of control.

She was the don right now. No soft edges.

I halted, my blood going cold with indecision.

Jenn stepped away from Bradley and faced my papà. My cousin and father had a gun aimed at her head while she held her by her side. A cold sweat drifted down my back.

Papà and Jenn stared at each other, communicating with their eyes. Something only dons could understand.

"You've gone too fucking far," Papà spit. "Caterina is not yours until the marriage. And if you've somehow forgotten—that hasn't fucking happened yet."

"Let me enlighten you, Salvatore," Jenn growled. "As soon as the contract was signed she was mine."

"Fuck the contract and. Fuck. You. Ace."

Jenn ran a hand across her jaw with sardonic amusement. "You're backing out?"

"That's what I said."

My heart threatened to beat out of my chest.

Jenn took a step toward my papà. "You want to know how to start a war with me, Salvatore? This would be how to do it."

My eyes widened. This can't be happening......

Papa's jaw tightened. Trevor and Dominic remained silent and unreadable, their attention and guns unmoving from the Melgren in the foyer.

"Come here, Caterina," Jenn demanded.

Papà shot me a narrowed gaze. "You'll go to your fucking room. Now!"

Indecision twisted so violently in my stomach it felt like I might be sick. I didn't know what to do, who to listen to. Why this was happening to me. I wrote a note........I should have known Jenn wouldn't have found that sufficient.

Jenn's gaze flicked to me. Her eyes were dark around the edges, but the irises were shimmering depths. Awareness ran through me. She said nothing, though she didn't have to. She wanted me to choose her and she was letting me see it. It was the most vulnerable thing I'd ever seen her do, and the fact that she might show me a side of her not many had before sent a throb to my chest.

As my hands grew clammy and my breaths short, I did the thing that had been ingrained in me since I was a child. I listened to my papà and took a step toward my room.

But something stopped me.

If I picked my papà's side, it could mean violence and death. Possibly war.

Although, that wasn't only it.

A tug deep in my stomach pulled me in the other direction. A place near my heart grew cold and empty with the small step I'd taken.

As I hesitated, the tension hung over my head like a formidable cloud.

My papà sold me to Oscar Perez.