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Prologue

Salvatore

I signed the contract before roove on the sheet of paper I set the pen down and slid the pages across the table to her

Lucia

I could barely htened eyes to mine

She looked at it, at the collected, official documents that would bind her toor si to make sense of what had just happened What had been decided for her For both of us

She turned reddened eyes to her father I didn’t miss the questions I saw inside them The plea The disbelief

But DeMarco kept his eyes lowered, his head bent in defeat He couldn’t look at his daughter, not after what he’d been made to watch

I understood that, and I hatedhim do it

Lucia sucked in a ragged breath Could everyone hear it or justin her neck Her hand treaze once ainst the tears that threatened to spill on her already stained cheeks

I didn’t knohat I felt upon seeing the at all anymore

“Sign”

My father’s coazes collide

“We don’t have all day”

To call hirown men tremble

But she didn’t shy away

“Sign, Lucia,” her father said quietly

She didn’t look at anyone after that Instead, she put pen to paper and signed her name—Lucia Annalisa DeMarco—on the dotted line adjacent to mine My family’s attorney applied the seal to the sheets as soon as she finished, quickly taking the the room

I guess it was all official, then Decided Done

My father stood, gave nature look of displeasure, and walked out of the room Two of his men followed

“Do you need a ood-bye to her father?

“No”