Chapter 2 - The Marriage Contract
I read Daniel's sentence seventeen times.
If Adrian offers marriage, say yes.
My brother had been dead nine months.
Adrian had not mentioned marriage.
Yet Daniel had somehow known he might.
By 8:00 the next morning, I was sitting across from Adrian again.
This time, I placed everything on his desk.
The photograph.
The brass key.
The encrypted flash drive.
The warning picture from my apartment.
Adrian's face changed when he read Daniel's message.
"Where did you get this?"
"Wrapped around a brick."
He picked up his phone.
"Vincent."
Less than a minute later, an older man entered.
Late sixties.
Silver hair.
Black suit.
He looked at me once, then at the photograph.
"Rizzo?"
Adrian nodded.
The older man's expression hardened.
"She's staying here."
"I am sitting right here," I said.
Both men looked at me.
"I am not staying anywhere."
Vincent nearly smiled.
Adrian didn't.
"Your apartment is compromised."
"My shop?"
"Compromised."
"My car?"
"Probably tracked."
"Anything else you'd like to take away?"
"Your illusion that you still control this situation."
I stood.
"Then give it back."
Something passed through his eyes.
Respect, maybe.
Or irritation.
"Sit down, Sofia."
"No."
Vincent coughed into his fist, hiding what might have been a laugh.
Adrian ignored him.
"Daniel knew Rizzo was moving money through waterfront construction contracts. Your brother handled bookkeeping for one of those companies."
I froze.
Daniel had told me he was consulting for an import company.
"He found discrepancies," Adrian continued. "Payments to shell corporations. Bribes. Missing containers."
"What was in the containers?"
"Weapons."
My stomach dropped.
"Daniel tried to get out."
"And you?"
"I tried to help him."
"Why?"
Adrian looked at Daniel's photograph.
"Because he helped me first."
That answer raised more questions than it solved.
Adrian took the flash drive.
"Encrypted."
"One attempt left."
"Don't touch it again."
He handed it to Vincent.
"Get Matteo."
Vincent left.
I remained standing.
"What does any of this have to do with marrying you?"
For the first time, Adrian seemed surprised.
"You read the back."
"Daniel apparently knew something I didn't."
Adrian leaned against the desk.
"Rizzo operates under rules."
"Mafia rules."
"Rules nevertheless."
"If a protected member of another family is harmed without authorization, it becomes war."
"So?"
"If you become my wife, Rizzo cannot touch you without declaring war against me."
I stared.
"And why would you do that?"
"Because Daniel died trying to stop him."
"That's not enough."
"No."
"Then what's the other reason?"
Adrian didn't answer.
I understood immediately.
There was one.
Maybe several.
"Marriage isn't protection," I said. "It's ownership."
"Not with me."
"That's exactly what a man like you would say."
"A man like me?"
"A mafia boss."
Vincent returned before Adrian could respond.
He placed a tablet on the desk.
"The drive contains a layered encryption structure. Matteo can open it, but it'll take time."
"How long?"
"Maybe forty-eight hours."
I laughed without humor.
"I have less than that."
Adrian looked at Vincent.
"No, she doesn't."
Vincent understood before I did.
"No."
Adrian reached into a drawer and removed a folder.
A contract.
He placed it in front of me.
"I had this prepared last night."
I stared at him.
"You knew."
"I suspected Daniel might have left instructions."
I opened the folder.
Civil marriage agreement.
Legal protections.
Separate finances.
My flower shop remained mine.
No claim to inheritance.
Either party could initiate divorce after twelve months.
And in a paragraph near the bottom:
No marital intimacy shall be required or implied by this agreement.
My face grew hot.
"You actually wrote that?"
"I wanted you to understand exactly what I was asking."
"What are you asking?"
"One year."
"Living together?"
"For security."
"Sharing a bedroom?"
"No."
"Children?"
His expression became unreadable.
"No."
"Love?"
That question escaped before I could stop it.
Adrian stared at me.
"Especially not that."
I should have been relieved.
Instead, something about his answer hurt.
Ridiculous.
I barely knew him.
"This is insane."
"Yes."
"You expect me to marry a stranger."
"I expect you to choose between a dangerous arrangement and a fatal one."
"Wonderful sales pitch."
"You have two days. I'm not going to pretend otherwise."
I looked down at the contract.
Then Daniel's message.
Say yes.
My brother had trusted this man enough to predict this.
Or feared something enough to believe Adrian was my only option.
"When?"
"Today."
I looked up sharply.
"Today?"
"If you sign."
"And if I don't?"
"I put you on a plane with armed security."
"Rizzo finds me?"
"Eventually."
The honesty was brutal.
I took the pen.
Adrian's expression didn't change.
"What are you doing?"
"Something stupid."
"Sofia."
I signed.
"There. Congratulations. You've successfully terrorized a florist into matrimony."
Adrian stared at my signature.
Then at me.
"You can still walk away."
I laughed.
"To where?"
He didn't answer.
Four hours later, I married Adrian DeLuca in a private judge's chamber.
Vincent was the witness.
There were no flowers.
That felt like an insult from the universe.
Adrian wore a black suit.
I wore the navy dress I'd kept in the back of my car.
The judge looked between us and probably wondered why the bride seemed ready to bolt through a window.
When Adrian slid the ring onto my finger, his hand was warm.
His eyes met mine.
"You are safe now," he whispered.
I wanted to believe him.
That evening, I arrived at his Beacon Hill townhouse with one suitcase.
The house was enormous, but Adrian gave me the entire second-floor guest suite.
"You can lock your bedroom."
"From you?"
"From everyone."
"And you?"
"Third floor."
He handed me a key.
"No one enters your room without permission."
The feared mafia boss had just given me more boundaries in five minutes than some boyfriends managed in five years.
I didn't know what to do with that.
At dinner, Vincent joined us.
He had known Adrian since childhood.
"You really married her," he said.
Adrian cut into his steak.
"You witnessed it."
"I thought you might regain your senses."
I nearly smiled.
Vincent looked at me.
"You're either very brave or very reckless."
"People keep telling me they're different things."
Adrian's mouth twitched.
It was almost a smile.
Then his phone rang.
Everything changed.
He stood.
"Stay here."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"That's clearly a lie."
Vincent was already moving.
Adrian pulled on his jacket.
"Someone hit one of our warehouses."
"Rizzo?"
"Probably."
"Because of me?"
"No."
Again, a lie.
He left.
At 1:30 a.m., I woke to voices downstairs.
Adrian had returned.
I opened my bedroom door.
A man was saying, "They knew exactly which container to take."
Adrian replied, "Then we have someone inside."
I should have gone back to bed.
Instead, I moved closer to the staircase.
Vincent spoke.
"What about the girl?"
"The girl has a name," Adrian said.
"I know."
"Then use it."
A pause.
Vincent lowered his voice.
"You're already treating her differently."
"No."
"Adrian."
"Daniel asked me to protect her."
"Daniel's dead."
Silence.
Then Adrian said something I wasn't meant to hear.
"I know. I was there when he died."
My fingers tightened around the railing.
Vincent said, "She can never find out what happened that night."
I stepped backward.
The floorboard creaked.
The voices stopped.
Adrian appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
His eyes lifted directly to mine.
Neither of us moved.
Then he said my name.
"Sofia..."
May you like
Behind him, Vincent slowly closed a bloodstained folder.
And written across the front was my brother's name.
