Page 139 of Vicious Kingdom

Fueled by that strength, I retreated to the amphitheater where my uncle was taking the stage. He stood behind the podium, cleared his throat, and began to wax on about my father’s many fine qualities.

I sank into the seat beside my mother, who had daggers in her eyes. I was just attacked—and by the grace of heaven saved!—and she only cared what people would say about my getting up mid-service.

Leaning back, I smiled.

My husband was back not five minutes later. He laced his fingers through mine, and we sat together while my uncle droned on about his brother.

“I can try to find his laptop,” I offered.

That was the final ghost of torment, the last specter of suffering. The one necessity to ensure my future was goldenand unmarred by the years of suffering, by my father’s lack of influence, by family who didn’t get me and would never let me be. Now that I knew the source of that threat, I could banish it from my life. This was liberation on waves of deceit. It brought me the breathless freedom I’d been craving since I could remember, since my eyes first opened to the foreign planet of my childhood. I squeezed Leo’s fingers hard. He squeezed back.

“You said you trusted me,” he murmured, his voice steady and certain. “Prove it. Let the scandal fly and watch me weather the lies. Trust me, Anna.”

I shifted uneasily, glancing around the room. The Tormentor’s threat echoed through my mind. Another layer to his cruelty, and society would eat it up. Too many faces were there, faces that would twist in disgust. They would believe my cousin’s rumors, would point and mock me behind my back and whisper in the darker corners of their minds. Whispers that would bring my marriage shame. It threatened to eat me alive to think about what would be said.

But Leo was strong.

He was fierce and devoted.

That I believed with every fiber of my being.

“I—I trust you,” I stammered. Did I? I questioned my strength as I said it. Questioned my own ability to face the morbid music.

Leo gave me a blistering smile, a smile that burned like the sun.

My gut tightened with worry. I was asking the impossible to have him shelter me through the oncoming chaos. Asking more than I’d ever imagined possible, more than I’d thought I could ask for when I first met him. But I had to believe the man squeezing my hand could take it. Could weather any storm at my side. Like a lighthouse rising tall and bright against the crashing of brutal waves, like an immovable force of nature.

That was why I chose him.

My mother leaned over and poked my thigh. “You are behaving in the most undignified fashion—”

I slapped her hand. “Touch me again, and you’ll be sorry,” I snapped.

She sucked in a sharp breath, eyes wide as if seeing me for the first time. “Ungrateful child—”

“Leave my wife the fuck alone,” Leo growled, loud enough that the spectators behind us shuffled forward to catch the juicy gossip.

Mom sat back, fuming.

Uncle Jon returned to our row, looking about curiously. I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad for him. He should have known what manner of creature his son was.

As the rock band played a final song, chatter erupted in the back. The notes continued, and the worship leader sang, but the majority of society was fast losing attention.

Janet Cummbers shot from her seat and rushed to the front, leaning over the rail to hug me.

“Brace yourself, my dear!” she howled. “Another tragedy has struck your family.”

Caught in a cloying web of Chanel No. 5, I hugged her back. “What’s happened?”

“Your cousin Jonatan leapt from the roof and has broken his neck.”

I hid my delirious smile against her shoulder. Hearing her say it, reality sunk in—I was free.

Chapter 49 – Leonardo

The sound of crystal glasses clinking together echoed like wind chimes in a storm as I walked through Milano’s golden doors.

The maître d' stood behind a small podium of dark mahogany, his posture military-straight, his expression betraying nothing as he surveyed us. The restaurant’s foyer smelled of truffles and money—that distinct aroma that only comes from places where the wealthy gather to perform the ancient ritual of conspicuous consumption.