Page 57 of Delirium
I didn’t want her to be just another puppet in this fucked-up game of life. I didn’t want her to end up like me or Maya, or any of the other girls I’d met over the years.
I wanted her to meet a guy, fall in love, and be happy. Happier than any of us had ever been. Arranged marriages almost always ended in disaster, and I wanted her to have a better life than I did. I wanted both of them to have a better life than us.
I didn’t want them to be shackled by invisible chains, waiting for their life to happen just because their parents made mistakes. He had to fix it.
We had to fix it.
“Fix it, Storm,” I said and turned around, walking toward the exit.
“I can’t. Where are you going?”
“To sleep.”
“You need to eat!” he called out after me.
“I’m not hungry anymore!” I yelled back.
I was hungry for something else, and I had a knife with Nico’s name written on it. That motherfucker failed to tell me about his little deal with Storm.
And he’s going to hear from me.
13
OPHELIA
“Nico Alessandro Romano!”I blasted over the phone as soon as he picked up. I paced from one side of the room to the other one, my heart threatening to burst in my chest, filled with the anger over the news Storm threw at me.
My daughter. My beautiful, unborn daughter was to marry Nico’s son in the future, thanks to the deal he and Storm had made, and I wasn’t having it.
My entire life I’d been a pawn, a simple puppet in somebody else’s game, following the rules blindly because I didn’t know better. Because someone should have told me that there was better. I wasn’t going to destroy her life before it had even started, just because her father was an idiot who should have known better than to bargain with his unborn kid to gain something.
“Shit,” he exhaled. “You know.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement, and both of us knew that I wouldn’t accept it no matter what. Even if it started another war, I wasn’t going to accept it. If she ended up being anything like me, she wouldn’t accept it either.
“What the fuck were you thinking? That I’d be okay with it? That I would be okay with two overgrown boys bargaining their kids as if they were something to trade?”
“Ophelia—”
“Don’t,” I cut him off. “Whatever you’re about to say, think carefully before it actually comes out of your mouth, Nico.” My breathing accelerated, my chest paining from the betrayal I was once again experiencing. “I thought we were friends.”
“We are,” he quickly said. “We are friends, Ophelia. Come on, this doesn’t change anything.”
“This changes everything,” I growled. “Does Alessia know?”
“Phee,” he moaned.
“Does she?”
“No,” Nico answered, defeat lacing his tone.
I sat down on the bed, toeing off the sneakers I wore, and grabbed the knife I left on the nightstand.
“Did you know who I was to Storm when you saw me at your wedding?”
Silence. Fucking silence.
“I think I deserve an answer, Nico. After everything we have done for each other, that’s the least that you could do. Give me the fucking truth!”
